Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Paul Manafort’s trial nears an end. Prosecutors expect to rest their case today against Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman. He faces bank fraud and money laundering charges that stem from the probe into the Trump team’s alleged connections to Russia. A conviction could boost support for the broader Russia investigation.
Russia and Turkey meet after US sanctions. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara after the US stepped up sanctions on both countries on Friday. Russia is hoping to capitalize (paywall) on Turkey’s spat with the US, which sent the Turkish lira into freefall.
China addresses UN concerns on the fate of the Uyghurs. Yu Jianhua, China’s UN ambassador, will answer questions over the treatment of ethnic Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslim, in the western region of Xinjiang. Human rights experts expressed alarm last week amid reports of forced indoctrination and re-education on a mass scale (paywall).
Over the weekend
A white-nationalist rally fizzled in Washington, DC. Only a few dozen demonstrators showed up for the Unite the Right 2 rally, outnumbered by thousands of counter-protesters. The event marked one year since the violent first edition of the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counter-protester was killed.
A Seattle airport employee’s suicide flight exposed security cracks. Richard Russell, who worked at the Seattle-Tacoma airport, did stunts in a stolen Horizon Air turboprop before crashing into an island in Puget Sound. His ability to access the plane, which was scheduled to receive maintenance, raises questions about security measures at airports.
North Korea and South Korea agreed to hold a summit in September. The meeting will mark only the third time in history that leaders from north and south have met in Pyongyang. The announcement follows a round of high-level talks between officials at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
NASA launched a craft to explore the sun. A complicated trajectory will bring the Parker Solar Probe within 4 million miles of the sun to collect data on how solar activity affects space weather. Along the way, it will reach the fastest speed of any object launched into space—around 430,000 miles per hour (692,017 km/h).
Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul died at 85 in London. Born in Trinidad to parents of Indian descent, the author of The Enigma of Arrival won the literature prize in 2001. Celebrated as one of the greatest novelists in English, he infamously asserted that no woman could match his talent.
Quartz Obsession interlude
Ziyi Tang, Tripti Lahiri, and Echo Huang on China’s peer-to-peer lending platforms. “Many in China’s middle classes poured their savings into [them], drawn in by promises of high returns. But amid a larger effort to curb financial risk to China’s economy, financial regulators tightened rules for these platforms, leading many of them to collapse without returning investor money.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Long summer school breaks make inequality worse. With limited access to books, museums, and educational camps, children from low-income families fall behind between academic years.
“Snapchat dysmorphia” is more than a beauty trend. Millennials accustomed to the way they look in filtered photos are seeking procedures to change their faces permanently.
Alcohol could be the secret to humanity’s success. Booze plays a bigger role in friendships (paywall), which protect us against threats and stress, than previously thought.
Surprising discoveries
The US Air Force’s largest plane is really, really large. The mighty C-5 Galaxy can hold six Apache helicopters or, put another way, more than 25 million ping pong balls.
Terrorist attacks have almost no impact on financial markets. A study of more than 10,000 attacks in nearly 40 countries shows that stock and currency markets usually bounce back.
Newly resurfaced footage shows Louis Armstrong playing an open-air concert in 1956 Ghana. The legendary jazz great’s wife, Lucille, and a Ghanaian elder were the first to hit the dance floor.
A letter-writing campaign to reduce opioid prescriptions actually worked. When doctors received letters informing them of former patients’ overdose deaths, they prescribed fewer painkillers.
A French park has recruited crows for garbage pickup. The clever rooks are trained to pick up litter and move it to a bin in exchange for treats.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, cleanly crows, and Satchmo deep cuts 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 by Edmund Heaphy and edited by Jason Karaian.