Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Honda might close a factory in the UK. The Japanese automaker plans to announce as early as today its intention to shutter its manufacturing facility in Swindon, according to Sky News. Honda said previously that a no-deal Brexit would cost it tens of millions of pounds.
Walmart reports earnings. Analysts expect same-store sales to have risen 2.9% for the world’s largest retailer, which has been investing heavily in e-commerce and holdings its own against Amazon. Investors will look for what Walmart has to say about more tariffs on goods from China.
Data on US home building. The National Association of Home Builders will share its NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Economists expect a 60 reading, up from last month’s 58. Anything over 50 indicates a positive outlook by builders.
While you were sleeping
China released guidelines for developing the “Greater Bay Area.” The plan is to deepen cooperation (paywall) among the region’s major hubs, including Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. In Hong Kong, many fear deeper integration with the mainland will lead to less autonomy.
The US and North Korea could exchange liaison officers. Both sides are seriously considering the possibility, according to CNN. It would be an important step toward building diplomatic relations. A second Trump-Kim summit is slated for later this month in Vietnam.
More Brexit fallout. In the UK, seven Labour MPs announced they were quitting the party over its approach to Brexit and anti-Semitism. They all support a further EU referendum and will sit in Parliament as “the Independent Group” rather than form a new party. More MPs will likely join them.
An Israeli leaders’ Nazi comments derailed a European summit. The leaders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic were slated to meet today in Jerusalem. But Poland pulled out after the acting Israeli foreign minister said that Poles “collaborated with the Nazis.”
Membership
Microsoft recorded more than $100 billion in revenue for its last fiscal year, more than two-and-a-half times the amount Facebook brought in, eight times more than Netflix’s annual figure, and within spitting distance of Alphabet. A lot of pixels have been displayed to describe this turnaround. For this week’s field guide, we look at the company’s strategic decisions to pursue (and as importantly, not pursue) various lines of business, and what these decisions mean for Microsoft’s future.
Matters of debate
Join the conversation with the new Quartz app!
Ignoring email is an act of incivility. Being overwhelmed by volume is no excuse to snub a colleague by not replying.
Hollywood is now irrelevant. Once-dominant movie studios have practically no shot at overtaking Netflix.
Machine learning is causing a crisis in science. Techniques used by scientists to analyze data are producing results that are misleading and often wrong.
Surprising discoveries
Pet dogs are helping US presidential candidates. They’re a crowd-pleasing way for Democratic hopefuls to differentiate themselves from Trump, who’s broken with tradition by not having a dog in the White House.
Australia is preparing to plant 1 billion trees. The country hopes the initiative will help it hit its Paris Agreement targets by 2050.
Someone attacked a statue of Sean “Diddy” Combs. The likeness of the rapper, at the Madame Tussauds wax museum in New York, was shoved so hard its head came off.
The most successful EV model to date is not from the US or China. That honor goes to Japan’s Nissan Leaf, first sold about a decade ago.
Lake Erie may get legal rights. Voters in Toledo, Ohio will soon decide (paywall) whether the polluted lake has the legal right “to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, ignored email, and politically useful pooches to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Steve Mollman.