Daily Brief: Apple Sports, China’s cameras, and JetBlue bags

Plus, Nvidia is Rivian backwards (kind of)

Image for article titled Daily Brief: Apple Sports, China’s cameras, and JetBlue bags
Photo: Ann Wang (Reuters)

Good morning, Quartz readers!


Here’s what you need to know

Nvidia powered up as Rivian crashed. The chipmaker exceeded Wall Street’s sky-high expectations, while the electric truck maker is looking at laying off 10% of its workforce as EV demand hits the brakes.

Microsoft wants Intel to make its chip dreams come true. Microsoft designed its AI chip in-house, but it’d like to use Intel’s technology to put it together.

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Ford dodged an autoworker strike at its most profitable plant. Some 9,000 members of the United Auto Workers union in Kentucky had been set to walk off the job on Friday.

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The manager of Boeing’s 737 program is out. Ed Clark is leaving the airplane maker after 18 years, and a little over a month after the Alaska Airlines incident.

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Apple Sports is just the starting line

Apple’s new sports app, aptly named Apple Sports, is here, and it has stats for games and betting on all those games. It’s a cool start, though the big bucks are in media rights to games. Good thing that the odds of Apple catching up to rival streaming platforms Amazon and Disney are in the tech giant’s favor, and it’ll get there even faster if it owns ESPN outright.

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Here’s a look at the big numbers defining the game.

💰 $56 billion: Global value of sports media rights

📺 160 million: Americans who watch sports at least once a month

🎰 45%: How much sports betting revenue increased in 2023

🏈 $24 billion: Reported value of ESPN


China wants tighter control of its cameras

Beijing is working to rein in some of the more unruly elements of its mass surveillance system.

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What’s considered unruly? Well, in just over a year, the southern Chinese city of Foshan issued 620,000 tickets for a small infraction — driving on road line markings — at a single poorly marked expressway intersection, racking up 120 million yuan ($16.7 million) back in 2021. Even the surveillance state thought that was a bit much.

But don’t be fooled: Clamping down on these offenses doesn’t mean that China will scale back its spying. Rather, it’ll tighten its control over its camera network. Quartz’s Mary Hui explains.

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More from Quartz

🧐 The stocks that Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and more of the world’s richest people are buying and selling

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🤖 5 things to know about Nvidia, Wall Street’s favorite chipmaker

🥤 Those viral Stanley cups are now the target of lawsuits because they have ‘some lead’

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🪑 Tesla’s board may need ‘new blood’ for Elon Musk’s plan to ditch Delaware

📈 Amazon finally made it to the Dow…

🤑 … and its old CEO sold even more stock.


Surprising discoveries

JetBlue quietly increased its bag fees. What!

A man in Washington, D.C. thought he won $340 million because of a mistake on the lottery’s website. He’s now suing Powerball.

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ChatGPT gabbed a lot of nonsense on Tuesday. The bizarre responses seemed to be a bug.

Waiting rooms are still very much in. Visits for Teladoc, which allows doctors to connect with patients virtually, have almost halved since 2020.

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More people are in AA than work for Amazon. We took a look at the good, the bad, and the sober (did you know John D. Rockefeller Jr. even plays a role?) of Alcoholics Anonymous for our latest Quartz Obsession. Sign up for the free newsletter.


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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, correct Powerball numbers, and your favorite NA beverage to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.