🌏 Modi’s third term

Plus: Bachelor’s of billionaires.

Image for article titled 🌏 Modi’s third term
Photo: Adnan Abidi (Reuters)

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Here’s what you need to know

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third time. He’s only the second person in the country’s history to hold the office for three consecutive terms.

Far-right parties won big in European Parliament elections yesterday. The results prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call a shock election and will blur the political agenda of the bloc.

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Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference starts today. Investors are eagerly anticipating the company’s response to the artificial intelligence boom.

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Microsoft will turn off its controversial PC AI tool by default. The Recall tool, which takes screenshots of users’ activity periodically to be analyzed by AI, has drawn scrutiny over privacy and security concerns.

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Tesla’s eighth largest shareholder said it won’t vote for Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package. Norway’s $1.7 trillion wealth fund came out against the deal, which is up for shareholder vote on Thursday.


Cheap airlines better watch out for Delta and American

Flights are getting cheaper, which is good news for consumers — but bad news for some industry players.

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So-called “legacy” airlines like Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have started charging cheaper fares and muscling in on territory that used to be held more securely by the likes of Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

Image for article titled 🌏 Modi’s third term
Graphic: Quartz
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks air fares as part of the basket of goods making up its consumer price index inflation gauge, and that measure says that fare growth has been negative for more than a year, a streak going back to April 2023. Demand for business trips (or lack thereof it) is a big reason why airlines like Delta and American are lowering prices.


Bachelor’s of billionaires

Out of the 813 billionaires in the U.S., nearly a fifth of them went to just a handful of colleges.

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Forbes published its “Top Colleges for Billionaires” list today that ranks American universities by the number of undergraduate alumni that have gone on to become billionaires.

Take a look at the top five schools in the ranking, which have collectively graduated 126 billionaires with a total net worth of $927.4 billion.

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Surprising discoveries

A huge round fish washed ashore in Oregon. The 7-foot hoodwinker sunfish is believed to live farther south, but its remains have been washing up as far north as Alaska.

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Federal charges were given to a YouTuber for bombing a Lamborghini with fireworks shot out of a helicopter. Explosives can’t go on aircrafts!

Fossils indicate that two types of great apes coexisted in what is present-day Germany. Knee cap bones and molars show they lived there more than 11.6 million years ago.

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Piles of unsold Teslas can be seen from space. Nearly 50,000 cars are sitting in lots.

Big SUVs may not be as safe as the public thinks. One in particular — the Ford Expedition — did 90% worse than all new cars in a recent crash test.

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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, hoodwinker sunfish sightings, and other huge sightings you can see from space to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.