Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
A South Korean tech mogul was arrested for a K-Pop stock scandal. The Kakao founder was trying to win a bid to acquire a major K-Pop agency.
Google’s second-quarter earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations... As Google thrives on AI, Amazon is losing billions of dollars on its voice assistant Alexa, Spotify is reaping record profits thanks to price hikes, and Tesla’s profits are sinking.
…but Google’s largest-ever acquisition fell through. Cybersecurity firm Wiz turned down $23 billion from Google, as Google’s failure opens doors for Microsoft.
The U.S. said it’s investigating Delta Air Lines... The Department of Transportation wants to make sure the company treats customers fairly after it canceled thousands of flights.
… and United Airlines is investigating its own employees who take sick days. But the flight attendants union said that violates their contract.
Beware the drug middlemen
Are you paying a lot for your prescriptions? It could very well be the drug middlemen to blame.
So-called drug middlemen are the third-party administrators of prescription drug plans. They’re also called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs (which sounds a lot less shady). Whatever you want to call them, PBMs negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of insurance companies to determine how much an insurer will pay for a drug. They also can determine a patient’s out-of-pocket costs.
And apparently they’ve been setting those costs really, really high — contributing to the growing prescription drug accessibility crisis in the U.S. — according to a new report from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Bruce Gil has the story.
One very small number: 0.2%
Apple’s percentage of U.S. TV viewership.
Apple’s been spending outlandish sums to little avail. Despite sinking $20 billion into productions of original content for AppleTV+ — and making some fun, Emmy-nominated shows like Palm Royale (ft. a very Southern-sounding Kristen Wiig), Hijack (ft. a very handsome Idris Elba), and Slow Horses (ft. a very raggedy Gary Oldman) — Apple has yet to woo mass audiences.
More from Quartz
🛻 General Motors stock surged thanks to gas-powered truck sales
🥤 Coca-Cola is losing steam in America
🤖 Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta’s newest AI model to become the industry standard
🍟 A McDonald’s and Starbucks partner is being investigated for using AI to set prices
💳 Banks are bracing for consumers to stop paying off their credit cards
📦 UPS is suffering from the global freight recession
Surprising discoveries
The beloved 1990s Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine is still outselling rivals 30 years later. Biden’s time may be up, but George Foreman is forever.
Experts suggest putting your luggage in a hotel bathtub next time you travel. That way, you can avoid bed bugs.
Exorbitant phone call costs in U.S. jails are finally getting slashed. Inmates can now call their friends and family for 90 cents to a dollar, more than 10 times less than what they were paying.
Ethiopia has 70,000 electric vehicles and nowhere to charge them. There’s only 50 charging stations in the whole country.
Kamala Harris impersonators are in high demand. Fans are calling for Maya Rudolph to return to SNL, and comedian Allison Reese is getting thousands more TikTok followers.
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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, George Foreman grills, and EV chargers to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Laura Bratton and Morgan Haefner.