Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
A leading coronavirus vaccine trial was put on hold. University of Oxford researchers working with drugmaker AstraZeneca will review whether a “potentially unexplained illness” developed by a UK participant in the trial is linked to the vaccine. A spokesperson said delays are routine when there’s an unexplained illness during a vaccine trial.
Donald Trump announces a further reduction of troops in Iraq. There are currently over 5,000 US troops there, and an additional drawdown of US forces in Afghanistan is also expected soon. Separately, the justice department requested to take over the president’s defense in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll, a columnist who has accused him of sexual assault.
GM makes an electric truck deal. The Detroit automaker bought a $2 billion stake in Nikola and will produce its pickup truck. Nikola shares rose 40% and GM’s increased 8%. Tesla’s stock went the other way, dropping 21% in the car maker’s biggest one-day decline ever, after the S&P 500 Index committee snubbed it for inclusion. Tech shares plunged yesterday, erasing part of their epic rally this year.
Netflix changes its lineup. The streaming giant abruptly announced the appointment of Bela Bajaria to replace longtimer Cindy Holland, who crafted the company’s original content strategy. Bajaria has been with Netflix since 2016, and most recently oversaw its international programming.
Apple announced a September product-launch event. The virtual showcase, taglined “Time Flies,” will likely feature new iPads and Apple Watches with iPhones rumored to be revealed in a separate event in October. The company also stepped up its legal battle with Fortnite-developer Epic over its software store, a fight that is expected to have wide-ranging ramifications for app makers.
OBSESSION INTERLUDE: BEYOND SILICON VALLEY
To understand a Quartz obsession, it helps to check the numbers. Here are some figures that explain why India is central to looking Beyond Silicon Valley:
450 million: Internet users in India, the world’s second-largest user base after China—even though less than half of India’s population has access to the web.
24: Number of unicorns in India, the fourth highest in the world after the US, China, and the UK.
$21 billion: Money raised by Jio Platforms, the digital services business run by India’s richest man, between April and June. Investors include Facebook, Google, and Saudi Arabia, among others.
$16 billion: Amount Walmart paid in 2018 to acquire a majority stake in Indian e-commerce unicorn Flipkart. It’s Walmart’s biggest-ever acquisition and the world’s largest e-commerce buyout to date.
$10 billion: How much Google plans to invest in India over the next seven years.
Keep up with our Beyond Silicon Valley obsession.
Charting India’s smartphone market share
Two years after it beat long-time incumbents to become the market leader, Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus saw its share of India’s premium smartphone segment sliding in recent months, mainly due to its made-in-China tag.
Scores of Indians already blamed China for the Covid-19 outbreak, and things got worse when 20 Indian soldiers were reportedly killed on the Chinese border in the Galwan Valley in June. Indian calls to #BoycottChina have only grown since then.
You’re overconfident (and in good company)
Of all the errors in human judgment, overconfidence may be the most damaging. Psychologists Don Moore, of the University of California, Berkeley, and Max Bazerman of Harvard, call it “the mother of all biases” in their textbook on decision making.
Overconfidence comes in many forms, but “it is overprecision that I think is the most consistent and pernicious,” says Moore, the author of Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely.
Overprecision involves being too sure of the accuracy of your own beliefs, and, inspired by a test in Moore’s book, Quartz created a tool for you to identify and work around overconfidence, which can lead to costly errors when making decisions. Try it out—it’s part of our field guide this week on the topic.
✦ We’re just the right amount of confident that you’ll enjoy a Quartz membership. You can access our full library of guides—and enjoy a paywall-free experience sitewide—by joining today.
Preparing for climate change
Millions of migrants will be in search of climate havens this century—Quartz can’t build a real one, so we did the next best thing and created the fictional city of Leeside. But other, very real communities are starting to make moves.
🏙 Get ready. India’s megacities aren’t ready for a wave of climate migrants from agricultural areas that are being hit hardest.
🌊 Preserve cultures. Institutionalized racism in the US has put people of color in the greatest danger, so the South Carolina Lowcountry is rounding up its stories before it’s too late.
🏝 Shore up the shores. Atoll islands have immediate needs to consider, like moving a population en masse, building new islands, or raising existing ones.
🏠 Consider not committing. Buying a house in the era of climate change is no longer the safe bet it used to be.
Surprising discoveries
Google is blurring out Hong Kong graffiti. Words like “FK popo” and “democracy,” which pepper the protest-ridden city, have been rendered illegible on Street View.
The slings and arrows of outrageous English spelling. The 100-year-old English Spelling Society is using Hamlet to argue for a uniform, simpler version of the language.
Tooth fractures are on the rise. A New York dentist attributes the phenomenon to stress and bad work-from-home ergonomics.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians will finally end. After 14 years, the reality show’s final season airs early next year.
Berghain is now an art gallery. The legendary Berlin nightclub is reinventing itself as clubbers continue to stay away.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, overconfident decisions, and dentist bills to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Jackie Bischof, John Detrixhe, Isabella Steger, Jane Li, Max Lockie, and Susan Howson.