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Here’s what you need to know
The Tokyo Olympics are over. “In these difficult times, you gave the world the most precious of gifts: hope,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said at the closing ceremonies. He was addressing the athletes, but most of them had been sent home already due to Covid-19 crowd-control rules. The US won the most gold, and the most medals, overall.
Saudi Aramco’s quarterly earnings nearly quadrupled. Free cash flow was high enough to potentially support calls for a higher dividend, but for now the state oil company is sticking to its usual payout, which already is the world’s largest.
Philip Morris International trumped Carlyle Group’s bid for an asthma drug maker. The new bid by the anxious-to-diversify tobacco company values UK-based Vectura Group at more than £1 billion ($1.4 billion).
India conducted raids on Jamaat-e-Islami. The government says the banned religious group collected charitable donations that were used to fund terrorism. It also accused the organization of recruiting members in Jammu and Kashmir to take part in secessionist activities.
The head of Congo’s nature conservation agency got suspended. An unnamed source told Reuters that the move was connected to corruption concerns, including suspected embezzlement of tourism revenue from Rwanda.
What to watch for
Stocks that are memes and the future of vaccines: Upcoming earnings reports should shed new light on some of the biggest trends of the year thus far.
AMC Entertainment, which has fully embraced its status as a meme stock, has been cutting costs and raising capital to make it through the pandemic. Will its retail-heavy investor base be impressed with the company’s second-quarter results? Analysts are predicting revenue of $375 million and a loss of 93 cents a share.
Just days after Moderna put up a bumper quarter, BioNTech is due to report earnings before US markets open. Stay tuned for anything Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine partner has to say about long-term vaccine efficacy, the timetable for full US approval, and the prospect of booster shots.
Tyson Foods also posts earnings on Aug. 9. The giant US poultry processor, which has been investing in the development of robotic butchers, said last week that it’s aiming to have all 120,000 of its employees vaccinated for Covid-19 by Nov. 1, and will pay a $200 bonus to fully vaccinated essential workers.
Charting Iceland’s Covid-19 case count
In Iceland, 96% of females and 90% of males 16 years or older have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Yet tests show an alarming number of domestic Covid-19 infections are still happening with the onset of the delta variant.
That there are hardly any deaths accompanying the rising case count—Iceland has reported only one this year, on May 25—is a good sign. The data show that vaccinated people who are getting the virus are generally recovering without serious illness.
Read more here.
Pop quiz
Guess which one of these courses was the most popular on Coursera in the first quarter of 2021:
✍ English for Career Development (University of Pennsylvania)
🤓 Learning How to Learn (McMaster University, UC San Diego)
😊 The Science of Well-Being (Yale University)
🤖 Machine Learning (Stanford University)
🇰🇷 First Step Korean (Yonsei University)
Answer: Machine Learning from Stanford.
✦ Coursera is the subject of our most recent Company newsletters, one of four new emails available exclusively to Quartz members. Get 40% off a membership with code QZEMAIL40.
Handpicked Quartz
🙄 Exxon’s “net zero” climate goal misses the point
🤖 Google is developing a new superintelligent AI but ethical questions remain
👁️ Uganda’s popular boda-bodas are now part of the government’s surveillance system
🩺 Asian Americans like being doctors, but not seeing them
👖 Levi’s surrenders to the inevitability of yoga pants
💃 Could art be an Olympic sport?
Surprising discoveries
India’s richest man can’t have it all. The supreme court of India upheld legal action by Amazon to stop Future Group from selling its retail business to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.
A panel of experts endeavored to list the 25 most important works of post-war architecture. Buildings in Mexico City; Plano, Illinois; and Luxor, Egypt topped the list.
The Dixie fire is now California’s second largest recorded wildfire. And it’s still growing, with firefighters not expecting to fully contain it until Aug. 20.
An orchardist is rescuing fruit trees in New Mexico. Some 14,000 varieties of apples used to grow across America. An orchardist is using regenerative agriculture to bring some of them back.
There are major gaps in our understanding of invasive species. One of the ocean’s biggest threats is still mostly a mystery.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, oil-stock dividend increases, and fruit trees to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our iOS app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Clarisa Diaz and Heather Landy.