What to watch for today
Amazon kicks Windows phones to the curb. In yet another sign that Microsoft’s Windows phone is dead, today marks the final day that Amazon’s app will be operable for dwindling Windows phone users.
India and South Korea fete their independence. On the the 70th anniversary of India’s independence from the British empire, prime minister Narendra Modi speaks from the Red Fort in Delhi, drawing on input from citizens on what to say. South Korea also celebrates its 71st anniversary from Japan.
France watches for Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential bid. The former president is likely to announce his candidacy for president this week, or latest by end-August. His rivals would include president François Hollande, and former prime ministers François Fillon and Alain Juppé.
Over the weekend
The Rio Olympics giveth—and taketh. Michael Phelps captured his 23rd gold medal and a silver medal for a career total of 28 medals. Somali-born Briton Mo Farah heartened fellow Muslims with his third gold medal. In soberer news, US swimmers including Ryan Lochte were held at gunpoint and robbed by muggers pretending to be armed police in Rio.
SpaceX launched and recaptured its fifth booster rocket this year. After sending a Japanese telecoms satellite into orbit, Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully brought its fifth booster rocket back to Earth to reuse in future—its eighth successful mission this year.
Boko Haram released a showing off Chibok girls. The Islamist group’s video show it holding at least 200 of the 276 girls it captured from the Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014. It said some girls have been forced to marry their captors, and others were killed by airstrikes targeting the group.
Gun violence kept hitting American cities. The Wisconsin National Guard was called to Milwaukee on Aug. 14, after outrage over a fatal police shooting spawned a night of violence. In New York, protests erupted over the deadly shooting of an Imam and his assistant on the street in Queens.
Quartz obsession interlude
Hanna Kozlowska on Facebook’s troubling role in violent police encounters. With more police brutality being documented on social media, Facebook finds itself in an awkward position. “In an era when people are using social media to document their fraught, and even deadly interactions with police, shutting down an account means taking control of the narrative—and inevitably affecting the way events play out on the ground. Facebook has become an arbiter of the outcome, and the stakes could not be higher.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Don’t expect a progressive Hillary Clinton as president. Once Republicans leave Donald Trump behind, Clinton will abandon the progressive ideals she adopted from Bernie Sanders, yielding a political system with ”striking resemblance to dynastic succession.”
US soccer’s Hope Solo is an anti-hero. The women’s national team goalie, who recently called her Olympic opponents a “bunch of cowards” and has a history of domestic violence, is a rare case of a female athlete we can love to hate.
Interest rates are a moot force in economics. Expecting sub-zero rate cuts to juice economic growth indefinitely is wishful thinking. Central banks need a new plan.
Surprising discoveries
It isn’t Olympians who have evolved. It’s sports. The 2012 Olympic marathon winner would theoretically beat the 1904 Olympic marathon winner by almost an hour and a half—but athletic prowess isn’t the reason.
Bill Clinton advised Tim Cook on Apple’s tax policies. The Apple CEO told the Washington Post that he asked the former US president, as well as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, for advice on handling a congressional hearing on Apple’s taxes.
Michael Phelps got his Olympic hair cut at a black barbershop in Atlanta. Before picking up his last six Olympic medals in Rio, the swimmer went to a highly recommended barbershop in the southern US city and snapped a selfie that wooed the internet.
Your next seafood dinner might come with a QR code. A startup in Massachusetts is tagging all the fish caught by its fishermen and uploading their information to the web (paywall) so customers can verify the origins of their dinner.
The next iPhone may be waterproof. A bizarre new patent could make way for better underwater mobile phone photos, which suggests that Apple is working on iPhones that can get sopping wet.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, booster rockets and digitally enhanced seafood to hi@qz.com You can download our iPhone app or follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day.