What to watch for today
Hedge funds unveil their holdings. Carl Icahn and other major hedge fund managers will file quarterly 13F documents (pdf) showing their current stock investments, giving ordinary traders an opportunity to find out where the bigwigs see the market moving.
Joe Biden joins Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania. The two will campaign together for the first time this election season in Scranton, where Biden was born. The blue-collar, predominantly white town has historically been Democratic, but the region’s economic woes has created major dissatisfaction, which Donald Trump is hoping to capitalize on to win voters.
Rio 2016. Brazil is pinning its gymnastic hopes on rings champion Arthur Zanetti, defending the Olympic title he won in 2012 in London. There’s also the men’s 800m final, the women’s 400m final, and the unbeatable Simone Biles in the final of the women’s beam.
Over the weekend
The Rio Olympics giveth—and taketh. Jamaica’s finest, Usain Bolt, became the first athlete to win three Olympic 100m gold medals, and Michael Phelps captured his 23rd gold medal and a silver for a career total of 28. In more somber news, US swimmers including Ryan Lochte were held at gunpoint and robbed by muggers pretending to be armed police in Rio.
More gun violence hit US cities. The Wisconsin National Guard was called to Milwaukee on Sunday after outrage over a fatal police shooting led to riots and fires (paywall); more riots erupted again on Sunday night. In New York, there were protests over the deadly shooting of an imam and his assistant on the street in Queens.
The Japanese economy had a flat second quarter. Falling exports, a strong yen, flat domestic spending and a dip in corporate investment led to a growth of only 0.2% (paywall), compared to 2% in the first quarter. In August, prime minister Shinzo Abe committed to spending another $276 billion in stimulus.
Boko Haram released a video claiming to show the captive schoolgirls. The footage shows at least 200 of the 276 girls it captured from the Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014. The group said some girls have been forced to marry their captors, and others were killed by airstrikes targeting the group, offering their release in exchange for some of its imprisoned members.
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 the future. It was the company’s eighth successful mission this year.
Quartz obsession interlude
Hanna Kozlowska on Facebook’s troubling role in violent police encounters. ”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. She’s more likely to be “the greatest moderate of them all.”
Hope Solo—who recently called her Olympic opponents a “bunch of cowards”—is an anti-hero. The women’s soccer goalie 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 (paywall).
Surprising discoveries
One of the fastest men on earth is coached by a great grandmother. Wayde Van Niekerk broke the 400m world record set in 1999 with help from 74-year-old Ans Botha.
The next iPhone may be waterproof. A new patent could allow for better underwater smartphone photos.
Two Irish brothers have become the viral hit of the Olympics. Rowing silver medallists Paul and Gary O’Donovan’s approach to winning is, “Close the eyes and pull like a dog.”
There’s a very niche YouTube for mouse research. It’s called mouseTube—and it has 60 members.
Apple’s CEO gets advice from Bill Clinton. Tim Cook has also turned to Warren Buffett and Anderson Cooper in the past.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, broken speed records, and mice video ballads to hi@qz.com You can download our iPhone app or follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day.