Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune dropped by $71 billion this year. Amidst Meta’s plunging value and worries of an economic slowdown, Zuckerberg is now worth only $56 billion. Jeff Bezos’s wealth shrank by $46 billion.
Ford warned of a slump in earnings. The car company’s third-quarter results will be affected by high supplier costs and parts shortages, resulting in an inventory of unfinished vehicles.
The UK harbors few hopes of a free-trade deal with the US. Liz Truss, on her first prime ministerial visit to the US, admitted that no negotiations are taking place, and said the UK aims to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership instead.
The EU wants more say over its supply chain during times of crisis. A new proposal would require companies to share information or prioritize orders to avoid shortages.
Southwest Mexico was hit with a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. Buildings in Mexico City shook yesterday (Sept. 19), the anniversary of not only the deadliest tremor in its history in 1985, but also a quake that killed more than 200 people in 2017.
Scenes from the new Grand Theft Auto VI were leaked. Rockstar Games confirmed the hack, and shares of its owner Take-Two Interactive fell more than 3% yesterday.
A judge vacated the murder conviction of the protagonist of “Serial.” Adnan Syed, now 41, had been serving a life sentence since 1999 for killing his classmate, as the smash-hit podcast recounted.
What to watch for
Luxury German carmaker Porsche is moving ahead with its IPO and plans to issue 911 million shares, Reuters reported, with trading expected to begin on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Sept. 29. Since 911, a reference to its most famous model, is a number dear enough to Porsche to make financial decisions around, let’s look at some other important figures:
€75 billion: Porsche valuation targeted by Volkswagen Group, making it worth more than rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz
145,860: New passenger cars sold by Porsche in the first half of 2022
5.1%: Decrease in sales from the same period, a year prior
Despite the market uncertainty, Porsche is betting big on electric vehicles. In 2019, it launched the all-electric Taycan model and has said it expects its EV business to equal the size of its combustion cars business by 2024. The sale of Porsche could help fund VW’s expansion into EVs and help it catch up to Tesla.
Twitter’s bots are actually good
Elon Musk, whose $44 billion proposed acquisition of Twitter hangs in the legal balance, said automated Twitter accounts inspired him to purchase the platform—only to later say they were why he was backing out of the deal.
Granted, the Tesla CEO was mostly talking about spam bots that harass users or try to sucker them into scams. Legal experts are skeptical that arguments over the precise ratio of bots to active human users will scuttle the deal. But in the controversy, something important got lost: Bots are great!
Tim Fernholz pays tribute to the good Twitter bots, including art bots, literature bots, earthquake-tracking bots, Musk-plane-tracking bots, and more. But perhaps the most useless, yet satisfying, is @choochoobot, which offers you a train crossing a random emoji landscape.
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Quartz’s most popular
👑 How much did the Queen’s funeral cost?
👑👑 …And who did Africa send to it?
👋 Two strategies to leverage quiet quitting
👋👋 …And questions you should ask when starting a new job
💰 Three countries possess over 50% of Africa’s total wealth
😇 Patagonia’s $3 billion corporate gift is also a convenient way to avoid taxes
Surprising discoveries
The emoticon celebrated its 40th birthday. It’s over the hill and onto the dash and dots :-).
A trail of slime led security at Germany’s Düsseldorf Airport to a bag of giant African land snails. The line between real life and Scooby-Doo is growing thinner.
Chugging tea can help lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Go ahead, slam those four or more cups a day.
Stop murdering lanternflies in extreme ways, please. People in New York and Pennsylvania have been instructed to kill the invasive species, but flamethrowers seem like a bit much.
Are we ever going to get supersonic flights? Probably not, seeing as Boom can’t even find an engine maker to work with.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, giant snails, and oolong sachets to hi@qz.com. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—become a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Tiffany Ap, Susan Howson, Morgan Haefner, and Samanth Subramanian.