K-pop Stock Scandal and Nvidia's China Strategy: A Tale of Two Industries

📬 Daily Brief: A K-Pop stock scandal

A South Korean tech mogul was arrested for a K-Pop stock scandal. The Kakao founder was trying to win a bid to acquire a major K-Pop agency. Google's second-quarter earnings beat Wall Street's expectations... As Google thrives on AI, Amazon is losing billions of dollars on its voice assistant Alexa, Spotify is reaping record profits thanks to price hikes, and Tesla's profits are sinking. ...but Google's largest-ever acquisition fell through. Cybersecurity firm Wiz turned down $23 billion from Google, as Google's failure opens doors for Microsoft. The U.S. said it's investigating Delta Air Lines... The Department of Transportation wants to make sure the company treats customers fairly after it canceled thousands of flights. ... and United Airlines is investigating its own employees who take sick days. But the flight attendants union said that violates their contract. Are you paying a lot for your prescriptions? It could very well be the drug middlemen to blame. So-called drug middlemen are the third-party administrators of prescription drug plans. They're also called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs (which sounds a lot less shady). Whatever you want to call them, PBMs negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of insurance companies to determine how much an insurer will pay for a drug. They also can determine a patient's out-of-pocket costs. And apparently they've been setting those costs really, really high -- contributing to the growing prescription drug accessibility crisis in the U.S. -- according to a new report from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Bruce Gil has the story. Apple's percentage of U.S. TV viewership. Apple's been spending outlandish sums to little avail. Despite sinking $20 billion into productions of original content for AppleTV+ -- and making some fun, Emmy-nominated shows like Palm Royale (ft. a very Southern-sounding Kristen Wiig), Hijack (ft. a very handsome Idris Elba), and Slow Horses (ft. a very raggedy Gary Oldman) -- Apple has yet to woo mass audiences. 🛻 General Motors stock surged thanks to gas-powered truck sales 🥤 Coca-Cola is losing steam in America 🤖 Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta's newest AI model to become the industry standard 🍟 A McDonald's and Starbucks partner is being investigated for using AI to set prices 💳 Banks are bracing for consumers to stop paying off their credit cards 📦 UPS is suffering from the global freight recession The beloved 1990s Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine is still outselling rivals 30 years later. Biden's time may be up, but George Foreman is forever. Experts suggest putting your luggage in a hotel bathtub next time you travel. That way, you can avoid bed bugs. Exorbitant phone call costs in U.S. jails are finally getting slashed. Inmates can now call their friends and family for 90 cents to a dollar, more than 10 times less than what they were paying. Did you know we have two premium weekend emails, too? One gives you analysis on the week's news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. Become a member or give membership as a gift! Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, George Foreman grills, and EV chargers to [email protected]. Today's Daily Brief was brought to you by Laura Bratton and Morgan Haefner.

📬 Daily Brief: Nvidia's bid for China

Fresh produce at Walmart, Aldi, and Kroger was recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Several food items sold at the stores may be contaminated with a bacterium that can cause serious infections. Southwest Airlines faced new scrutiny after a series of safety issues. The air carrier had two concerning safety incidents this month alone that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is looking into. Meta axed 63,000 Nigeria-based Instagram accounts that engaged in sextortion. The tech giant said it found a "coordinated network" of scam accounts that targeted adults and minors. Google committed billions of dollars to self-driving cars. The company said it will invest at least $5 billion in its troubled subsidiary Waymo. Kamala Harris won't be vying for the crypto crown anytime soon. The presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee turned down an offer to speak at the annual Bitcoin conference -- where former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump plans to address crowds of blockchain economics enthusiasts. Trump has reversed his prior stance on crypto and is trying to establish himself as the "crypto candidate" in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It's likely a response to the Biden administration's crackdown on crypto fraud. Though Harris won't be attending the Bitcoin conference, she's definitely crypto-curious. Quartz's Vinamrata Chaturvedi has the story. The amount of money Citigroup set aside in the second quarter to cover potential losses from unpaid credit cards and other loans. Big banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are bracing for customers to stop paying off their credit cards as their pandemic-era savings run out. Quartz's Rocio Fabbro has the story. There's a lot of money to be made in the business of sleep. Take sunrise alarm clocks, fancy mattresses, REM-tracking wearables, and monthly deliveries of melatonin. But should we really be investing this much in hopes of catching a few more Zs? In the final episode of season 8 of the Quartz Obsession podcast -- Sleep: The dreamiest new industry -- host Rocio Fabbro consults Dr. Michael Breus, a double board-certified clinical psychologist and clinical sleep specialist, on the questions keeping us up at night. 💤 Air traffic controllers will get more time to rest between shifts after scary close calls 💊 CVS thinks AI can handle your prescription questions 💳 Overdue credit card balances have hit a record high 📉 Google's stock is sinking because of high AI spending and sluggish YouTube performance 📱 Apple's iPhone of the future is a flip phone 💼 It turns out a lot of return-to-office mandates were meant to make workers quit Researchers found high levels of cocaine in sharks off the coast of Brazil. Cocaine bears, cocaine cats, cocaine sharks -- what's next? The cheese snack market is making the dairy industry billions of dollars. Vegans and dairy intolerants will never prevail over cheese lovers. Another cheesy thing: Cheez-It merchandise sales are popping off. The brand that's over 100 years old is apparently one of few things that can survive the generational divide between Gen Z and boomers in the U.S. We can thank two gay computer scientists in the 1950s for foreshadowing ChatGPT. They created the world's first computer-generated writing, producing letters that read a little strangely, with lines like, "You are my avid fellow feeling." New car smells are reaching dangerous levels. Researchers found that the volatile organic compounds emitted by new cars contain alarming levels of formaldehyde and other aldehydes on hot summer days. Did you know we have two premium weekend emails, too? One gives you analysis on the week's news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. Become a member or give membership as a gift! Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, cheese sticks, and Cheez-Its to [email protected]. Today's Daily Brief was brought to you by Laura Bratton and Morgan Haefner.