Good afternoon.

The trade war is stalling global growth. The IMF warned the US-China trade spat has slowed GDP growth to the lowest level since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, CNBC reports.

A Brexit deal could actually happen today. UK and EU negotiators are close to hammering out the details for a draft deal, Bloomberg reports, although they may still miss the midnight deadline. The pound surged on the news.

AMC Theatres joins the streaming wars. The world’s largest movie theater chain announced a streaming service to rent or buy films from major Hollywood studios, Business Insider reports.

Twelve (possibly angry) Democrats are on stage in Ohio. The remaining candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination take part in the fourth debate of the campaign, Reuters reports, and the first since the start of an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.

The mysterious sounds that defined the early days of the internet. Before we were always online, logging on to the internet was a journey through sound. Here’s what those sounds actually meant.

The Apple icons you see today have surprisingly ancient roots. Susan Kare designed the icons for Apple’s first computer, the Macintosh; many are still in use today. To create these early icons, Kare drew inspiration from surprising sources, from Swedish campgrounds to ancient hieroglyphics.

Can Apple do it again? The iPhone turned Apple from a successful computer company into the world’s most profitable consumer electronics operation. But as this Quartz member exclusive shows, its success could also spell Apple’s undoing.

Apple’s streaming service is surrounded by questions. We know that Apple TV+ will cost $4.99, that it’ll launch on Nov. 1 with eight original series, and that it won’t have ads. But most of the rest is still a mystery.

In sport, society and geopolitics, we have LeBron James... The Los Angeles Lakers star has waded into the row between the NBA and China by saying Houston’s Daryl Morey “wasn’t educated about the situation at hand” when he tweeted support for the Hong Kong protesters, ESPN reports.

…and the Bulgarian prime minister. After black English players were racially abused by fans during a game in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, the president of the Bulgaria Football Union resigned at the urging of Boyko Borissov, the BBC reports.

The Kurds fight back against Turkish forces in Syria. Kurdish forces launched a counterattack on Tuesday in the cities of Manbij and Ras al-Ain, the AFP reports. It follows a deal with Syrian government forces, who entered several towns to forestall a Turkish offensive after the US withdrawal.

The US is rethinking its Turkish nuclear weapons stash. As Turkey coordinates with Russia to plan its push into northern Syria, replacing and sometimes firing on American troops, the US military is questioning the wisdom of trusting its erstwhile ally with 50 thermonuclear bombs.

The US attorney general's inquiry into the origins of the Russia probe gets Italy’s leader into trouble. Bloomberg reports that Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte is suspected of bending the rules to help William Barr's inquiry. Conte will have to testify in front of parliament next week.

A secretive Rome university gets caught up in Barr’s probe. Joseph Mifsud, a teacher at Link Campus University in Rome, told the Trump campaign that Russia had Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016, the New York Times reports. He has since disappeared, leaving the university, famous for forming spies, to handle the attention.

Two winners... For the first time in more than 25 years, the prestigious literary award will be shared—by British author Bernardine Evaristo and Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood. Evaristo is the first black woman to win the award.

…but perhaps the Booker tries to have it both ways. The Guardian’s Justine Jordan acknowledges that Atwood and Evaristo’s books are “extraordinary,” but calls the decision to award both writers, and break the rules of the UK’s leading literary award, a “fudge.”

A disputed China map gains a global audience. An obscure map used by China to claim ownership of virtually the entire South China Sea, but rejected internationally, is finding its way into global media thanks to US firms.

China’s propaganda app can snoop into users’ phones. The Chinese Communist Party bills its app as a fun educational tool. But it can learn the habits of more than 100 million users.

It might be the end of the last online sanctuary for China’s liberals. For years alternative thinkers found a refuge on a platform that appeared to pass under the radar because of its relatively small size. Now its users fear its days are numbered.