What to watch for today
FIFA decides on the fate of the 2022 World Cup. Football’s governing body meets in Zurich to discuss whether to move the 2022 games to the winter, given that they will be happening in Qatar, where the summer is infernal.
Will Barack Obama go to Asia? While China’s Xi Jinping tours Southeast Asia, the US president has already had to cancel part of a trip to the region because of the government shutdown. If he also has to miss next week’s APEC and ASEAN summits, it could weaken his position (paywall) just as the US is trying to negotiate a crucial trade treaty.
Constellation reaches for the stars. Alcohol giant Constellation Brands, which owns Svedka vodka and bought beer conglomerate Grupo Modelo in June, releases its quarterly earnings report. Revenue is expected to leap 119% year-over-year.
While you were sleeping
The US jobs numbers were underwhelming. Private employers in the US added 166,000 jobs, according to the payroll processor ADP’s monthly national employment report. Economists were expecting more like 180,000.
So long, Silk Road. The FBI shuttered the online illicit marketplace and arrested Ross Ulbricht, who it alleges is the owner. During Silk Road’s lifetime, a mind-boggling number of bitcoins in revenue went through the site.
Tom Clancy died at 66. The best-selling novelist’s work helped pave the way for a new genre of military-type thrillers. The CIA even wrote a parody of his most famous novel.
Yet another slap for JP Morgan. Italian prosecutors want to charge the US bank with holding information back from regulators when it arranged a loan for troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
Blackberry has a new bidder. Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management has expressed interest in buying the struggling cellphone company. Blackberry had accepted a tentative offer from Toronto insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings last month.
Tesco is tapping out. After reporting weak results for the first half of fiscal 2013, British retail giant Tesco announced it’s quitting not only the US but also China. And it’s struggling to succeed even on its home turf.
So long “cigarette lighter jacks.” Hyundai announced that it will be eliminating the little lighter jacks that nobody uses to light cigarettes any more in favor of USB power points, and that they will charge smartphones seven times faster than a plug-in car charger.
Quartz obsession interlude
Matt Phillips presents the history of Twitter as told through awkward descriptions in the New York Times. “Below, I’ve culled some of the many thousands of times Twitter has appeared in the New York Times, from its first year in 2006 to the wall-to-wall coverage that accompanied its announcement of a planned IPO last month. Along the way, Times wordsmiths grappled with exactly how to explain an entirely new form of media to the American populace.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
It’s OK to have a big carbon footprint. But you have to make up for it by paying others not to.
The days of paid apps are numbered. More and more are shifting to free, though people will pay for the most utilitarian ones.
Guadalajara is the new Bangalore. Well, not quite, but many Indian IT firms serving customers in the US are setting up shop in Mexico.
Living under the sea isn’t as wild an idea as it sounds. The technology already exists to support underwater sea colonies.
Most restaurant menus leave a lot to be desired. Esoteric ingredients, useless information and poor design are to blame.
Surprising discoveries
What the entire US government looks like during a shutdown. See which government websites are working and which aren’t with our handy guide to 356 of them.
Spain is losing people a lot faster than it thinks. Official statistics say that 225,000 have left the country since 2008, but a think thank thinks the number is closer to 700,000.
Can’t find an iPhone 5s in stock? Here’s an app that will check multiple Apple stores in the US for you. (Hopefully you don’t need a 5s to run the app.)
Grand Theft Auto V has a way to make even more money. Having grossed $1 billion in sales in three days, GTA could make its publishers an extra $200 million from downloadable content and in-game purchases this year.
Go green, chaps. A survey of British women found they prefer men with small, eco-friendly cars, not flashy gas-guzzlers.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, iPhone-finding apps and spare copies of GTA V to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates during the day.