What to watch for today
The US Federal Reserve begins a hugely important two-day meeting. Everyone is watching, and economists are split on whether the central bank will raise interest rates for the first time in nine years. Ahead of the decision, US stocks rallied by more than 1% on Tuesday afternoon.
Europe holds another emergency meeting on the migrant crisis. Interior ministers are convening in Brussels, again, as EU countries struggle to deal with 120,000 new arrivals who are currently in Greece and Italy. The ministers’ last emergency meeting, on Sept. 14, was not productive.
The United Nations gets tough on Sri Lanka. The UN’s human rights agency will issue its long-awaited report on war crimes by the Sri Lankan government. About 40,000 ethnic Tamils were killed as the country’s long and bloody civil war drew to a close.
Oracle reports earnings. The company’s cloud computing products have been performing well, but that’s not enough to make up for the decline in traditional software. Analysts expect year-over-year quarterly sales to decline to $8.53 billion, from $8.6 billion a year ago.
While you were sleeping
The co-founder of Subway died at 67. CEO Fred DeLuca, who started his first sandwich shop as a 17-year-old, eventually built Subway into the world’s largest chain of fast-food franchises. Subway, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2013, recently named his sister to run daily operations.
You’ll like this: Facebook is finally getting a “dislike” button. Users have long wanted a button to express negative emotions or sympathy for unhappy news, and Facebook is finally giving in. “Not every moment is a good moment,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an online town hall meeting.
Jeff Bezos revved the engines of his rocket company. Amazon’s founder said his Blue Origin space start-up will build a rocket plant in Florida. The $200 million factory will bring in 330 new jobs, and Bezos expects to launch a spacecraft before the decade is over from a refurbished facility at Cape Canaveral.
The UK and US economies sent messages to central bankers. UK inflation returned to zero, after a 0.1% rise in consumer prices in July, indicating that the country’s central bank could still be months away from hiking its benchmark rate. Meanwhile, in the US, consumer prices have been growing in the past two months, which could bolster a Fed decision to raise rates.
The migration crisis escalated in Hungary. The government sealed its border with Serbia with a razor wire fence, leaving hundreds of migrants stranded, and detained at least 155 people. Meanwhile, 22 people trying to make their way to Europe drowned in the Aegean Sea.
Quartz obsession interlude
Matt Phillips on what might be the greatest monetary experiment in history. “For years, everyone involved with investing has wanted to know: When will the Federal Reserve raise interest rates? But there’s another important consideration that isn’t asked nearly enough: Can the Fed raise interest rates?” Read more here.
Matters of debate
China’s economic model is kaput. The government needs to rethink its relationship with the market.
Syrian refugees are not a security threat. But treating them as such risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Viktor Orbán’s fear-mongering could backfire. The Hungarian prime minister is staking his popularity on xenophobia.
Tablets are far from dead. The advent of detachable keyboards will make them the future of personal computing.
Helping kids with math homework makes them worse off. Parental math anxiety is contagious.
Surprising discoveries
Brazil has a cancer curse. Hundreds of thousands of people have a mutation that prevents their bodies from fighting the disease.
Elton John says Vladimir Putin called him to discuss gay rights. The Kremlin says it didn’t happen—who to believe?
Love matches are more successful than arranged marriages. For birds, at least.
Robert Mugabe read the wrong speech in parliament. It was a repeat of a speech from last month.
ISIL’s military commander was trained by the US. Tarkhan Batirashvili was formerly part of Georgia’s US-trained special forces.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, lovebirds, and favorite Mugabe speeches to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day.