What to watch for today
China holds an ASEAN defense chat. The informal meeting of defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will take place amid escalating tensions over China’s territorial claims to the South China Sea.
South Korea’s president visits the White House. US president Barack Obama meets with Park Geun-hye to discuss the ongoing threat from North Korea, as well as cooperation on energy and cybersecurity.
Netflix releases its first original movie. Beasts of No Nation will become available online around the world and in some theaters in the US. It tells the story of child soldiers during a brutal civil war.
General Electric reports earnings. Analysts will scrutinize third-quarter results as the conglomerate offloads its finance business. So far this year the company has shed nearly $100 billion in financial assets, a move its managers say deserves more credit from Wall Street (paywall).
Who else? Honeywell, Synchrony Financial, SunTrust Banks, and Progressive also open their books.
While you were sleeping
The EU and Turkey reached a deal over migrants. Member states accepted Turkish demands for easier visa access and new talks on its accession to the EU, in return for Turkey stemming the flow of migrants to Europe. But the deal is only tentative, and how Turkey plans to implement its side of the bargain remains unclear.
Nestlé was the latest to suffer emerging market weakness. The food and drinks giant lowered its full-year sales growth forecast to around 4.5%, from up to 6% earlier. That comes after a noodle recall in India dented sales and other emerging markets experienced a slowdown.
Carrefour met sales targets on refurbished stores. The French supermarket group reported a small rise in third-quarter revenue, to €21.5 billion ($24.5 billion), matching expectations thanks to spruced-up European stores. Sales in Spain and Italy were some of the strongest in its global portfolio.
The death toll from a Nigerian mosque attack rose to 30. Two suicide bombers detonated explosives yesterday during evening prayers in a suburb of Mulai, in the country’s northeast. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, which left several injured, but Boko Haram has regularly targeted the city.
“Japan Inc.” said it supports importing foreign labor. Almost 80% of businesses are happy with the idea of bringing low-skilled foreign workers to Japan to offset its aging population, a Reuters poll found. That is in contrast to a government that is strongly opposed to immigration.
Quartz obsession interlude
Matt Phillips on how the last 30 years of global economic history are about to go out the window. “For nearly 30 years, China has bulked up by digesting tons of commodities from the world’s emerging markets and turned them into exports, and in the process has become a key creditor to the world’s largest consumer economy, the United States. All of that is changing now, and nobody is quite sure how it will play out.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Go ahead and call yourself a “guru.” It’s a perfectly fine title for genuinely authoritative experts.
Africa will be the next battleground for café culture. Local competitors are poised to give Starbucks a run for its money there.
The world needs a war against climate change. It will require a technocratic revolution, and even then success is uncertain.
We probably haven’t discovered aliens orbiting a distant star. The Milky Way’s most mysterious light pattern is likely something very mundane.
“Homeland” is racist. That’s the message that graffiti artists wrote in Arabic on the TV show’s set in Berlin.
Surprising discoveries
Disney is hiring a counter-terrorism intern. The main job requirement is knowing how to use Microsoft Office.
Tanzanians can get their birth certificate by mobile phone. It’s a solution for families who can’t travel to government offices.
An Australian restaurant has a chicken typing its Twitter content. The stunt will continue until she tweets a five-letter word.
Child trafficking in China often starts with parents selling their own kids. Up to 40% of victims were first sold by their parents.
There’s a “Game of Thrones” cookbook. ”Game of Scones” features 21 pun-tasticly gory desserts.
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