Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The British government addresses the land border with the EU that Brexit will create. In a paper to be released today, it says there should be no border posts between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Currently about 30,000 people cross it every day without customs or immigration checks. The border is considered one of the trickiest Brexit challenges.
NAFTA talks kick off in Washington. Delegates from Canada, Mexico, and the US will revisit the North American Free Trade Agreement, aiming to get a new deal in place by early next year. US president Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to ditch the pact during his presidential campaign.
The US Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its July meeting. Fed watchers will look for hints about interest-rate rises and plans to reduce the central bank’s massive holdings of bonds. Last month policymakers signaled it could start to slowly unwind the holdings as soon as September.
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump backtracked on his condemnation of Nazis and white separatists… The US president said “there is blame on both sides” for the deadly unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, including “alt-left” groups that were “very, very violent.” His comments, welcomed by white nationalists, could exacerbate the rising criticism from business leaders and fellow Republicans.
…And the CEO of Walmart joined other business leaders in criticizing him. Doug McMillon said that Trump ”missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together” by reacting the way he did to the Charlottesville tragedy. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO labor union, quit Trump’s manufacturing council, following three CEOs who did so earlier.
Tech giants turned to the bond market. Apple sold C$2.5 billion (US$2 billion) in bonds in Canada, with the proceeds going to “general corporate purchases,” and Amazon is offering up to $16 billion in bonds to finance its acquisition of Whole Foods. The news follows a series of large bond deals this year, including a debut offering from Tesla last week.
Taiwan’s president apologized for a massive blackout. The outage left over 6 million households without electricity. In addition to Tsai Ing-wen saying sorry, economy minister Lee Chih-kung resigned. Local media questioned the Tsai administration’s competence, noting the repeated warnings of a possible blackout amid a sustained heatwave.
Quartz obsession interlude
Alison Griswold on everything VCs used to love about Travis Kalanick. “Uber has never bothered with asking permission or even begging forgiveness—it simply does what it wants. That was just fine with investors when Uber was growing faster than they’d ever thought possible and pairing fiery regulatory skirmishes with PR-friendly deliveries of kittens and ice cream.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
It’s an awesome time / to be retailing. Unless / you’re a retailer
Matters of debate
Who owns the rights to art created by AI? Courts and copyright officials can no longer presume that authorship is a human phenomenon.
Don’t let fascists hide behind “free speech.” Defending the civil rights of bigots can, in some cases, leave us all less free.
“Founder-friendly investing” is on the wane. Blue Apron, Snap, and Uber are cautionary tales for wary VCs.
Surprising discoveries
A Swiss supermarket is selling bug burgers. A revamped food law also allows the sale of “insect balls” in a push for sustainable agriculture.
Gamekeepers are breeding rare colors of wildlife for hunters. Golden wildebeests and pure white springboks command premium prices in South Africa.
A $70 robot that mimics a sea turtle may eventually reach Mars. It consists mostly of cardboard plus an inexpensive Raspberry Pi computer.
Facebook is turning pizza makers into tech companies. Online ordering, bots, and e-commerce are paramount for Domino’s and Papa John’s.
Scientists have figured out how magic mushrooms’ active ingredient is made. It may set the stage for the “biotechnological production” of psilocybin.
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