Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Hong Kong decides the fate of pro-democracy activists. Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow face up to three years of jail time for their roles in the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests calling for greater democracy in Hong Kong.
The European Central Bank releases minutes from its July meeting. Amid signs the euro-zone economy gained strength in the second quarter, investors will look for clues on how the ECB plans to unwind its quantitative-easing program.
Japan talks North Korea in DC. Japan’s newly appointed defense and foreign ministers will meet their US counterparts, Rex Tillerson and James Mattis, in Washington today. Dealing with Pyongyang will top the agenda (paywall), as Japan seeks to reaffirm US commitments (paywall) to its security.
Retail and tech earnings. Gap and Walmart post second-quarter results; investors will look for continued momentum from the latter as it battles competition from Amazon. E-commerce site Alibaba, buoyed by its booming cloud business and increased spending trends out of China, is expected to show strong returns.
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump dumped two business advisory councils. ”I am ending both,” he tweeted. But the Strategic and Policy Forum had already decided as a group to disband in protest of Trump’s tacit support of white supremacists this week, and various CEOs had already ditched the Manufacturing Council for the same reason.
HMD Global announced the Nokia 8. The Finnish company, which last year acquired Nokia’s feature phone business, said that its first high-end smartphone under the Nokia brand will launch next month in Europe for about $700. It’s touting the phone’s ability to take not just selfies, but also “bothies,” photos or videos captured by the front and rear cameras simultaneously.
The US Federal Reserve stands united. Minutes from its July meeting show the central bank’s inflation-wary policymakers voted unanimously to hold rates. The minutes also suggested that the Fed will begin unwinding its $4.2 trillion balance sheet next month.
Hyundai shared plans for eco-friendly cars. The Seoul-based automaker said by early next year it will launch a hydrogen fuel cell SUV that can travel over 580 km (360 miles) between fill-ups. By 2020 South Korea aims to have 100 hydrogen-fueling stations and 10,000 fuel-cell vehicles on its roads. Hyundai also announced (paywall) upcoming hybrid and all-electric models.
Quartz obsession interlude
Isabella Steger on Taiwan’s lavish approach to postpartum misery. “The boom in ‘postpartum centers,’ which in reality are often more like five-star (or more) hotels, seems counterintuitive in a place where the birth rate remains ultra low—in 2011, Taiwan had the world’s lowest, and this year it’s on track to be the lowest since the 2008 financial crisis.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Trump’s done with wafflers / and the grandstanders alike / Markets: Not bothered
Matters of debate
Robots will restore our humanity. Increased automation will free us up to be more creative and empathetic.
“Anti-goals” are the key to workplace happiness. Making a list of things you want to avoid doing in your job can help you take stock.
Western media’s coverage of US white tribalism is hypocritical. If journalists covered civil unrest (paywall) in Charlottesville the way they do elsewhere, things would look a lot worse.
Surprising discoveries
Guam’s nuclear survival guide warns against conditioning your hair. Conditioner can bind radioactive particles to hair follicles.
Game of Thrones is forcing a Croatian city to crack down on overcrowding. Dubrovnik, or “King’s Landing” on the HBO show, wants visitor limits in place to preserve city sights.
Domino’s is getting lost in translation in France. The pizza chain’s online ordering platform can’t deal with French apostrophes and slang (paywall), causing a lot of customers to lose their appétit.
A tweet by Barack Obama about race is making history. The former US president’s response to violence in Charlottesville has become the most-liked tweet ever.
Llamas can be quite the escape artists. Noir the llama disrupted a game of golf in New Hampshire when he escaped his pen again, this time to chase down a bear.
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