Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Brexit talks resume. Britain and the EU return to the negotiating table in Brussels for a third round of talks on the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc. The two sides are expected to spar over the details of Britain’s “divorce bill.”
Hurricane Harvey continues wreaking havoc in Houston, Texas. Torrential rainfall is expected to continue through Friday, with Harvey already having dumped 9 trillion gallons (paywall) of water on the state. At least five deaths have been reported, and some 2,000 people rescued, as well as herds of cows.
India is on alert for more violence ahead of a guru’s sentencing. A judge will be flown by helicopter to the city of Rohtak and the internet will be temporarily shut down in Haryana state, where a court will sentence Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after he was convicted of rape last week. More than 200 people were injured and at least 38 were killed in Punjab and Haryana states in riots following his conviction.
Over the weekend
Uber chose a new CEO. Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi—whose family fled the Iranian Revolution to settle in the US—was selected to be the new head of the company, following the resignation of Travis Kalanick from the role in June. Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman were also in the running.
Wang Jianlin dismissed rumors that he was detained in China. The chairman of Dalian Wanda Group and one of China’s richest men said reports over the weekend that he had been released from detention but barred from leaving China were rumors “concocted with ulterior motives.” Shares in Wanda’s Hong Kong-listed unit plunged by as much as 11% (paywall) Monday morning local time.
The FARC began its transformation into a political party in Colombia. Members of the leftist rebel group, which disarmed under a 2016 peace deal, kicked off a meeting on Sunday in the capital Bogotá. The group will present its political platform ahead of elections next year when the conference ends on Friday.
Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra fled to Dubai. After Yingluck failed to show up to stand trial for her role in a failed rice-subsidy program last week, members of her party said that she is now in Dubai, where her brother, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, lives in exile. Her escape removes a potential problem (paywall) for the ruling junta, as a guilty conviction would likely spark large-scale protests and riots by her supporters.
Quartz obsession interlude
Aamna Mohdin on the rise of the awkward black girl in TV. “Insecure and Chewing Gum are powerful reminders that the narratives of black women don’t have to be extraordinary to be worthwhile. In both shows, the protagonists are awkward, dazed, and hapless figures trying to find solutions to mundane problems—and that’s what makes them brilliant and relatable.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Even creative people don’t have to be creative all the time. Acknowledging when the process is not going well can be the difference between a forced (and failed) creative endeavor, and an opportunity for learning and resetting.
China bullies universities in the West because they allow it to. In the rush to serve Chinese students, Western universities have ended up importing Chinese academic censorship (paywall) into their own institutions.
Price-gouging makes economic sense. Without the incentive of a profit, suppliers of goods will be less motivated to bring products into disaster zones.
Surprising discoveries
Netflix co-created marijuana strains based on popular shows. They were sold at a pop-up event in West Hollywood, giving new meaning to “Netflix and chill.”
Ugly female moths hang out with sexy ones to snag a mate. The behaviors “provide an answer of how unattractiveness can evolve.”
The Greeks definitely did not invent trigonometry. A 3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet is the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table.
The bomb-shelter business is booming in the US and Japan. That’s thanks in no small part to Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Germans prefer harder mattresses. The discovery forced fast-growing mattress startup Casper to rethink its script for international expansion.
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