Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Emmanuel Macron fleshes out his plans for Europe. The French president, who is facing plunging approval ratings, will lay out his vision for the regional bloc as well as his foreign-policy priorities at the annual meeting of France’s ambassadors in Paris.
Donald Trump visits Texas. The president will avoid the areas hardest hit by tropical storm Harvey, which has left at least nine dead (paywall) and as many as 30,000 people temporarily homeless. The worst storm to hit the US in a decade has caused catastrophic flooding that will likely get worse as an additional 2 feet of rain is forecast.
Best Buy announces second-quarter earnings. The big-box retailer’s shares have rocketed this year as it seems to be making good on its pledge that 2017 would be the year it enters growth mode after a long period of belt-tightening.
While you were sleeping
North Korea fired a missile over Hokkaido, Japan. The test was the first North Korean missile to fly over Japan’s main islands since 2009, and is the 18th missile test this year by Pyongyang. The launch took place as the US and South Korea are conducting annual joint military drills.
Ford and Domino’s teamed up on autonomous pizza delivery. Customers in Michigan will be the first test cases to have their pizzas delivered in Ford’s self-driving vehicles—with human drivers in the cars to start with. Domino’s franchisees in Australia and New Zealand have already been testing drone and self-driving robot pizza delivery.
Renault-Nissan raced into China’s electric-car market. The company follows in the footsteps of VW, Daimler, and BMW in partnering with Chinese carmakers to produce electric vehicles for the world’s fastest-growing EV market.
Japanese tech and terrorism laws forced Sea Shepherd to give up. The anti-whaling group will not try to obstruct Japanese whaling boats in the Southern Ocean for the first time since 2005. Japan’s new military-grade surveillance tech meant the whalers could easily track the Sea Shepherd—plus Japan’s new anti-terrorism laws made the presence of protest ships a terrorist offence.
France enjoyed some solid GDP growth. President Macron might be sliding in the popularity stakes, but economy watchers will be happy about the peppy 0.5% quarter-on-quarter growth (paywall) in the euro zone’s second-biggest economy.
Quartz obsession interlude
Isabella Steger on how a string of accidents are giving epidurals an even worse rep than before in Japan. “That might discourage even more women from opting for epidurals in Japan, which has among the lowest rates of epidural use among developed countries… 6.1% of women used an epidural in 2016, rising from 2.6% in 2007. In comparison, over half of women giving birth in the US use an epidural, according to the American Pregnancy Association, and as many as 80% in France.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Tech CEOs are monopolizing the AI conversation. Elon Musk’s doomsday stance on killer robots and Mark Zuckerberg’s unflappable optimism fail to create productive dialogue.
Playing board games makes people nicer. They allow us to enter a controlled state of conflict, where we are forced to reflect on “turn-taking and rules and fairness.”
Lawyers may make better CEOs than MBAs. They’re schooled to focus on the downsides of risk, while MBAs tend to look at how risk-taking can increase shareholder value.
Surprising discoveries
Every year, three ewes visit a Manhattan church to “lamb-scape.” They were hired after the human who used to cut the grass retired (paywall).
More people went to the movies after JFK’s assassination than last weekend. The US-Canada box office marked its slowest weekend since World War II.
A smartphone app uses selfies to screen for pancreatic cancer. It checks the eyes for jaundice, one of the disease’s earliest symptoms.
The National Rifle Association had a fashion show. America’s most powerful pro-gun organization highlighted holsters and carry purses at a Wisconsin event.
Restaurants are Facebook-stalking customers. They use third parties like Upserve and OpenTable to build profiles on what and where people ate.
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