Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
Pollution rules take effect in China. The Environmental Protection Bureau in China’s Hubei province—which contains six out of 10 of China’s most polluted cities—has vowed to shut down any steelmakers that fail to comply with emission restrictions by Sept. 1. The move is part of China’s aggressive efforts to slash pollution by 15% year-over-year across 28 northern cities.
The BRICS summit kicks off in Xiamen, China. The shindig comes just as India and China, the two biggest economies in the bloc, managed to defuse a tense standoff over the disputed border area of Doklam. Though the acronym has largely fallen out of use and favor elsewhere in the world, China is eager to keep the group alive as a way to exert its economic and diplomatic prowess in the developing world.
The US watches the development of Hurricane Irma. The Category 3 hurricane, which meteorologists say grew unusually quickly, is still intensifying in the Atlantic and its path is unknown. It’s a possibility that Irma could be a threat in the Gulf of Mexico or the Eastern Seaboard within the next week or so.
NAFTA talks take place in Mexico City. Trade negotiators meet in a second round of talks this weekend aimed at renegotiating terms in the pact. US president Donald Trump threatened this week that if renegotiating the pact wasn’t possible he would terminate it.
While you were sleeping
Tech CEOs grouped together to pressure Trump to protect DREAMers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is leading an immigration reform group, FWD.us, that is collecting signatures from other tech leaders urging the president to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama policy that offers leniency to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children. “With them, we grow and create jobs. They are part of why we will continue to have a global competitive advantage,” the letter says.
Volkswagen launched a diesel scrappage scheme in the UK. The German auto maker, which was found to have cheated in US emissions tests in 2015, will offer up to £6,000 ($7,700) to car owners who want to trade in their diesel models for newer cars. The plan comes on the same day as tougher emissions-testing regulations come into force in the European Union.
US Customs and Border Protection chose four companies to build prototypes of the border wall. The prototypes will be 30 ft tall by 30 ft wide, and cost between $400,000 and about $500,000. Having given up on making Mexico pay for the wall, Trump now wants Congress to fund it—the Department of Homeland Security has estimated the cost at $21 billion.
Floodwaters started to recede in Texas. Authorities expect to uncover more bodies as they conduct a block-by-block search of homes in Houston, with the death toll now exceeding 40. Authorities said they expect floodwaters to be gone from most of Houston and Harris County by Friday evening or early Saturday local time.
Quartz obsession interlude
John Detrixhe and Joon Ian Wong on banks using cryptocurrency to move money between them. “The idea is that exchanging the digital currency as payment for assets will be a more efficient means of exchange. Because the digital coins will be backed by cash at a central bank, which cannot default (they can always print money if they have to), the crypto tokens are free from credit risk.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Silicon Valley isn’t special anymore. The biggest and most successful tech companies have lost the “pirate” culture that they used to champion.
Banning pennies is poor public policy. Pennies are beloved in the US, but the government’s arguments for discontinuing them are also unsound.
Stop trying to kill the headphone jack. Gadget-makers have yet to present a compelling reason for eliminating a perfectly solid standard.
Surprising discoveries
Frankfurt is evacuating 70,000 people so it can deal with an unexploded WWII bomb. Evacuations are a routine occurrence in Germany, where British and American bombers dropped 1.35 million tons of explosives between 1940 and 1945.
You can’t block Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook. Trying to keep Zuck off your feed entirely results in a unique error message: “This profile can’t be blocked for now.”
Cats falling between five and nine stories are most likely to be injured. Thanks to a combination of air resistance and weight, felines have better odds when falling from greater heights.
South Korea is aging faster than any other developed country. Nearly 14% of South Korea’s population is over 65, and the country is moving from an “aging” society to an “aged” one faster than Japan, Germany, or France did.
The world’s most promising shark repellant is administered with an aerosol can inspired by Batman. The grenade-like device, which dispenses a chemical solution after being tossed in water, was inspired by the “oceanic repellant bat spray” used by Adam West in the 1960s TV show.
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