Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
The BRICS summit kicks off in China. The meeting comes just as the bloc’s two biggest economies, India and China, defused a tense standoff over the disputed border area of Doklam. China is eager to keep the group alive as a way to exert economic and diplomatic influence in the developing world.
The US eyes Hurricane Irma. The Category 3 hurricane is still intensifying in the Atlantic and its path is unknown. It’s possible that Irma could be a threat in the Gulf of Mexico or the Eastern Seaboard within the next week or so.
More NAFTA talks take place. Trade negotiators meet in a second round of talks in Mexico City this weekend. President Donald Trump said earlier this week that if renegotiating the pact wasn’t possible, he would terminate it.
It’s US jobs report day. Economists predict around 170,000 new jobs were added in August and the unemployment rate stayed around the 4.3% it was at in July.
While you were sleeping
Tech CEOs pressured Trump to keep the DREAM alive. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is leading an immigration reform group that is collecting signatures from tech leaders urging the president to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It’s an Obama policy that offers leniency to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children.
Floodwaters started to recede in Texas. Authorities expect to uncover more bodies as they conduct a block-by-block search of homes in Houston. The death toll has now passed 40 and over a million people have been displaced. Floodwaters will likely be gone from most of Houston and Harris County by Friday evening or early Saturday.
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.
A Kenyan court nullified president Uhuru Kenyatta’s election win. The country’s top court upheld the opposition’s complaint that Kenyatta won through a rigged vote, and ordered another election to be held within 60 days.
A week of Brexit talks ended in mutual sniping. The UK trade secretary Liam Fox accused the EU of “blackmail” over Britain’s bill to leave the bloc. EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier complained that no real progress (paywall) was made during the third round of talks this week.
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. Big 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.
The headphone jack shouldn’t be killed. 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 diffuse a WWII bomb. Evacuations are a routine occurrence in Germany, where Allies 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. A combination of air resistance and weight means 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.
There’s an aerosol shark repellant inspired by Batman. The grenade-like device, which dispenses a chemical solution, was inspired by the “oceanic repellant bat spray” in the 1960s TV show.
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