Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
Cassini’s grand finale. After a 20-year journey, the space probe will send a few last snippets of scientific data as it hurtles into Saturn—an act of altruistic suicide to avoid contaminating moons that may contain life. You can follow its final moments here.
France tries to convince the EU to hike Google’s taxes. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire will try to convince his counterparts to tax tech firms based on revenue, not profit. The EU could potentially collect an additional five billion more euros annually.
Donald Trump speaks with Jewish leaders. The traditional presidential phone call before the high holy days is fraught this year; four rabbinical groups have said they’ll boycott (paywall) to protest Trump’s statements on white supremacists.
While you were sleeping
US regulators opened a probe into Equifax. The US Federal Trade Commission will investigate the company’s massive data breach, which allowed hackers to steal the private information of nearly 143 million people. The watchdog rarely publicizes ongoing investigations, but made an exception due to the “public interest and the potential impact” of the hack.
Nestlé bought Blue Bottle Coffee for $500 billion. The Swiss coffee giant bought a controlling stake in the trendy California-based coffee chain to help build its brand with US millennials (paywall). Blue Bottle, backed by millions in venture capital from the likes of Morgan Stanley and Tony Hawk, is the latest upscale coffee brand to be swallowed by a big corporation (paywall).
Bitcoin continued to tumble. The cryptocurrency fell for a fifth straight day after Shanghai’s BTCC, the world’s oldest bitcoin exchange, closed down domestic operations in China. The cryptocurrency has slumped as much as 27% since Sept. 7.
A class action suit accused Google for paying women less. Three recent employees filed the suit in San Francisco, saying the company kept them on “job ladders” that paid less than men with similar skills. They are seeking to represent all women employed by Google over the last four years.
Quartz obsession interlude
Alison Griswold on the reason people aren’t buying groceries online. ”Getting people to feel comfortable with having their groceries selected for them is an uphill battle, especially with produce. People can have very particular preferences when buying their fruits and vegetables. For example, maybe they like their bananas a little green, but their avocados ripe and ready to eat.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Softbank wants Uber / But only at a discount. / Call it merge pricing
Matters of debate
Buying hipster coffee is helping Africa. $6-a-cup java is reviving the continent’s once-vibrant export industry.
Russia’s war games are really just messing with the West. The annual exercise serves as propaganda and a warning to potential NATO members like Sweden and Finland.
“Initial coin offerings” will change the way the internet is funded. The creator of ethereum says the blockchain protocol incentivizes people to fix vulnerabilities instead of exploiting them.
Surprising discoveries
Every last kakapo’s genome has been sequenced. That’s a first for any species—but there are only 153 of the endangered giant parrots left.
A robot conducted a live orchestra for the first time. ABB’s Yumi bot worked alongside Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli at a robotics showcase in Italy.
The world’s oldest giant panda died at age 37. Basi, who enjoyed minor celebrity status for her weight-lifting prowess, lived her life in China.
The concept of zero is older than we thought. The Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient Indian text in which the number first appeared, was carbon dated back an additional 500 years.
Canada imports a lot of US sperm. A laws prohibiting compensation of donors has created a “tremendous shortage” in the “precious bodily fluid.”
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