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 attempts to persuade 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, in a meeting Saturday in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. Billions of euros annually could be at stake.
Donald Trump speaks with Jewish leaders. The traditional presidential phone call before the High Holy Days is fraught this year: Several rabbinical groups have said they’ll boycott the call to protest Trump’s statements on white supremacists.
While you were sleeping
North Korea fired another missile over Japan… A day after North Korea threatened to sink Japan into the sea, Pyongyang sent another missile over the country—it flew around 3,700 km (2,300 miles) and landed in the ocean north of Japan. The test also comes after the United Nations imposed the toughest round of sanctions yet on North Korea, but stopped short of an oil embargo.
…And it probably did detonate a hydrogen bomb on Sept. 3, as claimed. Air force general John Hyten, the US nuclear commander, said yesterday, “the size that we observed… tends to me to indicate that it was a hydrogen bomb.” Previously the US had declined to characterize the blast. Such a bomb would indicate Pyongyang has crossed a key threshold in weapons development.
Facebook removed a feature allowing advertisers to target “Jew haters.” It offered the ability until this week, as revealed yesterday by ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization. The anti-Semitic categories were created by algorithms, not people. Facebook removed the feature after questions from ProPublica, but Slate reporters soon revealed other hateful categories.
Google parent Alphabet is considering a hefty investment in Lyft. The infusion of about $1 billion, as reported by Bloomberg, would help Uber’s key US competitor grow faster, including through subsidies for drivers and discounts for riders. Alphabet has also invested in Uber, but its Waymo unit is suing the ride-hailing giant over self-driving car technology.
Mike Pompeo canceled a Harvard appearance over Chelsea Manning. The former CIA director said he scrapped his appearance over the school’s decision to make Chelsea Manning a visiting fellow, as he considers Manning an “American traitor.” And Mike Morell, former acting CIA director, resigned as a senior fellow from Harvard, calling Manning “a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.”
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. The continent’s once-vibrant export industry is being revived thanks to $6-a-cup java.
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 cryptocurrency 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 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 law prohibiting compensation of donors has created a “tremendous shortage” in the “precious bodily fluid.”
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