Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Human rights worries in Myanmar and Thailand. UN representatives are expected to visit Myanmar’s Rakhine state today to investigate the persecution (paywall) of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group. Meanwhile, neighboring Thailand’s prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who came to power in a 2014 coup, will be the latest autocratic leader to meet US president Donald Trump in Washington.
The US Supreme Court begins a new session. In the months ahead the politically divided high court will consider major cases on how voting districts are drawn, the rights of business to deny service to gay people based on religious belief, and the limits of law enforcement’s ability to track citizens with their mobile phones.
The winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology is announced. The likely contenders include researchers investigating DNA construction, gene-editing techniques, and how immune cells kill tumors.
Over the weekend
Violence marred Catalonia’s independence referendum. Spain’s northeastern region held an independence referendum despite the country’s courts deeming it illegal and police injuring hundreds in violent confrontations. Regional leaders signaled they may soon declare independence, saying the votes were heavily in favor of it.
North Korea and the US are talking, for now… US secretary of state Rex Tillerson confirmed direct communication with North Korea as he presses leader Kim Jong-un to stop developing missiles and nuclear weapons. Trump undercut the efforts on Twitter, writing that Tillerson was ”wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man.”
…And the murder trial of Kim Jong-nam began in Malaysia. Two women pleaded not guilty to murdering the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, saying they were duped into rubbing a nerve agent on him by North Korean agents. Pyongyang has denied involvement in the killing, which occurred in February at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Uber got new board members. Ousted founder Travis Kalanick appointed former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns and former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to Uber’s board. The move is seen as Kalanick’s retaliation against efforts to limit his control of the ride-hailing giant.
France and Canada were hit by terrorist attacks. Two attacks over the weekend were linked to terror groups: A man stabbed two people to death in Marseille, France, while five were injured when a car plowed through pedestrians outside a professional football game in Edmonton, Canada.
Germany ushered in same-sex marriage. Two men became the first same-sex couple to wed in Germany after the country’s parliament voted for marriage equality in June. Registry offices across the country opened on Sunday to accommodate those wishing to marry on the first day possible.
Quartz obsession interlude
Akshat Rathi on a former alternative-medicine “doctor” debunking health pseudoscience. “Instead of thinking about the techniques as adjunct therapies to proven modern medicine, many naturopaths will reject the pharmaceuticals and other treatments that we know save lives. Over her seven years of training and practice, Hermes had had doubts about naturopathy, but she had always found ways to dismiss them. This time, however, her boss’s comment worried her: Was she doing something illegal? Could she be in trouble?” Read more here.
Matters of debate
There’s bad math behind Facebook’s political problems. The company made a fatal assumption about how much information you can handle.
The crisis in Puerto Rico is a perfect storm of Donald Trump. Driven by cable news, incompetence, and the culture wars, Trump’s failure to respond to a natural disaster is just a preview of crises to come.
You should believe in electric airplanes. Within a decade, advances in battery technology will make it possible to fly hybrid gas-electric jetliners with a range of 700 miles (1,126 km) on short-haul flights.
Surprising discoveries
Angry birds are murdering drones. Wedge-tailed eagles in the Australian Outback are taking out Kevlar-shielded mapping drones as if they were nothing (paywall).
Los Angeles is losing its look. The iconic palm trees that dot the city are dying from old age, beetle infestations, and fungi.
A French farmer smuggled hundreds of refugees into his country. “If we have to break the law to help people, let’s do it,” he says.
Most of the fastest-selling used cars in the US are now electric. Their low price and rising reputation are leading to a brisk business.
Amazon has 5,000 people working on Alexa. The company isn’t messing around when it comes to investing in its AI-driven digital personal assistant.
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