Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
Madrid grapples with the crisis in Catalonia. Prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s cabinet will convene today to discuss the fallout from last weekend’s Catalan independence referendum. A Spanish court suspended the Catalonian regional parliament’s session scheduled for Monday, while anti-independence groups are planning protests in Madrid and Barcelona this weekend.
Donald Trump announces a rollback on birth control coverage. The US president is expected to issue (paywall) new rules on a federal requirement that employers include coverage for birth control on their insurance plans. A company could be exempt from the rule “based on its sincerely held religious beliefs” or “moral convictions.”
The US releases labor data. Analysts forecast the economy to have added about 77,000 jobs in September (paywall), a significant drop from previous months, in the wake of several severe hurricanes. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.4%.
Japan delivers a verdict in the case of an overwork death. A Tokyo court on Saturday will decide the fate of advertising giant Dentsu, which has been accused of labor practice violations after a young employee committed suicide in 2015. The verdict follows the recent news that a reporter at broadcaster NHK also may have died from overworking.
Tropical storm Nate hits Mexico. It’s expected to undergo “rapid intensification” in the Caribbean that could turn it into a hurricane by Sunday, when it could reach the US Gulf Coast between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.
While you were sleeping
Trump plans to decertify the US-Iran nuclear deal. The president is expected to announce next week that the landmark deal is not in the national interest (paywall). That would force a reluctant US Congress to resolve the issue of sanctions within 60 days.
Abenomics will face Yurinomics. Yuriko Koike, the Tokyo governor who recently announced the formation of a new party to go up against prime minister Shinzo Abe in this month’s elections, announced that her economic plan will be called “Yurinomics,” which could include a tax on corporate cash reserves and a freeze on Abe’s proposed consumption tax increase.
The US vowed to block imports made by North Korea workers. The customs department made the announcement following an investigation by the Associated Press into seafood processed by North Korean laborers in China that is then exported abroad—meaning Americans who consume the seafood could be inadvertently contributing to Kim Jong-un’s coffers.
Facebook omitted all mentions of Russia in a report on the election. In an April report titled “Information Operations and Facebook” detailing the social network’s influence on the US presidential election, Facebook removed mentions of Russian meddling on the platform because some felt its understanding of Russian activity was too speculative, the Wall Street Journal reported (paywall).
Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin was cleared of wrongdoing for his jet use. The US treasury said that Mnuchin didn’t violate any laws in his use of government-funded planes, which racked up a total cost of $811,797.81 across seven trips. The department’s inspector general, however, recommended more rigorous oversight of the use of government planes in the future.
Quartz obsession interlude
Thu-Huong Ha on the reason Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel literature prize. “Throughout his works Ishiguro manages a deft creep—slowly, yet precisely and painfully, making your stomach turn—through a ‘mist of forgetfulness,’ as he might say. His fiction gives readers a pervasive sense of something felt but not known, or something once known, but lost.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
When finance firms flee / Separatists get cold feet / Freedom has its costs
Matters of debate
Google’s headphone jack-less phone proved Apple right. A year after the launch of the iPhone 7, it turns out we’ll have to live with dongles.
The Nobel Peace Prize should only be given to dead people. That would avoid the problem (paywall) of recipients betraying their principles—as many accuse Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi of doing.
Germany’s answer to Hugh Hefner was a woman. But whereas Hefner “liberated” men to live out their sexual fantasies by all means, Beate Uhse urged mutual pleasure built on communication and sexual education.
Surprising discoveries
Russia may ban selfies by soldiers. The defense ministry is tired of social media posts that disclose sensitive military information.
Blame Neanderthals for your sunburn. Genes of our ancestors from 30,000 years ago still have an impact on how we tan, our hair color, and our circadian rhythms.
Hippos are dying out because of demand for their teeth. The demand for hippo teeth sharply escalated after a 1989 ban on the international trade of elephant ivory.
The Saudi king brought his own golden escalator to Russia. On his four-day visit to Moscow, king Salman bin Abdulaziz’s entourage includes 1,500 people, as well as a golden escalator and his own furniture and carpets.
There’s now a robot you can eat. It’s made out of entirely edible gelatin and glycerin materials.
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