Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Catalonia’s independence deadline is here. Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has until the end of the day to confirm independence, then three days to rectify that decision. Spain has threatened to invoke an article of the constitution preventing secession and could do so if Puigdemont moves forward with independence.
The Pope speaks for the hungry. In honor of World Food Day 2017, Pope Francis will join world leaders to call on the international community to invest in food security and rural development in order to change the future of migration. It will be the first time the head of the Catholic Church attends the UN event in person.
Netflix reports third-quarter earnings. Analysts are looking for signs that the streaming-video company’s investment in original content is paying off. Netflix bumped up prices on two of its subscriptions earlier this month, citing a need to invest in more movies and exclusive TV shows.
Over the weekend
Iraq’s army clashed with Kurdish forces. The military reportedly advanced on Kirkuk’s oil fields and air base, weeks after the oil-rich Kurdistan region voted for independence from Iraq. State TV reported vast areas had been seized, though Kurds disputed those claims. News of the confrontations sparked a jump in world oil prices.
Truck bombings in Mogadishu killed over 270 people. No group has yet claimed responsibility for what is believed to be the single deadliest attack in Somalia, though officials blamed the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab. Occurring on Saturday night in a busy area near key ministries, the blasts also injured hundreds.
Austria’s government took a right turn. The right-leaning People’s Party notched a strong win, with its 31-year-old leader, Sebastian Kurz, set to become chancellor and the world’s youngest leader. Kurz took a hard line on immigration while serving as foreign minister. Austria has spent over a decade operating under a centrist coalition government.
The Motion Picture Academy gave Harvey Weinstein the boot. Its board voted on Saturday to remove Weinstein, effective immediately. The expulsion sends “a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over,” the Academy said in a statement.
Wildfires continued to rage in California. Firefighters made progress but the infernos in Northern California are still far from under control (paywall). The death count reached 40 and is expected to rise, and at least 5,700 homes and businesses have been destroyed. Winds from the southwest should help put an end to the disaster this week.
Quartz obsession interlude
Youyou Zhou analyzed 141 hours of cable news to figure out how mass killers are really portrayed. “Are there ingrained racial biases that surface when TV news outlets report these tragedies? Is this double standard persistent, or merely anecdotal? Quartz reviewed the language used to describe the killers of 27 mass shootings in the US, beginning with the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Humans are so immersed in immorality that they can be entirely unaware of it. A philosopher’s moral crisis over eating meat offers a master class on how to question your instincts.
We shouldn’t necessarily try to save moribund languages. In many cases, sentimental value isn’t enough to justify the social costs.
Dollar diplomacy is dead. The geopolitical alliances that have propped up the US dollar’s fading global dominance are fraying badly.
Surprising discoveries
Amazon can’t beat dollar stores. Investors think there are only a handful of businesses safe from the e-commerce giant.
A woman got a VW for a packet of McDonald’s sauce. The car was exchanged for a single serving of Szechuan sauce, a rare McD’s offering turned into a cult obsession by the TV show Rick and Morty.
Most countries are named for one of four things. Turns out we’re really uncreative when it comes to what we call home.
You can thank a murderer for the Oxford English Dictionary. From his insane asylum cell, William C. Minor did much of the research key to putting the dictionary together.
Tropical forests are now bad for climate change. In 2016, they caused the largest atmospheric CO2 increase in 2,000 years.
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