Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Donald Trump visits South Korea. The next leg of the US president’s Asia trip takes him to Seoul, where he will meet with president Moon Jae-in after delivering a speech to the nation’s legislature. North Korea’s nuclear program will top the agenda; despite flirting with the idea, Trump will not be visiting the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.
Janet Yellen speaks in Washington. The Federal Reserve chair will make her first public appearance since Donald Trump named her successor, Jerome Powell. Yellen will appear alongside her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, to receive an award commending ethics in government.
Snap reports earnings. Investors will be watching to see if the social media company can recover from slowing revenue and user growth, which have kept shares trading below their $17 IPO price. They’ll also likely have questions about Spectacles, the company’s camera sunglasses, which reportedly flopped.
While you were sleeping
The UN Security Council addressed Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis. The governing body issued a statement expressing “grave concern” over human rights violations and reiterated its calls to end the use of excessive force against the country’s Muslim minority. It stopped short of passing a resolution, however, likely due to opposition from China.
21st Century Fox is reportedly in talks to sell its studio to Disney. Rupert Murdoch’s media company is considering selling off its Hollywood properties to focus on news and sports, according to CNBC. Fox News and the Fox broadcast channel would not be part of the deal, though the status of Murdoch’s large European business—including a major stake in satellite broadcaster Sky—is unknown.
New information about the Texas shooting surfaced. The US Air Force admitted that it had failed to enter gunman Devin Kelley’s 2012 domestic-abuse conviction into a federal database. The error enabled Kelley to purchase firearms legally. Meanwhile, Kelley’s mother-in-law, who attends the church that was attacked, had received threatening texts from the 26-year-old shooter, leading police to believe he may have been targeting her.
The Paradise Papers leaked details about Apple. According to the documents, Apple secretly began funneling part of its international revenue to the island of Jersey, a UK crown dependency with a 0% corporate-tax rate for foreign companies. The move—which included a detailed questionnaire for potential tax havens—came after the EU began cracking down on Apple’s arrangement with Ireland.
The White House revoked Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Nicaraguans. The Department of Homeland Security ordered refugees who arrived stateside while fleeing Hurricane Mitch in 1998 to leave the country by January 2019. The status of the Honduran refugees who arrived with them—of which there are many more—remains undetermined, though they will continue to be granted Temporary Protected Status until July 2018.
Quartz obsession interlude
Steve Mollman on South Korea’s inability to control its own fate. “Among South Koreans there is a growing feeling—dubbed ‘Korean passing’ by local media—that they’ve been sidelined during the North Korea crisis. Some in Seoul fear Trump could respond to future North Korean provocations with unilateral military operations. After Trump threatened Pyongyang with ‘fire and fury’ in August, Moon said in a nationally televised speech that ‘no one should be allowed to decide on a military action on the Korean Peninsula without South Korean agreement.'” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Catalonia is a problem for all of Europe. It’s time for the EU to rethink how it recognizes autonomy, lest more old regional feuds re-ignite.
Activist investors make corporate boards less diverse. With a stated aim of lifting the bottom line, they’re less likely to appoint women or minorities.
Stop laughing at Trump’s gaffes. The media’s urge to depict him as a buffoon fuels a “victim in chief” narrative that empowers his supporters and distracts from serious policy matters.
Surprising discoveries
Some iPhone X users can’t type the letter “I.” The $999 smartphone’s buggy predictive-text keyboard is replacing the letter with an exclamation mark and a mystery character.
Ford is making a trucker cap that can save lives. The SafeCap monitors movements associated with sleepiness and alerts dozing drivers.
T. Rex’s tiny arms were vicious weapons. While scientists have long debated their use, new research suggests that the dinosaur’s forelimbs, armed with four-inch claws, slashed prey.
Jay-Z has a brilliant tactic to keep his concerts cheap. Expensive, front-row VIP tickets allow the other seats to sell for as little as $6.
Amazon is paying for extra discounts out of its own pocket. The lowered prices are designed to undercut competitors, but may run afoul of merchants’ pricing policies.
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