Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Brexit talks resume in Brussels. Negotiations between the UK and the other 27 European Union member states have been at a standstill, with the main sticking point being how much in financial obligations the UK owes the regional bloc. Progress on the rights of EU citizens in the UK and vice versa, and the Irish border, is also in deadlock.
Burberry announces half-year results. Investors will look to the British fashion house to present its strategic plans after its creative head, Christopher Bailey, announced that he would leave the company next year. The popularity of Burberry’s trademark check pattern is also waning.
Disney reports earnings. Investors will watch the numbers closely after a recent report that the company may be in talks to acquire the Hollywood studios of 21st Century Fox. Hurricanes during the previous quarter forced the company to close parks in Florida (for only the fifth time in almost five decades), and to change or cancel some Disney cruises in the Caribbean.
While you were sleeping
Trump signed a lot of deals with China. In a joint press conference in Beijing, the US president heaped praise on Xi (paywall), and even said that he doesn’t blame China “for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens” after raising the topic of intellectual-property theft. The two countries signed $250 billion in commercial deals.
The UN warns of a catastrophic famine in Yemen. Mark Lowcock, the United Nations under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said that the Saudi Arabia-backed military coalition must allow humanitarian aid into the war-torn country to prevent “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades.”
Bitcoin hit a record high. It soared to close to $8,000, after one faction of the community that had been pushing for a “hard fork” in the cryptocurrency, which would have doubled its transaction capacity, said that it would abandon its effort. Bitcoin has already forked twice this year, creating the bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold cryptocurrencies.
AT&T’s Time Warner acquisition could depend on CNN. The US justice department asked Time Warner to sell CNN before it would approve of the merger. AT&T’s CEO said he has no intention of selling the news network.
Quartz obsession interlude
Zheping Huang on why Trump should get to know China’s “Steve Bannon,” Wang Huning. “In 1988, Wang spent six months in the US as a visiting scholar… Back from the trip, he wrote ‘America against America,’ a 400-page Tocqueville-style personal memoir of his impressions of American life, from the economy to politics to society. The idea, Wang wrote, was to compare the real America he saw against the imagined America that many Chinese have gone to extremes to either admire or despise.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Don’t try to compete with Facebook. The downward trend in Snap’s stock price since its IPO is a warning: If your startup has an idea that Facebook might want to copy, rethink your business plan.
The US is ceding ground to China in global leadership. If Trump’s retreat into nationalism, protectionism, and unilateralism, continues, China’s authoritarian model (paywall) could carry the day.
Technology is no substitute for human effort. Simply giving laptops to students won’t overcome deeper infrastructure problems, like a shortage of teachers.
Surprising discoveries
The US just released an army of weaponized mosquitos. The EPA is allowing MosquitoMate to release its lab-grown, bacteria-carrying males (who don’t bite) to infect females and reduce populations.
Sheep can identify human faces in photos. They’re the only mammals outside of primates that can recognize familiar faces in 2D.
Shinzo Abe and Trump’s honeymoon meeting wasn’t perfect. The Japanese prime minister actually fell into a bunker while they were playing golf.
Facebook wants your “intimate photos.” The social media platform is testing a program that will, theoretically, stop image-based abuse by taking a digital fingerprint of your nude body.
Breathing Delhi’s air is the same as smoking 45 cigarettes a day. Air quality index readings in several parts of the city have hit the maximum of 999.
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