Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Robert Mugabe could be impeached. The ruling Zanu-PF party said a motion to remove Mugabe from the presidency, on charges that include allowing his wife to “usurp constitutional power,” could be presented to parliament in the next few hours.
Salesforce reports its numbers. The cloud-computing company is one of the last big tech firms to file this earnings season. Analysts are keen to see if its quarterly earnings justify its hefty stock valuation, and want an update on its international expansion.
Mervyn King interviews Janet Yellen in New York. The former Bank of England governor chats with the current US Federal Reserve chair about her policy outlook. It’ll be one of the last opportunities to hear from Yellen in this role—she will not be returning to the Fed’s board of governors once Jerome Powell takes over.
While you were sleeping
Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad congratulated themselves. The Russian and Syrian presidents met in Sochi ahead of a Wednesday conference with Turkey and Iran to discuss wrapping up military operations in Syria. Putin praised their “joint work in fighting terrorism”—and said he’d give Donald Trump a call tomorrow to fill him in on the meeting.
EasyJet benefitted from its rivals’ failures. Despite a 17% drop in pre-tax profits for the year ending Sept. 30, the low-cost carrier reported record passenger numbers, thanks to the collapse of rivals Air Berlin, Monarch, and Alitalia, and thousands of flight cancellations at Ryanair. Investors will be looking to new CEO Johan Lundgren to keep costs down when he takes over next month.
Tether claimed a hacker stole $31 million of its cryptocurrency. The startup, which operates the dollar-pegged USDT cryptocurrency, said the tokens were stolen from its core treasury wallet and it’s trying to track them. Tether is under scrutiny over its relationship with the secretive Bitfinex exchange—they have been accused of market manipulation.
The US arrested former Hong Kong and Senegal officials on bribery charges. The Justice Department charged Hong Kong’s former home affairs minister and Senegal’s former foreign minister with bribing high-level officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for contracts for a Chinese energy company.
The search for an Argentine submarine entered the “critical phase.” The ARA San Juan, which has been missing since last Wednesday, is running close to the limit of its oxygen reserves. The US and UK navies are aiding the search off the coast of Patagonia amid rough conditions.
Quartz obsession interlude
Annaliese Griffin on serial killer Charles Manson’s influence on pop culture. “Manson wanted to be a rock star and the Family shacked up with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson for a time. In a sense, he became one, tapping into a deep well of fascination with grisly, ritualistic death that still pervades pop culture, despite the fact that the era of the serial killer has come and gone.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Facebook can’t regulate itself. It has an unprecedented wealth of personal data and a history of mishandling it (paywall).
Chile’s democracy is in peril again. Though Chile is one of Latin America’s most stable democracies, voter frustration is high and a billionaire businessman is harnessing populist anger.
Age-of-consent laws need to be modified. Teenagers are more likely to choose short-term gratification at the expense of long-term consequences.
Surprising discoveries
Some crucial elements are in short supply. Silver, helium, zinc, and gallium are under “serious threat in the next 100 years.”
The CIA took cat photos at the 1963 Moscow Fair. The images, classified until recently, show the anonymous photographer was distracted by an adorable tabby.
An Ice Age woolly mammoth family is up for sale. The intact skeletons include a one-year-old baby, and are expected to fetch £400,000 ($529,000) at auction.
There’s an app that gives blind people an “audio description of life.” Aira describes the world for users wearing its smart glasses.
London’s double-decker buses are partly powered by coffee. A company called Bio-bean uses coffee grounds to make biofuel.
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