Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Russia holds its biggest military exercise since the Cold War. Vostok 2018 (“East 2018”) will involve about 300,000 troops from Russia, China, and Mongolia, in the largest show of force by the Kremlin since 1981.
Google tries to stop the EU’s “right to be forgotten” from going global. In a hearing before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the internet giant will appeal a French privacy regulator’s ruling that Google must adhere to EU privacy rules across all of its websites around the world.
Vietnam hosts the World Economic Forum after barring human rights activists. Debbie Stothard, secretary general of the International Federation for Human Rights, was among the registered attendees who were denied entry to the country ahead of the World Economic Forum on ASEAN in Hanoi.
While you were sleeping
The US evacuated 1 million people ahead of a hurricane. Coastal regions in North and South Carolina are being cleared after Hurricane Florence grew into a category 4 storm, with sustained winds of at least 130 mph (209 km/h). If it continues on its current path, Florence would be one of the few storms to ever make landfall that far north on the US east coast.
Cannabis stocks caught fire after a $220 million M&A deal. Aurora Cannabis agreed to buy South American marijuana producer ICC Labs, which has operations in Uruguay, Colombia, and Mexico. The move provided a shot in the arm to surging cannabis stocks, as ICC Labs has more than 70 percent of the market share in Uruguay.
Donald Trump received an invite from Kim Jong Un… The US president’s spokeswoman the “very warm, very positive letter” asked to set up another meeting between the leaders. The administration is open to another summit and has already begun coordinating with its North Korean counterparts.
…And blatantly lied about the US economy. Trump said in a tweet that GDP growth was above the unemployment rate for the first time in 100 years. That’s not even remotely close to the truth: The same has been true more than 60 times in that time frame.
A US judge denied bail to an accused Russian agent. Maria Butina will be kept in custody after a judge ruled that she was a flight risk who might be “placed into a car with diplomatic tags” and taken to an airport. Her lawyer also received a gag order after making comments that might influence a future jury.
Quartz Obsession interlude
Ephrat Livini on making street art in a Marc Jacobs dress: “At night, I’d take wheat-paste brewed with flour and water, and wander around Amsterdam by bike, plastering the city with colorful shoes. My placement was careful—usually, I hit temporary structures, covering buildings under construction, or paid advertisements, or somewhat controversially, other street artists’ creations.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Big banks are safe from a financial crisis. But 10 years after Lehman imploded, risk is accumulating at shadow institutions.
Hard alcohol has no place at college fraternities. A growing number of institutions are banning spirits after a series of deadly incidents.
The US opioid crisis is now a fentanyl crisis. Fatal overdoses have skyrocketed, mostly because the drug is cheap, synthetic, and available on the internet.
Surprising discoveries
Mark Zuckerberg is obsessed with Augustus Caesar. The young conquerer started his empire before the age of 20 and tried to take over the world.
You don’t have to poop every day. The optimal number of bowel movements can be as few as three per week.
Sri Lanka’s president complained about airplane cashews. President Maithripala Sirisena said the snacks on his country’s national carrier were not even suitable for dogs.
Wi-fi moves faster than the speed of sound. Noise-canceling headphones can now outpace noise itself.
The rescued Thai soccer team re-lived their trauma. They crawled through a replica of the flooded cave, which was recreated by Thailand’s military government, inside a Bangkok mega-mall.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, disaster replicas, and presidential airplane snacks to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written and edited by Dave Gershgorn and Adam Pasick.