Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Najib Razak’s day in court. The former Malaysian prime minister was arrested again yesterday in relation to allegations that he siphoned millions from state investment fund 1MDB. He will face 21 new money-laundering charges, in addition to existing charges of money laundering, criminal breach of trust, and abuse of power.
Japan’s prime minister faces a party vote. Shinzo Abe is almost certain to win a leadership vote to give him three more years as the head of the Liberal Democratic Party, and is expected to serve as prime minister until he hits his term limit in 2021.
South Africa’s central bank makes a decision. Pressure is easing on the South African Reserve Bank to raise rates after the latest data showed lower inflation (paywall). The country’s economy fell into recession in the first half of 2018, and the rand is one of the worst-performing currencies in the world this year.
A Venezuela-China oil deal. President Nicolás Maduro will finalize a contract with the China National Petroleum Corporation, pledging additional oil exports of up to 1 million barrels per day. The agreement follows Maduro’s recent Asia tour, including a meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing.
While you were sleeping
Ian Buruma left his position as editor of The New York Review of Books. The Dutch writer and academic faced widespread criticism for publishing a lengthy essay by former Canadian broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi, who was acquitted in 2016 of multiple counts of sexual assault, in the most recent issue of the magazine. ”I have now myself been convicted on Twitter, without any due process,” Buruma said.
Chinese food-delivery app Meituan Dianping made its trading debut. The Tencent-backed company raised $4.2 billion in a Hong Kong IPO, valuing it at $53 billion. The stock jumped as much as 7% (paywall) on its first day of trading, bucking the recent trend of underperforming Chinese tech IPOs.
Jack Ma reneged on his pledge of 1 million Alibaba jobs in America. The US-China trade war prompted the billionaire to walk back his deal with Donald Trump—though analysts didn’t expect the agreement, made in January 2017, to hold up anyway.
Architect Robert Venturi died at 93. A Pritzker winner, Venturi was seen as a pioneer in the postmodernist school (paywall) of architecture who rejected the modernism of peers such as Le Corbusier. Venturi designed buildings such as the Sainsbury Wing extension of London’s National Gallery and the Children’s Museum of Houston, Texas.
Quartz Obsession interlude
Corinne Purtill on why the work day should end at 3pm: “It’s a suggestion in line with a growing movement across industries to rethink long-standing norms about how work should get done—norms created in an earlier economy, at a time when the technology to accommodate flexible work did not exist.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Society is looking at obesity in entirely the wrong way. Overweight people need to be supported, not shamed.
#MeToo is not about the fall of men. Suggesting that the fall of a few men represents the fall of men discredits the movement as the work of indiscriminate extremists.
Characterizations of generations are always wrong. Social science is powerless to assess personality traits of specific age cohorts.
Surprising discoveries
A Texas granny avenged her miniature horse by killing the alligator who ate him. Judy “Nana” Cochran is also the mayor of her town.
Cathay Pacific spelled its own name wrong on a plane. The Boeing 777 traveled to Hong Kong emblazoned with the name “Cathay Paciic.”
Rugby players and fans were warned about tattoos in Japan. Those attending next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan have been told to cover up their ink in public to avoid causing offense.
Kidney stones are weirdly beautiful. The painful crystalline deposits look like kaleidoscopic coral reefs (paywall) under a microscope.
There are now more $100 bills than $1 bills in the US. Scarred by the financial crisis and low inflation, more people are choosing to store their money in high-denomination banknotes.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, fierce grannies, and hidden tats 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 by Isabella Steger and edited by Alice Truong.