Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Nobel Prize in physics is announced. The awards continue for the second day in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, and will be revealed at 11:45am local time.
Melania Trump goes to Africa. The US first lady begins a solo visit to the continent in Accra, Ghana, and is also expected to visit Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt, with a focus on children’s issues. Her husband has not yet visited Africa.
The EU votes on emissions targets. Lawmakers will consider a proposal to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030. Automakers are warning that tighter restrictions could hurt the industry and spur drastic job cuts.
While you were sleeping
Theresa May gave an update on immigration rules post-Brexit. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, the prime minister said that the UK would prioritize highly skilled workers (paywall) from the EU after the country leaves the bloc, with a minimum salary requirement so that potential migrants don’t compete for lower-level jobs with British workers.
An upstart, right-of-center party won Quebec’s election. Businessman Francois Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec defeated the Liberal Party (paywall), which has been in power for 15 years. The CAQ wants to restrict immigration to the province and force migrants to learn French.
A Chinese warship sailed too close to a US Navy destroyer. American defense officials said the Chinese vessel almost collided with the USS Decatur as it came within 45 yards (41 meters) of its bow on Sunday. The US ship was sailing in a disputed chain of islands in the South China Sea, where China claims a number of territories.
Instagram named a new CEO. Facebook product chief Adam Mosseri will be promoted to Instagram’s top seat following last week’s departure of co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. Mosseri, the well-liked insider behind Facebook’s News Feed, is a trusted deputy of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
CERN suspended a sexist researcher. Italian physicist Alessandro Strumia triggered outrage after a bizarre presentation at the European nuclear research center, telling a mostly-female audience that physics was “invented and built by men.” Strumia also claimed women in the male-dominated field benefit from favoritism, receive outsized funding, and earn too many promotions.
Quartz Obsession interlude
Heather Timmons on NAFTA’s replacement and the Trump trade doctrine: “It’s a familiar pattern for the Trump presidency. Call it ‘Speak Loudly and Carry a Tiny Stick,’ or Trump’s ‘madman’ negotiating style. What it boils down to is making a massive threat that would upend the global order, then walking that back, while declaring victory to loyal Trump fans at home, no matter what happened.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
We’ll all eventually love Mark Zuckerberg. Giving away billions erases most ills—just ask Bill Gates.
The future of emails is “Gmail-ese.” A quarter of the world could soon give up on writing emails with individual style thanks to “smart compose.”
US car companies can’t win Trump’s trade war. Thanks to globalization, the industry’s supply chain reaches across dozens of countries that are all trading tit-for-tat tariffs.
Surprising discoveries
The US IPO market is drowning in red ink. More than 80% of newly listed companies this year were losing money (paywall) before their debut.
GeoCities still lives on in Japan. But the website-hosting service is shutting down in March, 22 years after its launch.
British rail companies are really, really sorry. So sorry, in fact, that they’ve tweeted (paywall) apologies over 417,000 times this year.
Google’s AI is making hamburgers look more appetizing. DeepMind’s algorithm is also quite good at generating non-existent dogs and butterflies.
Amazon now makes mattresses. The e-commerce giant has released a new line of bed-in-a-box foam mattresses under its AmazonBasics line.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, GeoCities websites, and apologies for lateness 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.