Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
The Nobel Peace Prize is announced. The winner, chosen from more than 300 nominees, will be unveiled at 11am local time in Norway.
The US Senate votes on Brett Kavanaugh. Senators will decide today whether to vote on the confirmation of the Supreme Court nominee, who is accused of sexual assault, on Saturday. Hundreds of protestors, including comedian Amy Schumer, were arrested in Washington on Thursday. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (paywall), Kavanaugh said he “might have been too emotional” during his testimony.
Elections in Brazil, Bosnia, and Latvia. Corruption is a major theme for all three elections as Latvians head to the polls on Saturday, followed by Brazilians and Bosnians on Sunday. In Brazil, 147 million people will decide on the president and more than 1,650 national and state-level positions. Last month, former president Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, who is in jail, was barred from running for president, and the right-wing frontrunner was stabbed during a campaign event.
Another deadly Pacific storm. Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to move from Okinawa to northern Japan and South Korea, days after Typhoon Trami swept through the region. Projections indicate the storm should weaken as it heads north, but the Ryukyu Islands will endure the worst wind and rainfall.
Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market closes. The 80-year-old market is packing up Saturday to make way for a parking lot for the 2020 Olympics, amid objections from fishmongers who say the new site in Tokyo Bay is contaminated. Business is expected to resume at the new market on Oct. 11.
India and Russia make a deal. Despite the threat of US sanctions, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi plans to approve a $5 billion agreement to buy missile-defense systems from its longtime ally. He and Russian president Vladimir Putin will also discuss another $3 billion deal for warships and helicopters today.
Mike Pompeo returns to North Korea. The US secretary of state will travel to Pyongyang—his fourth trip to the country in less than a year—on Saturday in hopes of getting Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons.
While you were sleeping
Electricity was restored to Palu, Indonesia after a quake and tsunami ravaged the city. The official death toll has risen above 1,400, but the fate of thousands of people in outlying districts remains unknown.
A Russian official linked to the Trump campaign died in a helicopter crash. Russian deputy attorney general Saak Albertovich Karapetyan was accused of directing Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met senior Trump campaign officials in 2016. Local media reports said a pilot and another man also died after the helicopter flew in adverse conditions Wednesday night.
Elon Musk mocked the SEC on Twitter. Days after settling fraud charges with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for tweets he sent last month—which resulted in a $20 million fine and him stepping down as Tesla’s chairman—Musk called the agency the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” on Twitter.
Supermicro’s stock plummeted after a report was published on a Chinese attack on the US tech supply chain. At one point, its market cap had halved after Bloomberg Businessweek reported (paywall) that the hardware of the motherboard maker, whose clients included the CIA and Apple, was manipulated in a state-sponsored attack. The stock was down 41% when US markets closed.
Suge Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison. The 53-year-old rap mogul had pleaded no contest to manslaughter this month for the hit-and-run death of a man on the set of the movie Straight Outta Compton.
Quartz Obsession interlude
Janet Bednarek on how the Boeing 747 created air travel as we know it 50 years ago: “From the beginning, everything about the plane once known as the ‘queen of the skies’ was big. It was the first wide-body ‘jumbo jet’ ever built, involving about 50,000 construction workers, mechanics, engineers, and others who took it from an idea to the air in just 16 months in the late 1960s. Until 2007 and the introduction of the Airbus A380, it was the largest civilian airplane in the world.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Aung San Suu Kyi still has the moral authority to right the wrongs against the Rohingya. But she has a limited window before Myanmar slips back into being a pariah state.
Willpower is a dangerous idea that serves to stigmatize others. The concept emerged in the 19th century to preach Victorian mores like self-denial.
Workplaces shouldn’t give out free snacks. Companies should instead use that money to pay employees better.
Surprising discoveries
Teenage dolphins are getting high on puffer-fish toxin. In small doses, the poison can have a narcotic effect.
Minnesota birds are getting too tipsy. Fermented berries and a migration delay mean more collisions with avian drunks.
Some viral Instagram accounts are posting the same photos everyday. Adults might be mystified by the trend, but teens love the absurdist humor of a grid of plungers.
A child pulled an ancient sword from a Swedish lake. A drought helped reveal the 1,000-year-old artifact.
You can stay in a cottage made entirely of chocolate. Encased in a glass house to keep insects at bay, the cozy abode in Sèvres, France rents for €50 ($59) a night.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, drunk warblers, and dolphin vices 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 Alice Truong and edited by Isabella Steger.