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What to watch for today
The two-day EU-Canada summit begins in Montreal. The UK will be watching for the joint reaffirmation of their free-trade agreement, CETA, and how it will factor in post-Brexit. Canada has already signaled its unwillingness to extend the treaty to the UK in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
Infamous drug kingpin El Chapo is sentenced. Joaquin Guzman, who for years led Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa cartel, faces life in prison. He was convicted last winter of drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons offenses, and prosecutors asked for time to be added to his sentence in recognition of his brutal tactics.
eBay, Netflix, and IBM report second-quarter earnings. The e-commerce platform may see mixed results, while the streaming service will report how it’s weathering higher costs and competition, partly thanks to a rise in global paid memberships. The venerable information technology company will likely fall given a dip in its mainframe offerings, tempered slightly by demand for its cloud and cognitive software. Watch too for earnings from Bank of America, US Bancorp, and Abbott Labs.
While you were sleeping
Britain crept closer to a no-deal Brexit. In a boon to prime minister heir apparent Boris Johnson, 10 Labour MPs said they would back a no-deal Brexit. The front-runner is even considering suspending parliament ahead of the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline to make sure his rivals cannot stop the UK from leaving the EU without a deal.
North Korea threatened to revive its nuclear and missile tests. It accused the US of breaking a promise by planning to hold a joint military training exercise with South Korea, characterizing it as “a rehearsal of war.”
Monsoon floods devastated parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. More than 130 people have died and nearly seven million have been displaced, and conditions may have contributed to the collapse of a four-story building in Mumbai, which killed 10. And it’s not over yet: The head of a disaster relief nonprofit said he expects conditions in India to “deteriorate over the next two to three days.”
RyanAir cut back routes and Pakistan reopened its airspace. Europe will have fewer flights to choose from as the continent’s leading low-cost carrier slashed operations due to a delay in returning the upgraded Boeing 737 Max to service. But Air India and other Indian airlines got a boost from Pakistan allowing civilian flights to resume operating there after nearly five months due to friction between the two countries.
HBO set a new record for Emmy nominations. The channel beat its own previous record with a whopping 137 nods–32 of them for Game of Thrones–beating rival Netflix, which nabbed 117.
A US Senate committee grilled Facebook over Libra. David Marcus, who is leading the social media giant’s cryptocurrency effort, tried to assuage lawmakers’ concerns that the company shouldn’t be trusted with people’s money or financial data amid other questions. But his assurances that the Swiss data protection authority will be its privacy regulator may have rung hollow as the agency noted that it hadn’t yet heard from Facebook.
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Thinking globally about charitable giving. As part of our week-long field guide to new approaches to philanthropy, International Rescue Committee chief executive David Miliband shared with Quartz reporter Natasha Frost his insights on how we should approach humanitarianism.
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Wikipedia is the internet’s last utopia. As Facebook grapples with disinformation and YouTube’s algorithms steer visitors to extremist content, Wikipedia remains an oasis of objective, neutral calm. That is, until you click over to the “edits” tab. A fractious group of volunteer editors brawls behind the scenes of every page of the internet’s encyclopedia—making decisions that may skew the web’s most popular trove of knowledge toward their overwhelmingly white, male, Western perspective. Sate your curiosity with the Quartz Obsession.[1]
Matters of debate
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TikTokers are the new YouTubers. The younger, hipper video platform is home to the next generation of star creators.
Canada has overregulated legal weed. Limits on advertising and social media put Canadian producers at a disadvantage against less restrained American competitors.
Put diaper-changing stations in men’s rooms. Businesses should accommodate dads with small kids and big messes.
Surprising discoveries
Authorities caught a fugitive gator in a Chicago park. Nicknamed “Chance the Snapper,” the rogue reptile won over locals and eluded capture for a week.
Kim Jong Un has an impressive car collection. Flashy rides are among the vast trove of luxury goods North Korea imports from as many as 90 countries, despite UN sanctions.
Scientists found an alien moon nursery. An image from Chile’s ALMA Observatory shows a new moon being born in a ring of debris around a planet 370 light years away.
Grimes revealed her wellness routine. The artist claims she stays in peak form with a blend of sword fighting, screaming sessions, and dips in a sensory deprivation tank.
Cancun is smothered in stinky algae. Thousands of tons of slimy, brown sargassum have washed onto the Yucatan’s beaches and driven tourists away.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, fancy cars, and creative health regimens to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written and edited by Nicolás Rivero and Holly Ojalvo.