Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Boris Johnson heads to Dublin. The British prime minister will meet his Irish counterpart for talks as he presses on with his Brexit plan after losing a member of his cabinet on the weekend. The government will for a second time ask members of parliament to back a snap election, but opposition lawmakers have pledged to reject new polls until a no-deal Brexit has been prevented. A bill to block such a departure is set to receive royal assent today.
British Airways pilots go on strike. The vast majority of the airline’s flights taking off from the UK today and tomorrow have been canceled due to the 48-hour strike for better pay and work conditions.
The UN nuclear watchdog discusses Iran. At a quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, its board of governors will be seeking an explanation from Tehran for the traces of uranium its inspectors found at a warehouse. The meeting comes a day after Iran announced a further retreat from the 2015 nuclear deal.
Over the weekend
Japan grappled with the aftermath of Typhoon Faxai. Tokyo was battered overnight, leaving one woman dead and more than 30 injured. Commuters woke up to transport chaos today, with trains stopped and many flights canceled. The storm also delayed the arrival of the Australian team for the Rugby World Cup, which Japan is hosting during typhoon season.
Hong Kong protesters asked the US for help. Demonstrators waving American flags marched to the city’s US consulate yesterday, calling for the passage of a bill in Washington that would require an annual check to ensure Hong Kong is still autonomous enough to justify its special trade status. While the march was peaceful, clashes broke out across the city later in the day.
The US canceled Afghan peace talks. After President Donald Trump on Saturday unexpectedly called off secret talks with major Taliban leaders at Camp David, the Islamist group issued a statement yesterday saying the move will only cost more American lives.
China’s exports fell. They were down 1% in August from a year earlier, surprising analysts who had expected an increase. Shipments to the US plummeted 16% year-on-year, while imports from the country fell 22%. US-China trade talks are expected to resume next month.
Russia and Ukraine made good-will gestures. The two sides exchanged dozens of prisoners Saturday in a step toward reopening dialogue. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has promised to defuse tensions with Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014.
Ties to Jeffrey Epstein spurred another high-profile resignation. Joichi Ito, head of the MIT Media Lab, quit one day after a New Yorker article showed the Lab had actively covered up contributions from the disgraced financier and hadn’t admitted to the full extent of the relationship.
Quartz Obsession
Oodles of noodles. Born out of necessity in 1950s post-war Japan, instant noodles were once considered a luxury item. Now known as a cheap staple for college students or anyone trying to stretch a paycheck or prison commissary fund, instant noodles are one of the most popular packaged foods on the planet—and they’ve even been to space. The Quartz Obsession digs in.
Matters of debate
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We should just accept that climate change is inevitable. Doing so will help us to better prepare for ecological disasters.
Legacy college admissions have to end. They perpetuate inequity by helping famlies that are already successful.
Fashion weeks have lost their sense of purpose. Fast-fashion brands and Instagram gives us instant novelty.
Surprising discoveries
There’s a 40th-anniversary-edition Walkman, kind of. The screen of Sony’s new audio device mimics the turning of a cassette tape.
A Paris court ruled that a sex-induced death was a workplace accident. Even though the incident happened after hours during a business trip, the worker’s company was still deemed responsible for his well-being.
Scientists geolocated a Victorian-era butterfly. Researchers figured out the musty specimen’s geographic origin by studying its genome.
Whale songs are getting deeper. Scientists have multiple theories as to why, but they all involve humans.
A map shows how a place has changed over 750 million years. Users can plug in a specific address or a more generalized location, and visualize changes over millennia.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, deep sounds, and cassette tapes to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Mary Hui and edited by Tripti Lahiri.
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