Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Sixty heads of state speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has told them to leave the “beautiful speeches” at home, and come with concrete plans. The gathering ahead of Tuesday’s UN General Assembly kickoff, follows the release of concerning data on sea-rise acceleration. (Sign up for our free daily email roundups from UNGA this week here.)
An apparent coup attempt to un-seat WeWork’s CEO. The Wall Street Journal reports that a group of directors at the co-working startup, including those tied to Japan’s SoftBank, want to make Adam Neumann nonexecutive chairman and install a new CEO. Neumann does have the power to fire the entire board.
The fate of UK tour operator Thomas Cook. The company is negotiating with its biggest shareholder, China’s Fosun, and creditors to avoid insolvency. Thomas Cook’s collapse could leave about 150,000 British tourists stranded.
Who gets to attempt to form a governing coalition in Israel. President Reuven Rivlin is to decide between former army chief Benny Gantz and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, neither of whom had a majority in the Sept. 17 national elections.
Over the weekend
A Texas lovefest between Donald Trump and India prime minister Narendra Modi. Modi at the event proclaimed “everything is great in India” despite a debilitating economic slowdown, while Trump courted Indian-American voters, saying India “never had a better friend as president.”
Trump said a phone conversation with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky was appropriate. He didn’t directly address news reports that he pressed Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden on corruption charges. The allegations that Trump abused US diplomatic clout to target a domestic political rival stirred up renewed calls for his impeachment.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said he walked away from acquiring Twitter a few years ago because of “nastiness.” In a New York Times interview ahead of the release of his memoir, Iger said he dropped the deal at the last minute because of concerns about the nature of postings on Twitter.
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Matters of debate
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Personality tests are corporate astrology. Neither your star sign nor your Myers-Briggs result says very much about you.
Companies only care about shareholders. Despite the Business Roundtable’s redefinition of corporations’ purpose, it’s back to business as usual.
Governments and central banks should team up. Coordinating monetary and fiscal policy may be the only way to head off the next recession.
Surprising discoveries
AI repainted a lost Picasso. A century after the artist painted over an old piece, a neural network reconstructed what the original might have looked like.
One US importer requested 10,000 tariff exemptions. The company, which relies heavily on Chinese parts, has filed the lion’s share of American businesses’ 16,000 pleas for tariff relief.
The CEO of Goldman Sachs launched a record label. David Solomon, aka DJ D-Sol, will donate all profits to fighting the opioid crisis.
Google hit a quantum-computing milestone. Its quantum processor solved a problem in 3 minutes and 20 seconds that would take the fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.
Tinder made a post-apocalyptic video game. The matchmaker hopes episodes of the interactive series will give its users something to talk about.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, psychometric tests, and apocalyptic-yet-romantic video games to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Kevin J. Delaney and Nicolás Rivero.