Johnson makes moves, Trump threatens Turkey, musical ageism

Good morning, Quartz readers!

What to watch for today

Boris Johnson asks to suspend parliament. The UK prime minister is expected to again request a prorogation from Queen Elizabeth II that lasts until Oct. 14, the last day a Brexit deal could be agreed upon before heading to the EU. Unlike last time, a suspension probably won’t be ruled illegal.

The US supreme court rules on a landmark LGBTQ case. If the court finds that current employment anti-discrimination laws should unilaterally include sexual orientation or transgender identity, the ripple effect would most likely begin to spread outwards to impact what’s allowed in housing, education, and more.

India gets its first Rafale jet. Defence minister Rajnath Singh will accept the first of 36 fighter planes as part of a deal with France, whose defense ties with India have been tightening lately. The first jet will proceed to its new home near the India-Pakistan border, at Ambala air force station.

While you were sleeping

The EU objections to Johnson’s Brexit deal were leaked. The point-by-point issues with the British PM’s Irish border proposal were revealed following Johnson’s comments that he hadn’t seen them. His chief negotiator, David Frost, was in discussions with the EU’s team for most of yesterday.

Donald Trump threatened to destroy Turkey… After abruptly announcing he would withdraw US troops from Syria on Sunday, the president vowed he would “totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey” if it mounts a military operation against Kurdish fighters.

…But a federal judge destroyed Trump’s tax return defense. The US president had argued that a sitting US president is immune from criminal investigations, but judge Victor Marrero decided otherwise. Next stop for Trump’s legal team: a Manhattan appeals court.

A whistleblower alleged corruption at Ethiopian Airlines. A former chief engineer said the company okayed shoddy repairs, doctored documents, and may have tampered with the maintenance records of a Boeing 737 Max jet after its fatal crash. Three other former employees have corroborated his account.

Quartz Membership

Welcome to the age of the gray zone, where states use “intimidation and coercion in the space between war and peace,” as the US National Defense Strategy Commission defines it. For a time, deaths from armed conflict fell around the world, but now, driven by the complex interaction of global power politics and local ideologies, the world is seeing its bloodiest years since the 1980s. Quartz reporter Tim Fernholz breaks it down in his state of play for this week’s field guide on the future of war.

Quartz Obsession

Ebola is inevitably fearsome—but maybe it’s not inevitable. One vaccine currently in development is even showing a 90% success rate if administered early. But perhaps more important is basic medical care, without which there’s a 90% rate of mortality. Ebola isn’t airborne and victims are only contagious when symptomatic, so the best prevention is improving health systems more generally. Get the prescription at the Quartz Obsession.

Matters of debate

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Automating entry-level jobs kills careers. Machines don’t just take jobs—they take away a stepping stone into an organization.

Free speech isn’t absolute. Placing reasonable limits protects people from hate speech and the real world violence it inspires.

Grown-ups can’t help hating modern music. Their brains are just less primed to take in new tunes.

Surprising discoveries

African countries were dubbed by bumbling European explorers. Marco Polo mis-recorded “Mogadishu” as “Madageiscar”, and a whole other country was named.

Being bad with faces might make you an introvert. It’s unclear if poor facial recognition causes introversion or if it’s the other way around.

Tree thieves terrorize US forests. The ne’er-do-well lumberjacks sell bigleaf maple trunks on the black market for a handsome fee.

Chinese farmers are breeding giant pigs. They hope rhinoceros-sized specimens can make up for the millions of swine lost to flu.

Bullying reshapes kids’ brains. In one longitudinal study, two brain areas associated with movement and learning were smaller in bullied teens.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, portly porkers, and legal lumber 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 Susan Howson and Nicolás Rivero.