Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Queen Elizabeth II gives a speech. Her address, which opens the new session of Parliament, is expected to set the government’s legislative agenda by outlining plans for life after Brexit, as well as bills on health care, crime, and railways. Meanwhile, UK and EU Brexit negotiators are meeting again in Brussels before a summit on Thursday and Friday, after weekend talks fell short again.
Catalan separatist leaders receive their verdict. Spain’s supreme court will hand down its judgement in the trial of 12 defendants over their alleged roles in the region’s failed attempt for independence in 2017. Seven of them are accused of rebellion, which carries a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
And the winners are… Two prestigious awards will go out today: the Nobel Prize in economics and the Booker Prize for literature. The clear favorite for the latter is Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale.
Finance ministers and central bankers meet in Washington, DC. Expect much hand-wringing about the deteriorating global economy at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank.
Over the weekend
Japan was inundated. Typhoon Hagibis made landfall Saturday after millions were evacuated from Tokyo and the surrounding area. At least 35 people were killed in the storm and tens of thousands remain without power.
A big weekend in elections. In a blow to Hungarian right-wing prime minister Viktor Orbán, Gergely Karácsony defeated the ruling-party incumbent as opposition candidates swept mayoral races in 10 of the country’s 23 largest cities. In Poland, the right-wing Law and Justice party expanded its majority. And in Tunisia’s presidential runoff election, exit polls point to a landslide victory by conservative academic Kais Saied.
A video of a fake Donald Trump shooting media and critics was shown at his resort. Footage obtained by the New York Times showed a fake US president massacring people in the “Church of Fake News.” The video was reportedly played during a conference held by pro-Trump group American Priority at the Trump National Doral Miami last week. A spokesman for Trump’s 2020 election campaign said he knew nothing about the video.
Chaos rattled Syria. Turkish forces continued pushing into territory abandoned by US soldiers, battling Kurdish militias and allegedly committing war crimes. Hundreds of captured ISIS fighters escaped from prison camps, and a Syrian democracy advocate was murdered. German leader Angela Merkel called for an end to the conflict.
Eliud Kipchoge ran a sub-2-hour marathon in Vienna. The Kenyan distance runner, accompanied by an elite pacing team of 42 athletes, pushed the boundaries of human achievement by running 26.2 miles in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds. Meanwhile, his compatriot Brigid Kosgei smashed the women’s world record at the Chicago Marathon.
Quartz Obsession
The cobra effect is a hell of good intentions. It’s a particularly brutal form of unintended consequences in which incentives to fix a problem only make the problem worse. The fail is so named because an attempt to eliminate actual cobras ended up with way more cobras, and while it’s not typically that freaky, it can get much worse. Survey the damage at the Quartz Obsession.
Matters of debate
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Thomas Edison’s greatest invention wasn’t the lightbulb. He created the worldview behind what we call R&D.
A carbon tax won’t stop climate change. Plans to address global warming that don’t deal with inequality are dead on arrival.
The US should ban dolphin shows. Big companies and other countries have already halted entertainment featuring the intelligent sea creatures.
Surprising discoveries
Researchers want to laser map all land on the planet. The project, called Earth Archive, will record cultural, geological, and environmental treasures at risk from climate crisis,
Pregnant women are smuggling blood from China to Hong Kong. Vials make their way illegally across the border so that mothers can find out the gender of their unborn child.
California just banned little shampoo bottles in hotels. The move will reduce the number of single-use plastics ending up in landfills.
The UK’s Royal Mint now offers a $23,000 payment card. Owners of the solid-gold offering won’t be charged foreign exchange and transaction fees.
Doodles in a New York dive bar could be worth millions. Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara drew them on the walls of Niagara (after a few drinks) in 2009.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, shampoo refills, and laser maps 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 Isabella Steger.