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What to watch for today
Europe revises its Brexit strategy. Europe’s chief Brexit negotiator will discuss the state of play with European Parliament members, in the body’s first discussion since granting Britain a three-month extension to leave the EU.
Donald Trump drops hints on a possible China deal. Economists and investors will listen carefully to the US president’s speech to the New York Economic Club for signs of a coming rapprochement with China. He’s also expected to take a victory lap on the stock market’s performance.
SCOTUS hears arguments on Dreamers. Lower courts have resisted Trump’s 2017 decision to end a Barack Obama-era program that defers deportation for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children. The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected just months ahead of the 2020 election.
Disney+ is here. The entertainment giant’s long-anticipated streaming service hits small screens in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and India, featuring the first-ever live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian.
While you were sleeping
Hong Kong saw another day of transport disruption. The city limited train services as protests disrupted commuting for a second day amid public anger over the death of a college student last week, and the police shooting of a demonstrator at close range yesterday.
“Catastrophic” fires spread in Australia. More schools were evacuated today as fires in parched eastern regions that have been blazing for days worsened. Parts of the country have declared a state of emergency, while smoke haze led Sydney to record worse air pollution than famously smoggy Beijing.
The White House found a new way to hamstring the EPA. A proposed rule will require the Environmental Protection Agency to base future standards only on health studies that are willing to disclose their raw data—a difficult step due to confidentiality agreements with study subjects.
Bolivia’s Evo Morales accepted asylum in Mexico. The former president of the Andean country, who defied term limits to run for a fourth term last month, boarded a government plane last night after resigning in the face of weeks of protests that saw the military side with demonstrators. The country will hold fresh elections.
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Big Tech has grown too big. The question is no longer whether something needs to be done to tame Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, but what and how soon. Quartz reporter Alison Griswold addresses those questions in this week’s field guide.
Quartz Obsession
Graves are going green. Thousands of people every year are giving up on funeral homes, formaldehyde, and coffins and returning to nature as their forebears did—wrapped in a shroud, placed in a simple hole in the earth, with no trace of their resting place amid the birds, bees, and nematodes. Dig in with the Quartz Obsession.
Matters of Debate
Airlines are selling out the planet for pennies. A cost-saving practice called “fuel tankering” has an outsized impact on the environment.
Killer robots are on the way. Government refusals to regulate autonomous weapons guarantee that they will be made.
It’s okay to be a people-pleaser. You don’t need to fight the instinct to be generous, considerate, and helpful—just work on saying “no.”
Surprising discoveries
Australia had an unusually dry day. For the first time in recorded history, not a drop fell on the entire continent.
A screaming penguin is New Zealand’s bird of the year. The hoiho won in an election upset, while Australia’s own contest was marred by accusations of fowl play.
Couples’ cosmetics are on the rise. Matching makeup is nothing new for same-sex couples, but straight men are finally getting in on the trend.
Egypt dug up a lion mummy. Archaeologists often find mummified cats, but if confirmed, this would be one of the first preserved lions.
A Twitch streamer is on pace to game 570 hours this month. Andrew “GiantWaffle” Bodine is sleeping three hours a night and playing 19 hours a day in pursuit of a record.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, precipitation, and penguin shrieks to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Tripti Lahiri and edited by Isabella Steger.