Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
SCOTUS hears arguments on Dreamers. Lower courts have resisted Trump’s 2017 decision to end the 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.
Donald Trump drops hints on a trade deal. Economists and investors are listening carefully to the US president’s speech to the New York Economic Club for signs of a rapprochement with China. He’s also expected to celebrate the stock market’s good performance.
Disney+ is here. The entertainment giant’s long-anticipated streaming service hits small screens in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and India, and features a Star Wars series, The Mandalorian.
While you were sleeping
Hillary Clinton talked about Russian interference again. The former US presidential candidate said the decision not to publish a report about alleged Russian involvement in the UK’s Brexit referendum until after the December election is “inexplicable and shameful.”
Jimmy Carter was hospitalized. The 95-year-old former US president is undergoing brain surgery in Atlanta. Carter had been in hospital twice last month after falling in his home in Plains, Georgia.
The White House found a new way to hamstring the EPA. A proposed rule requires 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.
Major fires spread in Australia. More schools have been evacuated as fires exacerbated problems in parched eastern regions. Parts of the country have declared a state of emergency, while Sydney has recorded worse air pollution than famously smoggy Beijing.
Hong Kong protesters focused on transport. 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.
Quartz Membership
Sign up for your free trial.
The concept of antitrust first emerged, as the word suggests, as a means to break up the “trusts” that sprang up in the late 1800s. They were owned by the Gilded Age tycoons that seized much of the US economy. In this week’s field guide, Quartz reporter Alison Griswold investigates how we might tame big tech today (and perhaps its tycoons).
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 their eventual arrival.
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
Switzerland has an emergency stockpile of coffee. The government decided to keep its 15,000 tons of coffee, following a public outcry.
A runner set a new marathon record. But it has nothing to do with speed. British athlete Nick Butter has now completed the 26.2 mile race in all the UN-recognized countries on earth.
A Patek Philippe watch sold for $31 million. It broke the previous $17.7 million record for the world’s most expensive watch, which had once belonged to Paul Newman.
Australia had an unusually dry day. For the first time in recorded history, not a drop fell on the entire continent.
Egypt dug up a lion mummy. Archaeologists often find mummified cats, but if confirmed, this would be one of the first preserved lions.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, Swiss coffee, and vintage watches to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS or Android, and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Adam Rasmi and Hasit Shah.