Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Theresa May’s big Brexit brainstorm. The British prime minister and her cabinet hold their first serious planning session for Britain’s departure from the EU since the June referendum. May has asked ministers to bring suggestions on how to reset the EU-UK relationship, before she triggers Article 50 (to officially leave the bloc) next year.
Donald Trump heads to Mexico. Despite mocking the country repeatedly, the Republican nominee accepted an invitation to meet privately with president Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City. He’ll then head to Arizona to give a much-anticipated speech clarifying his immigration policy, which may just end up leaving people even more confused.
Decision day for Dilma Rousseff. The Brazilian senate will vote on impeaching the suspended president, after months of hearings and debate. If a two-thirds majority votes to impeach her, acting president Michel Temer will stay in place until January 2019. Brazil’s lawmakers are hardly paragons of virtue either, though.
While you were sleeping
Amazon Dash launched in Britain. Forty-eight brands are signed up for the ordering service, which lets consumers press a button in their homes and send through an order for staple groceries to Amazon. It is slowly catching on in the US, and could give the UK’s already embattled supermarkets something new to worry about.
Nigeria went into a recession. Having recently lost its title as Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria suffered the indignity of contracting for the second consecutive quarter—a technical recession—due to low oil prices, attacks on pipelines, and surging inflation. The weakening of the naira against the dollar also hit the non-oil sector hard.
ISIL said one of its key leaders was killed in Aleppo. An ISIL-affiliated news agency said US-led airstrikes had killed Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, whom the Pentagon describes as the ”principal architect of ISIL external operations.” Adnani regularly encouraged his followers to carry out attacks on civilians in France, like the one that killed a French police commander in June.
Typhoon Lionrock struck Japan hard. At least 11 people died, homes were submerged, and hundreds of residents were left stranded in Iwate and Hokkaido, northern Japan. The Iwate area is still trying to get back on its feet after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Myanmar’s minorities convened for peace talks. Representatives from 17 ethnic groups that have been fighting for decades for more autonomy agreed to put down their arms and hold preliminary talks, led by state counsellor Aung Sang Suu Kyi and UN general secretary Ban Ki-moon. A full peace process could take years.
Quartz obsession interlude
Thu Huong-Ha on how today’s two biggest role models for young readers are total wusses. “Pre-pubescent loser Greg Heffley is irreverent, whiny, and mediocre in school. He has few moral scruples, and his main activities are sarcasm and complaining. Hardly the kind of friend you’d want for your kids, or even for yourself, yet he’s one of the most popular characters in fiction.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Donald Trump has made hate speech normal. The US Republican nominee’s legacy will be to give people permission to make baseless, bigoted comments in public without fear of repercussion.
Bitcoin’s enemies are benefiting the most from its existence. Big banks are capitalizing on it, even as infighting among its users jeopardizes the currency’s future.
Moving to a new city does not make you happier. Starting over in a new town just makes your life different, not better.
Surprising discoveries
The US Senate has a candy stash. Stocking a drawer with sweets in one of the Senate chamber’s 100 desks (a Republican desk, since you ask) is a tradition dating back to 1965.
The 10th world gravy wrestling championship took place this week. The event sees British people in fancy dress grapple in 1,000 liters of gravy.
German cops are finally getting tasers. Berlin will be the first state to arm its regular officers with the weapons, which so far have been limited to special units.
Naked breasts are more representative of France than a headscarf. So said the French prime minister, referring to Marianne, the bare-chested symbol of the French Republic.
Sixty percent of South Asia’s groundwater is too contaminated to use. Salinity and arsenic in a major regional river basin that serves 750 million people make it undrinkable and unusable for irrigation.
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