Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Venezuela protests against its president. An opposition coalition has organized a “Takeover of Caracas” to contest Nicolás Maduro’s crackdown on opposition leaders, amid severe shortages, crime, and rampant inflation.
The WHO committee on Zika meets. The emergency committee, which convenes every three months, will discuss efforts to fight the disease, after Singapore confirmed 26 new cases (paywall) of locally transmitted infections, amounting to the largest cluster in Asia.
Banks adopt global collateral rules for swaps market. Swap-dealing divisions of US and Japanese banks are expected to comply with hundreds of pages of restrictions set out by global regulators starting Sept. 1. The EU, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia are lagging behind.
While you were sleeping
Irish parliament punted a decision on Apple’s tax bill. The country’s cabinet could not come to an agreement about whether to appeal the European Commission’s ruling that the US tech giant must pay back more than €13 billion ($14.5 billion) in unpaid taxes. Dublin has two months to make up its mind.
Brazil ousted its president. The Brazilian senate voted to impeach embattled leader Dilma Rousseff for violating budget rules to hide the size of the ballooning national deficit. The impeachment, which long divided the country, is the final stroke (paywall) in the disastrous fall from grace of the Worker’s Party of Brazil.
The US kicked off an historic commercial flight to Cuba. The JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Santa Clara—the first commercial flight between the two countries in over 50 years—will be followed by about 300 flights a week.
Ali Bongo was re-elected as Gabon’s president. With 49.8% of the vote, incumbent Bongo secured his family’s continued 50-year rule. His rival, the former head of the African Union commission Jean Ping, rejected the result and demanded a recount, raising concerns that violence may follow.
Donald Trump paid Mexico a visit. Following his last-minute trip to meet Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, presumably to assuage US Latino voters, the US Republican nominee said they discussed the wall he wants to build along the southern border, but not which country would pay.
Quartz Markets Haiku
The climber stumbles
After a long upward slog
He rests, and climbs on
Quartz obsession interlude
Lauren Alix Brown on what the hospital of the future sounds like. “The goal of changing the soundscape of hospitals isn’t to cover up suffering, but rather to make them more healing environments for those who work and receive treatment there. We may never get to a place where a hospital has the full comfort of home, but this is sounding like a start.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Naked breasts are more French than headscarves. In a speech at a government rally, French prime minister Manual Valls called the bare breasts of painter Eugène Delacroix’s Marianne a national symbol of freedom, inferring a contrast with the Muslim attire.
Hair is political. Rigid policies banning afros and unfairly policing black students in South African schools are a dangerous holdover from apartheid.
Facebook thinks ”media company” is a dirty word. Sorry to burst Mark Zuckerberg’s bubble but distributing content and controlling the world’s news coverage is the definition of media.
Surprising discoveries
Only half of America thinks schools are for academics. The remainder think they’re either about building work skills or fulfilling civic duties.
NASA space blankets are keeping refugees warm. The reflective, flyweight, plastic sheets used after marathons and to protect refugees were originally used to shield space crafts from harsh space environments.
Upbeat music helps co-workers collaborate. Retailers toil endlessly over music’s effect on shoppers, but its positive vibes also apply in the office.
Sharia and Fifa don’t mix. ISIL has outlawed football referees in a Syrian stronghold, suggesting that the organization implements rules “in violation of the commands of Allah.”
Ryan Lochte is making a comeback after Rio 2016. The US swimmer, who admitted to lying about being a robbery victim at the Olympics, secured an endorsement deal with a crime prevention device maker.
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