Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Paralympics begin. Only 12% of tickets have been sold to the sporting events in Rio, which feature thousands of athletes from 161 countries. As a result, the games are facing major budget cuts affecting everything from venues to staffing.
Apple will launch the iPhone 7. The tech behemoth’s new, headphone jack-less iPhones are likely to attract the most attention at its keynote event. Apple Music is also getting a facelift, including the introduction of personalized playlists.
The South African president visits China. Jacob Zuma will use the second Investing in Africa Forum, launched by the China Development Bank, to promote his country as a stable democracy and an attractive place for investors.
While you were sleeping
Fox News will pay Gretchen Carlson $20 million to settle. The company also made a public apology in light of the sexual harassment suit Carlson brought against former Fox chief Roger Ailes.
Two North American pipeline companies agreed to merge. Enbridge plans to buy Spectra Energy for $28 billion in stock, with the goal of becoming the FedEx of the energy pipeline business. The news comes on the heels of several other major energy-sector mergers.
Barack Obama expressed regret over the Laos bombings. As the first sitting US president to visit Laos, Obama said his country had “a moral obligation to help Laos heal” after secretly bombing it during the Vietnam War. He pledged $90 million to remove unexploded bombs over three years.
The Syrian government dropped chlorine gas in Aleppo. Activists and rescue workers allege that government airplanes dropped chlorine bombs in parts of the city controlled by rebels. A report sent to journalists via SMS said that at least 71 people were treated for breathing difficulties and dry cough, and that their clothes smelled of the gas.
Bill Cosby was assigned a trial date. The comedian, accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women over the course of his career, is scheduled to face prosecutors over the alleged rape of a Pennsylvania woman on June 5, 2017. Prosecutors are hoping the judge will allow more than a dozen other accusers to testify.
Quartz markets haiku
Summer is now over
It’s time to pay attention
To anxious markets
Quartz obsession interlude
Katherine Ellen Foley on the case against protein powder. ”When we distill protein—or any technically good nutrient—we lose out on so much more. As science writer Michael Pollan pointed out in his book In Defense of Food, often when we think about nutrition, we forget that we’re actually talking about food. What we eat has become so processed to concentrate things like protein and minimize things like fat, that in many cases we’re left with ‘edible foodlike substances’—not food.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Government officials’ emails should stay private. Public officials need to be able to communicate with each other openly and honestly about pressing issues.
Stop Googling your symptoms. Looking up that mysterious cough could make it harder to get an accurate diagnosis.
Harambe is the ideal meme. The image of the 17-year-old gorilla who was shot by a Cincinnati Zoo worker went viral because it was inherently meaningless, so it could be imbued with whatever message we wanted.
Surprising discoveries
Women do ask for raises—they just don’t get them. A new study shows that women are just as likely as men to ask for more money. The problem is they get turned down more often.
An online beauty contest shows our algorithms are biased. When artificial intelligence judged the attractiveness of people’s photos, the vast majority of winners were white.
Native English speakers use a particular order with their adjectives. They instinctively describe things in the order of opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, and purpose.
The giant panda is no longer endangered. The population of cuddly bears is on the upswing thanks to the Chinese government’s reforestation and forest protection efforts.
An Alabama library wants to send bad borrowers to jail. Patrons with overdue books could find themselves behind bars if the library succeeds in enforcing a strict new policy.
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