Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
The EU’s foreign affairs chief heads to Ankara… The visit by Federica Mogherini and other ministers will be the first by high-ranking EU officials since a failed military coup in July. Talking points will include a recent deal wherein the EU provides aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey in exchange for curbing their migration toward Europe.
…while its money men convene in Bratislava. Finance ministers and central bank governors will meet in the Slovakian capital today and tomorrow to discuss a euro zone fund that could stave off economic tumult, as proposed by the new EU presidency in Slovakia.
Indians brace for surge pricing on trains. High-traffic festivals like Diwali and Eid are just around the corner, and citizens are already criticizing rising fares on some of the most popular rail routes, including Rajdhani, Duranto, and Shatabdi.
While you were sleeping
North Korea conducted another nuclear test. North Korea’s state broadcaster confirmed the test, after a 5.3 magnitude earthquake was recorded where the Pyongyang regime had previously tested nuclear weapons. Kim Jong-un’s third nuclear test is to protest international sanctions levied after other tests, state media said.
NASA launched a spacecraft to save the world from an asteroid. The $800 million OSIRIS-REx spacecraft shot up at 12:05am BST. Over the next four years, it will target asteroid Bennu, which could get disastrously close to Earth by the start of the 22nd century.
About 50 tourists were stranded overnight in the French Alps. A set of cable cars covering a five km stretch between France’s Aiguille du Midi and the Italian border stopped working, leaving 110 tourists suspended. Helicopters transported 60 to safety before nightfall, but the remainder still await their rescue.
China’s producer price index was its least bad in four years. Government data tracking the cost of manufactured goods out the factory gate showed prices declined just 0.8% through the month of August, indicating that the flagging economy might be stabilizing. Consumer price inflation climbed 1.3%, slightly below July’s increase.
The US airline regulator strongly advised against using Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7. The Federal Aviation Administration urged passengers to not use or charge the smartphones aboard flights, and banned the devices from checked luggage. Reports of the gadgets catching fire caused the company to issue a global recall last week.
Quartz markets haiku
Sub-zero rates are
Really weird. Even weirder?
The policy works
Quartz obsession interlude
Ilaria Maria Sala on the surprising endurance of the “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong. “In many ways, the combination of Hong Kong with China has been like a marriage between two near-strangers, one of whom was brought to the altar without being asked their opinion, and where the power balance is fatally skewed.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Apple is doing something extraordinary for music. The switch to Lightning ports in all its new devices will encourage audio developers to create innovative, better-sounding ways to listen to tunes.
Pet ownership is morally unjust. Keeping a pet—even one that has been rescued—violates the fundamental rights of animals.
Robots may replace our need for sex, but they’ll never love us. No matter how realistic artificial intelligence becomes, we will never be able to teach machines true human intimacy.
Surprising discoveries
Hermit crabs are using trash as shells. They curl up inside discarded plastic bottle caps.
Betty Pack was the original James Bond. The globetrotting British spy used seduction to obtain French and Italian naval codes during World War 2.
There are four distinct species of giraffes. Each type most likely evolved from a single ancestor.
Predator beetles could save the dying hemlock forests. Beetles may be the only creature capable of defeating the woolly adelgid, a sap-sucking pest that’s destroying trees in the northeastern US.
Morroco’s mosques are going green. The government is helping hundreds of mosques install energy-saving lights and solar panel systems.
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