Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
World leaders descend on New York. The fate of the world’s 21 million refugees is on the United Nations General Assembly’s agenda, while arrivals of diplomats and politicians will likely cause “the worst traffic jam” possible for midtown Manhattan. Separately, the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative kicks off.
France holds a day of tribute for terrorism victims. President François Hollande will give a speech in Paris in the nation’s first major memorial event (link in French) honoring those lost in attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, Bastille Day festivities in Nice, and Charlie Hebdo magazine.
Twitter allows longer tweets. If all goes to plan, starting today the social media service will stop counting ancillary items—including photos, GIFs, user handles, and more—as part of its 140-character limit.
Over the weekend
Terror fears hit the US. Five people have been detained (paywall) following the pressure-cooker bomb that injured 29 people in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night. Authorities also found five more explosive devices near a train station in New Jersey. Meanwhile, ISIL claimed that the man who stabbed eight people in a mall in Minnesota on Saturday was one of its “soldiers.”
Male actors playing women won at the Emmy Awards. Jeffrey Tambor won lead actor in a comedy for his portrayal of a transgender woman in Amazon’s Transparent. Louie Anderson won best supporting actor in a comedy for playing a mother in FX’s Baskets. Tatiana Maslany, an actual woman, won lead actress in a drama for BBC America’s Orphan Black, while Game of Thrones became the most-awarded show in Emmy history.
German anti-immigration populists won in Berlin. The state election on Sunday saw chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffer big losses, while the right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland got enough votes—14%—to gain representation. The AfD will now have representatives in 10 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments.
Samsung scrambled for cash. Samsung’s recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones—thanks to multiple reports of the product catching fire—has left the company desperate for cash. The South Korean giant has sold off stakes (paywall) in several other tech companies to pay for costs associated with the recall.
An Iranian para-cyclist died during a race. Bahman Golbarnezhad crashed on a mountainous slope in Saturday’s C4-5 road race and died in the hospital. The Rio Paralympics’ closing ceremony held a moment of silence in his memory. In the end, China triumphed at the Paralympics with 107 gold medals. The UK was second with 64.
A US airstrike endangered the Syrian ceasefire. The US and Russia brokered a week-long truce in the war-torn country last week in order to conduct a joint campaign against extremist groups. But an airstrike carried out by the US, meant for the Islamic State but hitting Syrian government forces instead, angered Russia and caused the latter to call an emergency UN meeting. The ceasefire has now expired; there has been no announcement of an extension.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford on how Trump’s child care plan leaves women further behind. “By providing paid leave for women but not men, the Republican candidate’s plan perpetuates the idea that a father, not a mother, should sacrifice time with his new baby to keep working. When the government values women’s child care labor more highly than men’s, it gives businesses no reason to treat men and women equally in the workplace.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
China and the US need a new plan for North Korea. Current strategies for dealing with the country’s nuclear threats are clearly not working.
Behind the debate of Trump and Clinton’s health lies a real problem. In the US, rich white people are still invariably healthier than low-income minorities.
Older people cannot stop Donald Trump. This is a job for the young.
Surprising discoveries
Never have so many Americans been so rich. The number of US households with more than $5 million in investable assets just crossed the 1 million mark.
Music makes beer taste better. A new study confirms what pubs and concert venues have perhaps always known.
More people in the UK are being rescued by the fire services as they are too fat to move on their own. “Bariatric” rescues have increased by a third in the past three years.
A goldfish got a life-saving surgery. An Australian woman paid $500 to have a pebble removed from the fish’s throat.
One in five CEOs are psychopaths, a study says. Key characteristics include an inability to empathize, superficiality, and insincerity.
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