Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The UN General Assembly begins its annual debate. This year’s theme will be sustainable development goals, with various world leaders addressing the topic in the coming days. Speakers on tap include US president Barack Obama, French president Francois Hollande, UK prime minister Theresa May, and Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
US regulators issue new guidelines on self-driving cars. The rules will require automakers to meet 15 benchmarks before their autonomous vehicles can hit the road, and to make public their vehicle performance assessments so regulators and others can evaluate them. Some rules will take effect immediately, others will await public comment.
FedEx releases its quarterly results. Investors will look for news (pdf) on what kind of boost the package-delivery company has received from the recent collapse of South Korean shipping giant Hanjin, as well as any insights into the economy and the upcoming peak season.
While you were sleeping
The EU-Canada trade deal cleared a hurdle. Proponents of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement overcame resistance in Germany’s Social Democrats party, paving the way for approval in Brussels. Critics liken the agreement to the US’s Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and contend both deals would lead to job losses and lower environmental protection standards.
Uber rival Grab raised $750 million. Softbank Group led the latest funding round for the ride-hailing firm, which has a leading position in Southeast Asia, where it aims to head off competition from Uber. The company is now valued at over $3 billion.
Footage of Oklahoma police fatally shooting an unarmed black man sparked US outrage. Terence Crutcher’s SUV stalled on the way back from music appreciation class at a community college in Tulsa last week. Video from a helicopter and dashboard cams show police tazering and shooting him as he held his arms in the air.
North Korea claimed to have successfully tested rocket technology. Its news agency said the test involved a new kind of high-powered rocket engine. The nation has conducted a string of tests of potential weapons this year, including detonating a type of nuclear warhead earlier this month that could be mounted on ballistic missiles.
GoPro debuted new cameras and a drone. CEO Nick Woodman revealed the new products expected to make or break the company, at an event in California. Karma, the drone announced last December, was supposed to mark a radical shift in the consumer drone market—but it isn’t very different from what’s already out there.
Quartz obsession interlude
Manu Balachandran on Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s sky-high popularity ratings two years in. Since coming to power, Modi has made foreign policy the cornerstone of his administration, traveling to as many as 42 countries and building India’s image as a regional soft power. The exercise is paying dividends at home. Read more here.
Matters of debate
College students are drinking to forget. Competition, stress, and job fears during the school week drive them to black out on the weekends (paywall).
Watching TV can be a kind of therapy. An abundance of shows with idiosyncratic heroes means everyone can find a character (paywall) to connect with.
The world’s most delicate sites can be hurt by preservation efforts. They lead to more tourists coming and destroying them.
Surprising discoveries
What’s hidden inside a former Nazi airplane hangar just outside Berlin? The world’s largest indoor tropical park.
Japan’s population keeps getting grayer. It now has 10.5 million octogenarians—more than the entire population of Sweden.
There are some scary similarities between Tesla’s deadly crashes linked to Autopilot. In the two instances the system appears to have mistaken an object straight ahead for the sky.
Yale’s new application questions are revealing. They show a renewed interest in boosting diversity and inclusion.
British campaigners have laid thousands of life jackets outside Parliament. They are intended to commemorate the refugees who died trying to reach Europe.
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