Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Apple v. Samsung heads to the US Supreme Court. Justices will hear arguments in a years-long dispute to determine whether Samsung must pay Apple $400 million for copying the iPhone’s round edges and icon grid. The last time the court heard a design-patent case was more than 100 years ago.
Driverless cars hit British roads. The first public trial of these tiny UK-designed electric cars, developed by the Oxford Robotics Institute, is being hailed as a ground-breaking moment.
US earnings season kicks off. It unofficially starts with Alcoa, the US aluminum giant. This will be the 128-year-old company’s last earnings call before it splits in two, sending a newly formed parts business into the fumbling aerospace industry on its own.
While you were sleeping
Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 7—for good. Samsung halted sales of the defective fire-prone phone, and told customers to immediately power down and stop using it after replacement models began overheating too. Analysts say this effectively spells the end of the Note 7 and estimate it will cost the company up to $17 billion in lost sales. Samsung shares suffered their biggest one-day drop (paywall)—down 8%—since 2008 on Tuesday.
Singapore shut down a Swiss bank. The Singaporean central bank ordered the 50-year-old Falcon Private Bank to cease operations in the city-state as part of the ongoing investigation into the 1MDB Malaysian state fund scandal. This is the second Swiss bank to be shut down by the Singaporean regulators—BSI was ordered to shut in May.
A Russian bank has already abandoned the UK, years before Brexit. State-owned VTB is the first big bank to announce it will move its European headquarters out of Britain because of the country’s vote to leave the EU. VTB chief Herbert Moos said Frankfurt, Paris, or Vienna (paywall) were on the cards as a potential new European base.
LVMH found money in its purse. The French luxury-goods group surprised analysts and bucked the industry’s downwards trend with a 6% rise in sales in the third quarter, buoyed by demand—especially in Asia—for its perfumes and leather goods. Its shares got a 5% boost on the news in Paris on Tuesday morning.
Airbus announced plans to cut its A380 production. From 2018 on, it will assemble just one per month, rather than maintain the current rate of 2.5 per month. Sales of the world’s biggest passenger plane have been struggling thanks to competition from smaller aircraft, which are both easier to fill and more fuel-efficient.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford on how Donald Trump is breaking US democracy. “The debate format simply isn’t designed for the level of deceit and ugliness Trump brings to the US presidential race. And neither, we’re seeing, is American democracy. The system presumes that though candidates differ in their views, they ultimately respect the electoral process and the voters they aim to represent.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
To stop climate change, take three-day weekends. Working fewer hours cuts commutes, air-conditioning, and general use of electricity.
China is paying for Britain’s nuclear deterrent. The controversial, partially Chinese-funded Hinkley Point project allows the UK government to “mask” (paywall) investment in its nuclear submarines.
Nature deserves legal rights. Just like businesses and corporations.
Surprising discoveries
US military researchers are investigating using blockchain technology. They could secure nuclear weapons.
South Asian slang has officially entered the English lexicon. But the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition for “aiyo” doesn’t begin to cover its myriad meanings in India and Sri Lanka.
There’s an Olympic medal for making breakfast with a bionic arm. The inaugural “bionic Olympics” in Switzerland also involves a race to climb stairs with bionic legs.
Lobster rolls may stop being an affordable luxury. Wholesale prices have hit their highest levels in a decade (paywall).
A dolphin thought to be extinct may still be around. Conservationists say they spotted the Chinese white dolphin in the Yangtze river last week.
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