Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
Make-or-break time for Spain’s Socialists. They meet on Sunday to decide whether to let the conservative People’s Party form a minority government. They’ve vetoed it so far, but if there’s no government by Oct. 31, after 10 months of political deadlock, it will trigger the third general election in a year, which could hurt the Socialists even more.
An alleged data thief gets a day in court. Harold Martin, a contractor for the US National Security Agency, is accused of stealing over 50 terabytes of classified information over two decades, possibly the biggest such theft in history. Prosecutors, who say they will charge him under the Espionage Act, will argue against giving him bail at today’s detention hearing.
The UN Human Rights Council is holding a special session on Aleppo. The UN human-rights chief has told the meeting war crimes are being committed in the besieged Syrian city and called for the International Criminal Court to get involved. Rebels have rejected a unilateral ceasefire that the Syrian military announced yesterday.
Earnings: Daimler, General Electric, and McDonald’s are among the companies reporting quarterly results.
While you were sleeping
Theresa May got a frosty reception. The British leader clashed with her European counterparts in her first EU summit, where she was only allowed to give a brief update on Brexit over dinner. May told the remaining 27 leaders not to hold summits without the UK (it has held two informal meetings since Brexit). Get used to it, European Council president Donald Tusk told her.
One tobacco company to rule them all. British American Tobacco made a $47 billion offer for the remaining stake—roughly 58%—of US tobacco maker Reynolds American. If successful, the deal would create the world’s biggest listed tobacco company by revenue and market value.
Pakistan banned all Indian TV shows on its networks. The tit-for-tat measures that have just gone into force are part of a deterioration in relations between India and Pakistan since September, when 17 Indian soldiers were killed at an Indian army camp. The two countries officially suspended peace talks in April.
ISIL hit back in Iraq. The terrorist group raided government buildings in the city of Kirkuk, before eventually being pushed out by Iraqi security forces. The attack follows a large-scale government operation to retake Mosul, a couple of hours to the northwest, from ISIL.
The Philippines tried to mollify the US. A day after president Rodrigo Duterte announced “my separation from the United States” at a summit in Beijing, trade minister Ramon Lopez insisted that “the president did not talk about separation” and that economic ties would continue. Another official said there’s ”no rush for us to interpret” Duterte’s remarks.
Donald Trump’s jokes fell flat. The Republican nominee was booed and heckled for calling Hillary Clinton “corrupt” and saying she hated Catholics at a bipartisan annual fundraiser for Catholic charities, where presidential candidates traditionally make lighthearted jabs at themselves and each other. Seems Trump didn’t get the ”lighthearted” memo.
Quartz markets haiku
Insurers are glum.
Travelers slumps, and MetLife
Yanks the ball away.
Quartz obsession interlude
Eshe Nelson on how the the rise of global protectionism will hurt stocks. “For decades, stocks have had a ‘globalization premium’ that boosted their prices. Now the slowdown in global trade and rise of protectionist policies could cut into expectations for future corporate earnings, dealing the stock market a nasty wallop.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Donald Trump is the first candidate of the climate-change era. The geopolitical changes caused by global warming will bring more demagogues to power.
Straight men should wear cosmetics. They would look better, and also appreciate the effort that women make to look “professional.”
The West, along with liberal democracy, is in decline. To restore peace, nations need to strive for greater integration (paywall) and calm fears about globalization.
Surprising discoveries
Fed up with bike thieves? Make them puke. Two cyclists claim to have created a bike lock that releases vomit-inducing gases if a thief tries to break it.
Donald Trump’s debate insults were great for Janet Jackson. Streams of her 1986 hit song “Nasty” spiked on Spotify.
Coconut oil is not that healthy after all. The trendy new superfood could increase cholesterol levels and harm the heart.
Scientists might have finally found a cure for the common cold. A new vaccine is showing promising results in animal trials.
Sweden is trying to revive repair shops. It’s offering tax breaks to citizens who fix, rather than replace, broken consumer products.
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