| |  | President Donald Trump leaves a press conference at the United Nations Wednesday. Source: Getty |
| | IMPORTANT | | 01 | Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are preparing for a fight following the release of a transcript that showed President Donald Trump urging his Ukrainian counterpart to probe alleged corruption by Trump’s Democratic rivals. While critics say the request — which followed a suspension of U.S. aid to Ukraine — was a “shakedown,” most Republicans have dismissed that claim. Either way, Washington’s fourth-ever impeachment investigation will likely define the political debate in the weeks and months to come. What about the whistleblower? Congress is hoping for an in-person interview with the unnamed intelligence official whose complaint triggered the scandal. | |
| | 02 | After last week’s deadlocked election, President Reuven Rivlin has formally asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling coalition within six weeks. But that will be difficult: Chief rival Benny Gantz has already refused to join a Netanyahu-led government, citing the corruption charges that Israel’s longest-serving leader is currently facing. What if Bibi fails? That could send Israel into an unprecedented third election within a year and severely damage trust among voters, experts say. Read OZY’s Special Briefing on Israel’s newest political influencers. | |
| | 03 | Returning to Parliament yesterday, the British prime minister urged lawmakers to either hold a no-confidence vote or call a new general election. But he was also chided for his inflammatory language after suggesting that failure to support his agenda amounts to surrender or betrayal. The chamber erupted into a debate that Speaker John Bercow described as “worse than any I’ve known.” What would happen without Johnson? Even if he’s toppled, a replacement government would have only weeks to hammer out a Brexit extension with the European Union — assuming, of course, it can sort out who’s in charge. | |
| | 04 | Amid state and federal scrutiny over hundreds of vaping-related illnesses, Kevin Burns abruptly announced yesterday that he’d resign from the embattled e-cigarette company. Juul, which helped make vaping a popular alternative to tobacco cigarettes, also said it would pull the plug on U.S. advertising and wouldn’t fight a proposed federal ban on flavored e-cigarettes. Meanwhile, talks of a merger between tobacco giants Altria, which owns a 35 percent stake in Juul, and Philip Morris were called off. What’s next? Some suggest that playing ball with the Trump administration could help Juul thwart a broader ban on all its products. | |
| | 05 | French ex-President Jacques Chirac has died at the age of 86. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly told PBS that he’s responsible for last year’s murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, since “it happened under my watch.” And actor Samuel L. Jackson has agreed to provide his voice to Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant. #OZYfact: About 40 percent of America’s food — responsible for greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 37 million cars — is wasted. Read more on OZY. OZY is hiring! We’re looking for an analytical and globally minded reporter to sniff out today’s most important stories in science, technology and health. Check out our jobs page and read the description here. |
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| | | INTRIGUING | | 01 | New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, became the last one to decriminalize abortion as lawmakers passed a contentious bill yesterday that officially removed the procedure from the Crimes Act. The much-amended bill finally appeased conservative lawmakers and secured Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s majority, which was threatened after rebel MPs warned they could defect. How did they get there? On the road to passage, the measure became the third-longest debated bill in the history of the upper house — with 102 amendments and deliberations lasting for five days. Read OZY’s Fast Forward about why Morocco is a battleground for abortion. | |
| | 02 | The online dating company took advantage of fake accounts to entice subscriptions, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Federal Trade Commission. It alleges that non-paying users were sent notifications about potential matches and were told they had to subscribe to see the sender’s identity and messages. But in many cases, those messages were actually from accounts that had been identified as fraudulent. The FTC claims Match’s methods led to nearly 500,000 new subscriptions between 2016 and 2018. What does the agency want? It hopes to secure compensation for subscribers who paid up based on fraudulent messages from known scammers. | |
| | 03 | Even as President Trump’s trade war cripples Chinese industry, pop culture knock-offs from Taylor Swift albums to Friends DVDs have helped keep local perception of the U.S. high. But while American soft power may be working in China, it’s not a two-way street, OZY reports: U.S. perceptions of China have plunged 40 percent since 2017, with only 26 percent of those surveyed seeing the country in a positive light. Why is that the case? Some experts suggest America’s long-standing cultural influence has helped ward off assumptions that the U.S. is out to destroy China — while negative press about Huawei, for instance, has done the exact opposite in the United States. | |
| | 04 | The climate crisis has made global bodies of water warmer, more acidic and less oxygenated, according a new report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. For decades, the world’s oceans have absorbed carbon and excess heat like a sponge, but increasing water temperatures have led to rising sea levels and more frequent storms of catastrophic proportions. How are humans impacted? Warming oceans threaten not just marine species, but the food security of billions of people — while rapidly rising sea levels threaten to displace entire communities. Don’t miss OZY’s original series, The New Frontiers of Climate Change. | |
| | 05 | An early Renaissance painting by Florentine artist Cimabue — a small panel titled Christ Mocked — was discovered hanging above a hotplate in the kitchen of an elderly French woman, who apparently had no clue of its origin. Auctioneer Philomène Wolf stumbled upon the lost masterpiece while readying the nonagenarian’s home for sale. Researchers believe the panel belongs to a polyptych created around 1280, but only two other sections of the work are known to have survived. What’s the painting worth? Experts say it’ll sell for upward of $6 million at auction Oct. 27. | |
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| | Caught Up? Now Vault Ahead ... | | To get more fresh stories and bold ideas in your inbox, check out The Daily Dose. | | Fast Forward Can sleekly packaged juices and snacks made from produce waste convince the West to throw away less food? | |
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