What to watch for today
“Super Tuesday” is here. Thirteen states will vote in the single biggest day of the US presidential primary season. Frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton lead the race for their respective parties by double-digit margins in most of the contests.
Apple faces the US Congress. The company’s general counsel Bruce Sewell will warn the House Judiciary Committee that allowing the FBI’s request for access to a terrorist’s iPhone would jeopardize cybersecurity. Apple got a boost yesterday when a New York judge ruled that the iPhone maker is not required to unlock a handset belonging to a drug dealer.
Canada reports its fourth-quarter GDP. The country is struggling to gain momentum due to low oil prices, but most believe its economy will avoid a contraction. Canada entered a technical recession in early 2015.
Germany considers banning a far-right party. The Constitutional Court decides whether the National Democratic Party poses a threat to democratic order. Federal states claim the party’s platform is “essentially identical” to Adolf Hitler’s, but banning it means tampering with constitutional freedom of speech.
Demolition of the Calais refugee camp resumes. About 100 shacks in “the Jungle” were dismantled on Monday, which led to clashes with riot police. Authorities are looking to move them to shipping containers in another part of the site.
While you were sleeping
Barclays faced up to the cost of fines and investigations. The UK bank reported a 2% drop in annual profits to £5.4 billion ($7.5 billion) and cut its dividend by more than half. Barclays chairman John McFarlane said settling claims for various misdeeds was consuming all its profits. It will also sell off its African business after a century on the continent.
The commodities slump hit Glencore. The mining giant will dispose of an additional $4-5 billion in assets and issue new shares after its full-year 2015 profit fell 32% drop to $8.7 billion, in line with expectations. It has also cut copper and zinc production.
LEGO’s expansion beyond bricks is working. The Danish toymaker’s profit for 2015 increased by 31% to 9.2 billion kroner ($1.3 billion) due to sales of its Dimensions game—which combines bricks with the LEGO video games and movies. LEGO’s profit growth is outpacing its US rivals Mattel and Hasbro.
The London Stock Exchange got a new suitor. Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, confirmed it will make a bid for its smaller transatlantic rival, sending LSE shares up 7.5% to a record high. This could scupper the LSE’s planned $27-billion merger with Deutsche Börse.
Investigators leveled new charges against Malaysia’s leader. Najib Razak, the country’s prime minister, received over $1 billion into his personal accounts—hundreds of millions more than was previously estimated, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall). The money appears to have come from a state fund, not from the Saudi royal family, as was previously claimed.
China’s factory gauge hit a seven-year low. The official purchasing manager’s index fell to 49 in February, below the 50 level that separates contraction from expansion and the lowest point since 2009. Services, which China has been relying on to pick up the slack, dropped to an eight-year low.
Quartz obsession interlude
Jeff Yang on how Chris Rock’s Oscar jokes threw Asians under the bus. “For those keeping track at home, that’s an Asian Model Minority stereotype joke wrapped around a gag with a whiff of anti-Semitism (Asians, the new Jews, amirite?) followed by a joke about Asian sweatshops and child labor… It was an unfortunate, embarrassing, and frankly ugly moment.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Two tech firms epitomize the divide between capital and labor. Rich Airbnb hosts are getting richer, while poorer Uber drivers are struggling to get by.
There’s an evolutionary explanation for moral outrage. Loudly denouncing things we find offensive makes us appear more trustworthy (paywall).
Teaching kids to code is too shortsighted. Computational thinking is a whole body of skills, not just one.
Surprising discoveries
South Africa has a solar-powered airport. It serves 600,000 passengers per year.
European disaster training is both bloody and elaborate. It involves an entire custom-built destroyed subway station in London.
There’s a “new Concorde” on the way. NASA asked Lockheed Martin to design a supersonic aircraft by 2020.
Meet the bicycle that will also do your laundry. A Chinese university created a stationary bike that powers an inbuilt washing machine.
The humble teapot is the most important object in computer graphics. For decades it was used to test 3D-rendering software.
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