What to watch for today
Syria peace talks resume. Negotiations were halted last month, but the UN Special Envoy hopes that a partial ceasefire, backed by the US and Russia, will advance talks to end the war.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau arrives in Washington. It’s the first state visit by a Canadian leader in almost 20 years. He will meet with president Barack Obama to discuss key economic issues (paywall).
Google’s artificial intelligence takes on the Go world champion. The game, which is based on intuition and much more complicated than chess, will test the DeepMind AI’s abilities against a human expert.
While you were sleeping
The US said it’s in talks to base long-range bombers in Australia. The planes would be within striking distance of the South China Sea. That news will likely inflame a testy China, which claims most of the sea and has been militarizing parts of it.
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump had big nights. Sanders won the Michigan Democratic primary and restored his momentum, though Hillary Clinton won in Mississippi and took home the most delegates for the night. On the Republican side Trump won in Mississippi and Michigan and celebrated with “Trump meat.“
A Palestinian killed an American graduate student in Tel Aviv. Nine others were wounded by the knife-wielding attacker. The assault, along with several others in Israel, coincided with the arrival of US vice president Joe Biden to meet with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Male leaders bungled International Women’s Day. Russia’s Vladimir Putin said women “possess a mysterious power… yet remain tender, unforgettable, and full of charm.” Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “a woman is above all a mother,” and Cambodia’s Hun Sen quipped about the need for a men’s rights group.
A solar eclipse delighted many in the Eastern Hemisphere. Great photos came in from Indonesia, Cambodia, and elsewhere. A crew from the Exploratorium in San Francisco traveled 63 hours with tons of equipment to the Micronesian island of Woleai to capture the moment.
Quartz obsession interlude
Anne Quito on why female architects are being closed out of their own profession. “New York City architect Yen Ha says that discrimination comes from all sides—clients, brokers, engineers and most consistently from contractors. At one project kick-off meeting, she recalls a real estate agent telling a contractor, ‘I’ll have the real architect send the plans to you.’” Read more here.
Quartz markets haiku
Past the horizon
The catlike future crouches
Matters of debate
The US needs a feminist foreign policy… As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton made environmentally friendly cookstoves an instrument of foreign diplomacy.
… And the corporate world needs more female leaders. Companies with a larger share of women in senior roles are more profitable, according to IMF research.
Game-based learning is the future of education. Teachers want technology like virtual reality headsets to be incorporated into the classroom.
Surprising discoveries
Donald Trump might be bringing in shockingly little income. He filed for a $300 tax break that only applies to couples making less than $500,000 a year.
Bill Gates is bummed he never got to ride a hoverboard. He listed them among dangerous technologies in a conversation on Reddit.
Syria’s first cosmonaut is now a refugee in Turkey. Muhammed Faris is a national hero who went to space as part of a Soviet program in the 1980s.
Grand Central’s clocks are wrong on purpose. The New York City train station sets them one minute ahead to hasten along commuters.
Alaska Airlines went out of its way to catch the solar eclipse. An Anchorage to Honolulu flight changed its departure time to allow passengers (among them astronomers) to see it from the air.
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