Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Asia’s biggest tech summit opens. American attendance at the RISE conference in Hong Kong is expected to be double what it was last year. With the US visa program straining the tech labor pool, companies are looking at Asia not just as a market opportunity but also as an operational haven.
The embattled CEO of Mt. Gox goes to court in Tokyo. Mark Karpelès faces embezzlement charges stemming from the stunning 2014 failure of his bitcoin exchange, which left hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for.
PepsiCo releases its second-quarter earnings. After two years of declining revenue, the company has reported steady growth for the past two quarters, though its full-year target may still prove difficult to reach. Pepsi execs credit its growth to a pivot to healthy products like probiotics and organic Gatorade.
While you were sleeping
Trump canceled “startup visas.” The Obama-era program set to kick off next week would have allowed non-citizen entrepreneurs who launch companies in the US to also live there. The Trump administration said it would delay the program until March and may rescind it all together.
World powers debated next moves on North Korea. As Japan and its allies push Russia to help curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, the White House is considering another route: placing sanctions on Chinese firms and banks (paywall) it suspects support North Korea.
A glitch caused India’s biggest stock exchange to crash. India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) was down for five hours in an embarrassing event ahead of its IPO. The NSE is already facing a regulatory probe over rumors that some traders were provided unfair access.
Abercrombie & Fitch shares plunged 20% after it called off merger negotiations. Once a youth fashion mainstay, the struggling retailer was being eyed for acquisition by Express Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc.
The US Congress returned from recess. Republicans have three weeks to rally around their health care bill. Late last week, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said that if they fail to pass repeal-and-replace legislation, they might need to work with Democrats on revising Obamacare instead.
Quartz obsession interlude
Zoë Schlanger on how a lesbian seagull discovery shook up conservatives in the 1970s. “Complaints came in from all over the country. One group out of New York (the LA Times called it an ‘unscientific citizens task force’) published a statement proclaiming that ‘100% of the sea gulls in the five boroughs of New York City were heterosexual.’” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Snapchat’s messages / Vanish. Just like the stock gains / Since its IPO
Matters of debate
Jawbone is the poster child for Silicon Valley self-sabotage. The wearable electronics company raised massive amounts of funding—and that became its biggest problem.
Starting questions with “how might we…” is the secret to a successful brainstorm. IDEO, Facebook, and Google use the phrase to inspire open-minded, unintimidating ideation.
The real fight in TV streaming wars is over kids. Traditional networks are scrambling to keep up with the kid-friendly offerings of Netflix and HBO.
Surprising discoveries
Robot psychologist may be a job in the future. Applying cognitive science to neural networks can help us understand how AI thinks (paywall).
A New Jersey museum found a cache of wine almost as old as America. The 1796 Madeira was intended to toast John Adams’s presidency.
Archaeologists found a 200,000-year-old baby tooth. It belonged to a young girl from a mysterious extinct human lineage, which may have mated with the Neanderthals.
A third of millennials have used Venmo to pay for drugs. The PayPal-owned company says using the service for gambling or illicit payments violates its terms of service.
Losing your sense of smell may help you lose weight. Mice that can’t smell seem to burn more of a specific kind of fat.
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