Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Toyota and Mazda announce the location of a shared $1.6 billion US assembly plant. The Japanese carmakers will name Alabama as the site, according to multiple reports. Expected to create up to 4,000 jobs, it will be the first new plant announced since Donald Trump—who’s prodded automakers to make more cars in the US—became president.
California’s governor proposes his final state budget. Jerry Brown will set out a spending blueprint, with taxes from marijuana sales—estimated to eventually reach $1 billion a year—factored in for the first time. On Jan. 1 the recreational use of marijuana became legal in California, which has the world’s sixth-largest economy and the US’s largest population.
South Korea’s top nuclear negotiator begins a three-day visit to the US. Lee Do-hoon, Seoul’s chief delegate to the long-stalled six-party nuclear talks, will meet with his US counterpart Joseph Yun to discuss ways to peacefully resolve the North Korea nuclear crisis. His trip follows yesterday’s successful Olympics negotiations between North and South Korea.
While you were sleeping
Steve Bannon was pushed out of Breitbart. The alt-right media company’s executive chairman resigned after losing the support (paywall) of the billionaire Mercer family. Bannon has apologized for questioning Donald Trump’s mental abilities in a blockbuster White House exposé.
A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s decision to end DACA. US district judge William Alsup granted a request by California and other plaintiffs to stop Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while their lawsuits play out in court. The program has protected hundreds of thousands who were brought to the US illegally as children.
Kodak cashed in on the crypto craze. The storied film and camera company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2013, saw its shares rise nearly 120% after announcing the Kodakcoin, a “photocentric cryptocurrency to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management.”
A 7.6 magnitude earthquake rocked the Caribbean. The quake occurred between the coast of Honduras and the Cayman Islands at a depth of about 6 miles (10 km). Authorities warned that people in Puerto Rico, other Caribbean islands, and the coast of Central America should be alert to the danger of possible tsunamis.
Australia posted a record number of job vacancies. They reached 210,300 in the September-November quarter, up 16% from a year earlier, according to the nation’s statistics bureau—the highest since record-keeping began in 1979. Hiring and job growth surged in 2017.
Global stocks had the best start to the year since 2006. Markets in Asia, Europe, and the US have all added to their gains in 2017 as global economic growth continues. Investors have also had few alternatives, with stubbornly low bond yields and lagging growth in alternative assets other than cryptocurrencies.
Quartz obsession interlude
Echo Huang and Tripti Lahiri on the growing space-junk problem. “Many man-made objects remain in space way beyond their useful life, orbiting our planet endlessly and fueling space scientists’ worst nightmares. Since human beings began sending satellites into space in the late 1950s, we’ve been leaving behind trash with every launch. By one estimate there are some 170 million pieces of debris traveling at enormous speeds.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Humans like SUVs because they have friendly faces. Automakers might have capitalized on our proclivity for seeing a humanoid face everywhere we look.
Self-help has turned into self-harm. The industry encourages us to remain unsatisfied with ourselves, and keeps us from remembering who we really are.
Free access to art shapes the world’s culture. Museums without admission fees draw more tourists and increase engagement with lower-income communities.
Surprising discoveries
Robot strippers underwhelmed CES attendees in Las Vegas. Most visitors were either unimpressed by the technology or outraged by the degradation of robo-women.
An electronic pill could shed light on how farts are made. The one-inch capsule analyzes decomposition in the gut to show how the body breaks down food.
Higher temperatures are turning 99% of green sea turtles female. Climate change effects on the Great Barrier Reef are also upping turtle egg mortality rates.
Sales of lipsticks for kids grew six-fold last year in South Korea. Having conquered the market for male grooming, K-beauty companies are now turning to another demographic: children.
Canada’s ice hotel caught on fire. The blaze hospitalized two guests and damaged a room, but the ice structure was remarkably undamaged.
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