Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
EU leaders convene over the Iran nuclear deal. Britain, France, and Germany will reaffirm their support for the deal, which has been rejected by Donald Trump. The meeting comes right before a deadline for the US to decide whether it will reimpose oil sanctions lifted under the agreement.
Theresa May meets with bank bosses to talk Brexit. Britain’s prime minister is scheduled to convene with London’s finance heads to discuss what an exit from the EU means for them. The meeting comes amid concerns that Brexit will topple the UK from its important European financial hub status.
Japan’s foreign minister heads to Myanmar. Taro Kono is kicking off an 8-day trip to Myanmar, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada with a visit to Naypyidaw, where he will meet the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. He is expected to pressure Myanmar’s government on human rights issues concerning the country’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
While you were sleeping
Mudslides leveled Southern California. At least 15 are dead and more than two dozen are missing as rain-driven mudslides sweep Santa Barbara County. Rescue crews continue to search the area, which was stripped by massive wildfires a few months back.
Warren Buffett hinted at his succession plan. Berkshire Hathaway promoted two top executives, Gregory Abel and Ajit Jain, to vice chairman positions. The move cements their status as the most likely successors of the $500 billion conglomerate, although Buffet says it is in no way related to his health.
Trump blasted a federal judge’s DACA ruling. The US president called the US court system “broken and unfair” after a judge ordered the administration to temporarily restart a program that protects young, undocumented immigrants from deportation. Lawmakers face a March 5 deadline to address the end of the DACA program.
ICE agents descended on dozens of 7-Eleven stores in the US. Immigration enforcement officials searched around 100 stores nationwide in the largest ever operation against an employer during Trump’s presidency. A top immigration official said the action was “the first of many” and “a harbinger of what’s to come” for employers.
New York City filed a suit against Big Oil over climate change. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration announced it was suing five major oil companies (paywall)—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell—and is pushing for the city’s pension funds to divest from fossil fuel.
Quartz obsession interlude
Ephrat Livni on how the key to peace and self-acceptance lies in understanding 3.5 billion years of life on Earth: “We accept dominant narratives that divide people into tribes, colors, ideology, and geography. We behave as if the planet was created for humankind, as if little people, with our tiny differences, are the point of all creation. With this narrative comes damaging psychological baggage that isolates us from one another and from our responsibilities to a shared planet.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The way we talk about sexting is sexist. Parents and teachers often focus on telling girls that they shouldn’t send nudes—instead of telling boys that asking for nudes is wrong.
Asteroid mining is about water, not valuable minerals. Extracting water from asteroids and using it to make rocket propellant in space will make space travel cheaper.
Supply drives the opioid epidemic. A new study shows that opioid availability is more strongly linked to abuse of readily available drugs than economic decline.
Surprising discoveries
Japan has a crypto-girl group. Members of Kasotsuka Shojo (“The Virtual Currency Girls”) represent different cryptocurrencies, and the group’s first single warns against fraudulent crypto-operators.
New York’s Penn Station is a disaster waiting to happen. The century-old walls of the two Hudson River tunnels connected to the station are slowly crumbling.
Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany is an accidental bestseller. Thanks to Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, the 2008 book is topping charts—but it’s about World War II, not the White House.
Most of Heathrow’s 79,000 noise complaints come down to just 10 people. More than half of them came from the towns of Slough and Richmond.
Teenagers in rich countries are better behaved. They drink less, avoid drugs, and have less sex—but they’re also getting more lonely.
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