Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
European Union 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.
The New York Fed President looks ahead. William Dudley delivers a keynote speech at the “U.S. Economic Outlook: What’s In Store for 2018” event in New York. In November, he said (paywall) he expects that a strong labor market will eventually drive up inflation.
Delta delivers its results. The US’s second-largest airline by passengers presents its full-year and fourth-quarter results (paywall). The airline was hit by a major power outage at its Hartsfield-Jackson hub last month, estimated to have cost it up to $50 million.
While you were sleeping
YouTube punished Logan Paul. Google said it would remove Paul’s personal channel from YouTube’s premium advertisement lineup, Google Preferred, after he posted footage of a dead body in Japan’s so-called “suicide forest” last month.
South Korean authorities got ready to ban cryptocurrencies. The country’s justice minister said that it’s preparing a bill to ban trading of cryptoassets on exchanges—bitcoin plunged on the news. South Korean police and tax authorities also raided Coinone and Bithumb this week.
A big Asian company dashed to build a US factory. South Korea’s LG Electronics moved the date for the construction of its new washing machine factory from Feb. 2019 to the fourth quarter of this year. The ITC suggested in November that LG and Samsung should face tariffs to stop them undercutting prices of US appliance makers.
Copy that! Xerox is working on a deal Fuijifilm. The Connecticut-based printer and copier company, which has been battered by declining demand, is looking at possible deals with Japan’s Fujifilm. The Wall Street Journal notes (paywall) that this could include a change of control at Xerox. The two have long had a Asia Pacific joint venture, Fuji Xerox.
Europe’s powerhouse had a bumper year. The German economy grew by 2.2% (paywall) in 2017, its highest rate since 2011—though economists had expected 2.5% growth. Record-low unemployment meant Germans spent more, although government spending remained low.
Quartz obsession interlude
Amy X. Wang on Radiohead’s plagiarism lawsuit against Lana Del Rey. “The fact of the matter is that music law has never been able to establish a clear line between what is original and what is not… Hip-hop and rap are eternally riddled with claims of creative theft. The entire genre of jazz is essentially a study in plagiarism, both subtle and overt.” 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 to make rocket propellant in space will make space travel cheaper.
Supply drives the US opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse is more strongly linked to drug availability 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.
Switzerland ruled that lobsters must be stunned before they’re cooked. The government said lobsters may feel pain when plunged live into boiling water.
Uber is recruiting its first female taxi drivers in Saudi Arabia. Women make up 80% of Uber passengers in the country, which will lift the ban on women driving in June.
A Florida university is teaching a course called “White Racism.” The undergraduate class is being watched over by campus police officers.
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.
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