Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The two Koreas meet again. North Korea and South Korea’s working-level talks at the Tongil Pavilion will be about a North Korean performing arts group’s visit to the South for the upcoming Winter Olympics. But they also mark a continued thaw between the countries, after two years of silence ended earlier this month.
Pope Francis visits Chile and Peru, but not his homeland. The pope plans to visit all but one country in South America that borders his native Argentina, along with a handful of others. Polarized politics in Buenos Aires are likely why the pontiff is staying clear.
The Philippines braces for a volcanic eruption. The country raised its alert for the Mayon volcano to level 3—one below “eruption imminent”—on Sunday. More than 900 families have been evacuated from surrounding villages so far.
Over the weekend
Hawaiian residents were falsely warned about an imminent missile attack. People got the shock of their lives Saturday morning after a mobile phone alert claimed a ballistic missile was inbound and ordered them to take shelter. A correction was sent out 38 minutes later; governor David Ige said the alert was triggered by an employee pressing the wrong button.
The oil tanker burning off the coast of China finally sank. The tanker carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude had been drifting since its Jan. 6 collision with a cargo ship in the East China Sea. It went up in flames and sank Sunday—all 32 crew members are dead. Chinese officials played down the environmental dangers of the oil spill.
Protesters trashed H&M stores in South Africa over its “racist” ad. Members of a youth-oriented political movement stormed H&M stores around the country to protest an advertisement featuring a black boy wearing a hoodie with the words, “coolest monkey in the jungle.” The image, featured on the Swedish retailer’s UK site, caused international uproar.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting DACA renewals. Despite Donald Trump tweeting that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was dead, his administration resumed accepting renewal paperwork. Immigration made its announcement on Saturday—four days after a federal judge temporarily stayed plans to wind down DACA by March 5. Two-year permit renewals were halted in October.
Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey stepped down from the Disney board. Disney said that the Facebook and Twitter chief execs would not run for re-election to the board in March due to conflicts between the media and tech companies. Disney is moving ahead with its proposed $52.4 billion acquisition of the majority of 21st Century Fox.
Obsession interlude
Michael Coren on clueless sexual harassers seeking redemption in Silicon Valley. “In the past, any bright line Silicon Valley has drawn over sexual harassment has tended to fade over time…But things are changing…For perhaps the first time, men in Silicon Valley are paying a price—in dollars, jobs and prestige —for bad behavior including everything from groping to verbal disparagement.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Haiti became poor because of its audacity to fight white supremacy. The nation was founded on rejecting France’s colonialism, prompting Western countries to limit trading and initially refuse to recognize Haiti as a country.
Facebook’s News Feed meddling has made fake news worse in other countries. Slovakian officials accused the tech company of promoting false stories during its 2016 parliamentary elections, while publishers in Bolivia saw their Facebook posts hidden under a new “Explore” section.
Jeff Bezos is at the peak of his influence and power. In recent years, the 54-year-old Amazon founder has morphed from a baggy sweater-wearing online bookstore owner into a sleek titan of media, space, and of course, ecommerce. “Swole Jeff Bezos” also claims to make a mean craft cocktail.
Surprising discoveries
Scientists put baby turtles on tiny treadmills to test their stamina. The babies often become disoriented by man-made light and get lost before they reach the sea.
Women in Sri Lanka still can’t buy alcohol. The president overruled a reform that would have allowed women over the age of 18 to buy alcohol legally for the first time in 60 years.
Britain hid the crown jewels in a cookie tin during WWII. Officials stuffed the precious gems in an empty Bath Oliver biscuit tin that was only accessible via a trap door in Windsor Castle.
The first Oxford English Dictionary was missing a word. It took decades before “bondmaid”—a 16th century word for female slave—was included in the A-B volume of the OED.
Japan’s “locust lord” is changing the stock market with tweets. The mysterious Twitter user called the Bank of Japan’s Jan. 29, 2016 decision 15 minutes before it was made public, shaking up futures and the yen.
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