Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Bangladesh and Myanmar discuss the Rohingya crisis. Officials are meeting in Naypyidaw today and tomorrow to hash out the logistics and protocol for repatriating thousands of Rohingya refugees sheltering in southeastern Bangladesh. The meeting comes ahead of a Jan. 22 deadline for the first 100,000 refugees to return to their home state of Rakhine in Myanmar.
Pope Francis visits Chile and Peru, but not his homeland. In a first for any pontiff, he’ll visit indigenous tribes in Chile and the native people in the Amazon in Peru. He’ll give over 20 speeches on the trip, including ones on clerical sex abuse and the rights of indigenous people. He won’t visit his native Argentina, likely due to the polarized politics in Buenos Aires.
The Philippines braces for a volcanic eruption. On Sunday the country raised its alert for the Mayon volcano to level 3—one below “eruption imminent.” It’s evacuated thousands from nearby areas. Mount Mayon is located on Luzon, one of the world’s most heavily populated islands.
Over the weekend
Milos Zeman won the first round of the Czech Republic’s presidential election. The Russia-friendly populist president, likened to Trump, won 38.6% of the vote and will face the EU-leaning Jiri Drahos, who won 26.6%, in a run-off on Jan. 26-27. The contenders placing between third and sixth all endorsed Drahos, who emphasizes civility and democratic ideals.
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 metric tons (149,914 tons) 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 likely dead. Chinese officials played down the environmental dangers of the oil spill.
Protesters stormed H&M stores in South Africa over its “racist” ad. Members of a youth-oriented political movement trashed H&M outlets 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 will resume accepting DACA renewals. The announcement on Saturday followed a federal judge in California temporarily staying the Trump administration’s plans to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Immigration program by March 5. Two-year permit renewals were halted in October.
Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey stepped down from the Disney board. The Facebook and Twitter execs will not run for re-election to the board in March due to conflicts created by intensifying competition between 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
Sexual freedom is destroying real desire. Apps that facilitate easy hookups turn sex into something that’s easily consumed and thrown away.
Professionals who don’t keep learning are the new “at-risk” group. They’ll lose their jobs to automation, just as many blue-collar workers have.
Americans have forgotten how to protest. Weary of the frequency and regularity of Trump’s wild pronouncements, they’ve gotten used to shaking their heads instead.
Surprising discoveries
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.
Scientists put baby turtles on tiny treadmills to test their stamina. They want to know if newborns are running out of energy after disorienting manmade lights make them lost.
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.
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.
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