Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Amazon’s AI-powered grocery store in Seattle opens to the public. At the futuristic store, customers can skip the cashier and just walk out with their purchases. The shopper scans a code on the Amazon Go app to enter, and then is tracked around the store with AI-monitored video. Anything they leave with is simply charged to their Amazon account.
US lawmakers try to hash out a compromise and get government back up and running. A group of moderates from both parties met Sunday, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he would move ahead with a vote on a temporary spending bill. Meanwhile, president Donald Trump took to Twitter to threaten the “nuclear option” of changing Senate rules to pass a long-term spending bill with a simple majority.
Netflix reports on its earnings—and more importantly, its subscriber growth. The streaming company’s shares are among the best-performing in the market, jumping 65% last year, and already up 15% this year. Continuing to grow its global subscriber base is key, Morgan Stanley analysts have said.
The 19 eurogroup member states meet in Brussels to talk about Greece. Eurozone finance ministers are expected to praise Greece’s economic reforms (paywall), mandated as a condition of its €86 billion ($105 billion) bailout—but also to hold off on approving the last tranche of funds until a further check can be completed in February.
Helicopters and private planes will swarm the posh Swiss resort of Davos. The night before the official start of the 48th annual World Economic Forum, an awards ceremony will feature Shah Rukh Khan, Elton John, and Cate Blanchett. Among the rich and powerful attendees expected during the week: US president Donald Trump, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. We’ll be sending a special edition of the Quartz Daily Brief from Davos this week—sign up here to receive it.
Over the weekend
The US federal government shut down. Congress’s failure to pass a budget means federal workers don’t get paid, but you’ll still be able to fly. The Trump White House dealt with the political controversy with an out-of-office message that blames Democrats, and released widely derided images of Trump “working” through the shutdown.
#MeToo took to the streets. More than 200,000 people marched in New York on Sunday, by officials’ estimates, alongside thousands more around the world. After months of public revelations detailing how men in power sexually abused women, leaders of the second Women’s March urged women to run for office and vote in local, state, and federal elections.
A hotel became a battleground in Afghanistan. Gunmen killed at least 18 people in Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, in a 12-hour attack that continued from Saturday to Sunday. Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said 153 people were rescued from the six-story hotel.
China claims US trespassing. A battleship in the US Navy cruised within the disputed range of Scarborough Shoal, also known as Huangyan island. Both China and the Phillipines claim ownership of the land. China, which claims the US violated Chinese sovereignty, had previously operated a four-year blockade to the fertile fishing grounds, from 2012 to 2016.
Merkel can still avoid an election. Germany’s center-left Social-Democrat party has agreed to continue talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel to create a governing party for the country. If no agreement can be reached, an election could be triggered.
Quartz obsession interlude
Aamna Mohdin on America’s newfound appreciation of black women: “Is this true admiration? Or does it have a tinge of condescending and fetishistic fawning? And more importantly, did black women sign up to ‘save America,’ or to end wars with their hugs? There’s a distinct whiff of the tired ‘magical negro’ and ‘mammy’ tropes in the exalting of the black woman as a feminist mascot, here to save white America from itself. There are precious few acknowledgments of the nuances of black women’s struggle, our complexity, our mistakes.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Amazon’s policy of not asking past salaries actually hurts women. When employers can’t ask about salary history, they’ll make assumptions based on what they think they know.
Google Arts & Culture’s viral selfie-art-matching feature is a bit racist. It recreates the experience of being in an art gallery or museum as a non-white person—where the only faces that look like yours are subservient or exoticized.
It’s time to bring back the classic French technique championed by Paul Bocuse. In the farm-to-table era, the late chef showed how ingredients can serve ideas, rather than the other way around.
Surprising discoveries
A Thai deputy prime minister’s super-expensive watches may bring down the military government. Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, who receives only a modest salary, has been seen wearing 25 different luxury timepieces, and his explanation—that he borrows them from friends—hasn’t satisfied the citizenry.
A chart can improve child health. In rural Zambia, where stunted growth is common, parents were given a chart that explained how to compare their children’s height to normal levels. Then the children grew.
A “serial stowaway” has been caught. A woman dodged security at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and hopped the pond to London before being arrested at customs. She might have done it eight times before, and has been deemed a “flight risk” by prosecutors.
China’s baby boom has begun to slump. As the effects of ending China’s controversial one-child policy begin to wear off, experts suggest the trend can be explained by the rising costs of raising a child.
Fabric made of stone. Once hailed by North Korean leaders as a miracle fabric to save the economy, vinalon is now symbol for the country’s failure to clothe its people.
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