Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Theresa May hunkers down with her cabinet. The UK prime minister will retreat to the countryside for a full day of meetings with ministers to hammer out a deal on the country’s future relationship with the European Union, as divisions within the Conservative party over Brexit become increasingly exposed.
Air France goes on strike. The carrier will ground a numberof flights, including half of the long-haul ones flying out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, for 24 hours. Workers are demanding a 6% pay increase from the company.
The FCC publishes its order to end net neutrality in the US. The new directive from the Federal Communications Commission are expected to trigger a slew of lawsuits from states and interest groups. They want to prevent internet service providers from charging for preferential access to the internet.
While you were sleeping
Trump expressed support for arming teachers… The US president said that giving teachers guns could stop the kind of mass shooting that took place in Parkland, Florida last week. He made the comments during a White House listening session with parents and students affected by school shootings…
…While students grilled politicians at a town hall on gun control. One student asked Florida senator Marco Rubio whether he would turn down donations from the National Rifle Association—Rubio didn’t say he would refuse donations from the group.
Israel said it helped Australia foil an airplane bombing. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that Israeli intelligence services passed on information to Australian authorities last year to help prevent a ISIL-orchestrated plot to bomb an Etihad plane flying out of Sydney.
Ford’s North American head resigned after a misconduct investigation. The US automaker said an internal probe found executive vice president Raj Nair acted in a way that was “inconsistent with the company’s code of conduct.” He previously served as Ford’s CTO and in other high-profile roles.
Quartz obsession interlude
Aamna Mohdin on the dangerous, daring work of producing ethical soap. “Lush’s biggest crisis to date involved a glittery mineral known as mica. In India, one of the world’s top-producing mica countries, children as young 10 were mining the mineral that’s widely used to add a shimmer to beauty products. Some of the world’s biggest cosmetics companies buy this material—and, until 2014, Lush did too.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The future of curling is in Asia. The success of the South Korean and Japanese women’s teams in the Winter Olympics shows how Asian countries are challenging traditional powerhouses.
China’s plan to get women to have more babies is failing. One reason is that many Chinese women (paywall) are pushing back against the Communist Party’s singles-shaming.
Tech companies should stop pretending that AI won’t destroy jobs. Half of our job tasks can be done better at almost no cost by AI and robots, and society is simply not ready for the transition.
Surprising discoveries
Eyebrows wax and wane with the stock market. Japanese analysts take browscaping trends seriously as a way to predict market fluctuations.
South Africans created two-minute-song playlists to help people get through the drought. Officials in Cape Town—which is running out of water—have told people to keep their showers to under two minutes.
Japanese couples aren’t allowed to keep their own names after marriage. Some even go to extremes, like getting divorced, to use the names they were born with.
Every single European city faces heat waves, droughts, or floods. Extreme weather is a given if carbon emissions aren’t dramatically reduced.
A California teen tried to smuggle an endangered tiger into the US. He wanted the cub as a pet, but evidence suggests he was running a smuggling operation.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, shower playlists, and legal feline pets to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written and edited by Isabella Steger and Steve Mollman.