Hello, Quartz readers! Our apologies for the delay in sending today’s Daily Brief, due to technical issues.
What to watch for today
The White House unveils new school-safety proposals. They come following a roundtable between lawmakers in the wake of the Florida school shooting. An administration official told CNN that the National Rifle Association wants the White House to pursue school-safety programs, rather than raise the age limit for buying certain firearms.
M.K. Sharma goes to court. The Punjab National Bank auditor at the center of an alleged $2 billion fraud scandal is accused of helping to secure unauthorized loans using fraudulent letters for billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
A snazzy weather satellite heads for space. Carried by an Atlas V rocket, the GOES-S will enable far better detection of storms, wildfires, fog around airports, and much else. The two-hour launch window from Cape Canaveral, Florida starts at just past 5pm local time (10pm GMT).
While you were sleeping
White House communications director Hope Hicks resigned. Trump’s longest-serving aide will be the fourth person to depart the post. She quickly rose through the ranks after joining the Trump Organization in 2014 with no political experience. On Tuesday she admitted to the House Intelligence Committee that she occasionally told “white lies” for the president.
Spotify filed for a $1 billion IPO. The Swedish music-streaming giant will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SPOT. In an unusual move, the still-unprofitable company will go public without any bank underwriters, which lets the market set the opening share price.
Moon Jae-in said Tokyo can’t declare the “comfort women” issue settled. The South Korean president called Japan’s wartime abuse of Korean sex slaves “crimes against humanity.” In December he described a 2015 deal to settle the matter—struck by ousted president Park Geun-hye’s administration—as “seriously flawed.”
Bank of America’s sexual-misconduct probe expanded. Two more employees were fired after it was determined they interfered with an investigation into alleged inappropriate behavior by Omeed Malik, a former executive in the bank’s prime brokerage unit.
The US Senate passed the Taiwan Travel Act. The legislation makes it easier for top officials from Taiwan to visit the US to meet their counterparts, and vice versa. Though the bill has angered China—which considers Taiwan a wayward province and not a sovereign nation—Trump will likely sign it into law, especially since it faced no opposition in both houses of Congress.
Quartz obsession interlude
Lynsey Chutel on one of the world’s most elitist sports in one of the poorest places on earth. “The [equestrian] club’s willingness to encourage new riders, albeit still wealthy ones, demonstrates a self-awareness of its place in this society. Still, should Lubumbashi’s wealthy feel any moral obligation to the city’s poor, any more so than the wealthy of any other city?” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Doing the splits is a terrible reason to commit to a daily yoga habit. Flexibility is great, but it’s better to simply enjoy the practice sans any expectations.
Kids who play more will get better jobs. Play is crucial for establishing foundations of social, emotional, and academic learning.
Autonomous cars won’t fix cities. We should focus instead on moving greater numbers of people (paywall) by optimizing city grids for mass transit.
Surprising discoveries
Ben Carson’s office furniture costs more than what a low-income family earns in a year. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development head won’t return the $31,000 dining set.
Sex sells, even for monkeys. Rhesus macaques prefer evocative imagery in advertising, preferably featuring female macaque backsides or dominant males.
A French company wants to bottle your unique scent. Its secret process involves extracting molecules from clothing.
New Orleans has been a secret pilot for predictive policing technology. Even the city council didn’t know about the police department’s deal with Palantir, co-founded by Peter Thiel.
Mongolians are protesting a manga that “insults” Genghis Khan. The Japanese publisher apologized for a picture of a character scribbling a penis on a portrait of the famed leader.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, human-scented perfume, and sexy ads targeting monkeys 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 Steve Mollman and edited by Alice Truong.