Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Geneva auto show opens. This year, the event is expected to be conspicuously less sexed up, as auto makers such as Korea’s Ssangyong Motor do away with having “booth babes” promote their cars.
Australia and East Timor agree on a maritime border. The two countries will sign an agreement at the United Nations in New York to demarcate a maritime border for the first time ever, which will allow them to jointly develop oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
The Falcon 9’s 50th take-off. The SpaceX rocket carrying a Hispasat communications satellite will lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 12:33am local time (5:33am in London).
While you were sleeping
North and South Korean officials met. According to details released by Seoul of yesterday’s meeting, officials from both countries—including Kim Jong-un’s sister and wife—met over a dinner that lasted more than four hours. The South Korean envoys will leave North Korea today and later go to Washington to debrief US officials on the meeting.
Kobe Steel’s CEO resigned. Hiroya Kawasaki plans to step down, the Nikkei newspaper reported, following a scandal whereby the Japanese company shipped products with falsified specifications to hundreds of customers around the world.
The founder of Tower Records died. Russ Solomon died at the age of 92 in his home in California of an apparent heart attack. The music chain revolutionized music retailing in the 1990s, but declared bankruptcy for the second time in 2006 and went out of business.
The #MeToo movement brought down a South Korean political heavyweight. Ahn Hee-jung, governor of South Chungcheong province, stepped down from his post after his secretary accused him of rape. A prominent progressive politician, Ahn admitted wrongdoing in a Facebook post.
Quartz obsession interlude
Zheping Huang on what Xi Jinping wants with all that power. “Xi must accomplish the ‘two centennial goals’ inherited from earlier leaders. The first involves building a ‘moderately prosperous society,’ wiping out poverty and reaching a per capita GDP of $10,000 by 2021, the 100th anniversary of the party’s founding, which is almost certain to be achieved. The second and more challenging goal is to turn China into a ‘fully developed nation’ by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. If it succeeds, China’s economy would be triple the US’s.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
When money flows into the hands of women, everything changes. Making investments targeted at women allows them to change the unwritten rule in philanthropy that women are less than men.
The Oscars showed that Hollywood is still oblivious to the zeitgeist. At a time of gender and racial awakening, Hollywood is still protecting itself from the corruption built into the system.
Silicon Valley is over. Bay Area tech investors think Rust Belt cities could form a tech hub (paywall).
Surprising discoveries
A British “Big Cheese” festival ran out of cheese. The festival that promised “a plethora of the finest international cheesemakers” is now offering refunds.
Norway is using drones to pick up rubbish. To deal with the mounting problem of trash (paywall) in a fjord in Oslo, authorities will also add an electric-powered ship with a crane to the drone fleet next year.
A cauliflower-picking robot is filling in for humans. GummiArm, a soft-handed robot, could make up for the shortage of human pickers.
“Dumpster fire” was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Defined as ”an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence,” the word was one of 850 new ones added to the online dictionary.
The secret to Amazon logistics is embracing chaos. The company’s vast warehouses organize their inventories randomly.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, spare cheese, and garbage-collecting drones 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 by Isabella Steger and edited by Alice Truong.