Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Chinese officials talk North Korea in Seoul. State councillor Yang Jiechi will brief South Korean leaders on the recent meeting in Beijing between Chinese president Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The briefing comes ahead of the North’s bilateral summit with South Korea, now confirmed for April 27.
Constellation Brands pops open its results. The company behind Corona beer and Svedka vodka is expected to report a rise in fourth-quarter profit, thanks to robust demand for its premium beers.
The US releases economic data. A 0.2% rise in personal spending is expected for February (paywall), cooling slightly after January’s bump from the National Tax Act. Economists have forecast a 0.3% personal income increase in February.
While you were sleeping
Renault and Nissan eyed a merger. Bloomberg reports that the French and Japanese carmakers, which currently operate in an alliance, would aim to create a new company. Carlos Ghosn, the chairman of Nissan and Renault, would reportedly head up the new company.
Japan wants a summit with North Korea too. Tokyo, which has been left out in the last few rounds of North Korea’s sudden diplomacy, sounded out Pyongyang about a bilateral summit, the Asahi newspaper reported. As well as talking about denuclearization, it wants to address the abduction of its citizens by North Korean agents decades ago.
Some ads on Facebook will become less targeted. Facebook has been supplementing its own data set for ad targeting with data from third-party aggregators like Experian, but it will wind down the practice. It’s also rushing out a new design for privacy settings as it cleans up its practices following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
A deadly fire at a Venezuelan police station provoked questions. Distressed relatives demanding answers clashed with police after a fire at a station in the city of Valencia killed 68 people. The blaze was reportedly started by prisoners, who set fire to mattresses in a breakout attempt.
CME Group agreed to buy London-based NEX for $5.5 billion. CME leads the market in interest-rate futures linked to US government bonds, while the NEX fintech group dominates electronic Treasury bonds trading with its BrokerTec platform. Combining the two would create an exchange giant (paywall).
Quartz obsession interlude
Jacques Peretti on how “elite” became a bad word. “The tech aristocracy of Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos wear the democratic uniform of t-shirt and jeans. To admit to being an elitist, even a believer in the role of elites, now seems verboten. Following #MeToo, the elite coven of white male Hollywood producers has become a useful shorthand for exclusion and the abuse of power.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Silicon Valley is terrible at making sex toys. Nobody wants an app-controlled, data-capturing vibrator, but that’s what software minds keep developing.
Italy has a growing racism problem. Despite its new black senator, xenophobia remains on the rise.
You should never buy a first-generation Apple product. Unless you enjoy half-baked devices, wait for the third generation.
Surprising discoveries
Slack wants to help you find your gender bias. The workplace communication platform is creating tools to analyze phrasing when speaking to men and women.
Baby name trends are reflecting changing gender norms in the US. More names are becoming genderless, while some remain firmly on one side of the fence.
Banks are spending billions on fossil fuels. Financing of tar sands and ultra-deepwater oil extraction topped $115 billion from the world’s biggest banks (paywall).
US billionaire Robert Mercer was a secret cop. The Trump supporter volunteered at a New Mexico police department, securing the right to carry concealed weapons in any state.
Ireland is getting its first official nude beach. Inclement weather is no deterrent to the country’s naturists, who’ve been bathing naked for years.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, cute baby names, and secret cops 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 Jill Petzinger and edited by Lianna Brinded.