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What to watch for today
Walmart reports earnings. Analysts expect same-store sales to have risen 2.9% for the world’s largest retailer, which has also been investing heavily in e-commerce to compete with Amazon. Investors will be looking for what Walmart has to say about looming higher tariffs on goods from China.
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives in India. Major investments, including by oil giant Saudi Aramco, are on the agenda, after bin Salman announced plans to invest $20 billion in Pakistan (paywall) on his weekend visit there. The prince will head to China next. Critics see the trip as a way to distract attention from the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.
Honda might close a factory in the UK… The Japanese automaker plans to announce as early as today its intentions for its manufacturing facility in Swindon, according to Sky News. Honda said previously that a no-deal Brexit would cost it tens of millions of pounds.
…And Ireland finalizes plans for a no-deal Brexit. With the clock running down to Britain’s departure from the European Union at the end of March, and infighting among British politicians making the prospect of crashing out ever more likely, Ireland’s cabinet will assess its plans to minimize disruption.
The “snow moon” rises. The second supermoon of the year will also be its brightest. This full moon was called a “snow moon” by Native Americans because it falls in February when there’s usually heavy snowfall—it can also be known as the “hunger moon” because it arrives at a traditionally lean eating time.
While you were sleeping
Sixteen US states sued the Trump administration. A coalition of states led by California is seeking to block the national emergency declared by Donald Trump on Friday in a bid to get funds to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.
A third migrant died in US custody. The undocumented man had crossed from Mexico into Texas earlier this month, and died yesterday. Customs and Border Protection said he was diagnosed in the US with cirrhosis of the liver and congestive heart failure, but the official cause of death is not yet known. Two children from Guatemala died in the US agency’s custody in December, prompting changes in how it discloses such deaths.
Rod Rosenstein will leave his job in mid-March. Sources earlier said the US deputy attorney general, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to head the Russia investigation in 2017 and has oversight of the probe, had planned to leave soon after William Barr, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Justice, was confirmed. The departure is being seen as a sign the inquiry is approaching a conclusion.
China’s Liu He is heading back to Washington. The vice premier will return to the US to join trade talks that resumed this week as both sides claim they are making progress to address concerns about China’s state support of its businesses, and how much it buys of American goods and services. Beijing faces a March 1 deadline to make concessions, after which Washington could increase tariffs on $200 billion of its goods.
Mongolia suspended KFC operations after a food poisoning outbreak. The country’s 11 fried-chicken franchise outlets are temporarily closed after 42 people were hospitalized and nearly 250 fell sick after eating at one of them.
Membership
Microsoft recorded more than $100 billion in revenue for its last fiscal year, more than two-and-a-half times the amount Facebook brought in, eight times more than Netflix’s annual figure, and within spitting distance of Alphabet. A lot of pixels have been displayed to describe this turnaround. For this week’s field guide, we look at the company’s strategic decisions to pursue (and as importantly, not pursue) various lines of business, and what these decisions mean for Microsoft’s future.
Matters of debate
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Ignoring email is an act of incivility. Being overwhelmed by volume is no excuse to snub a colleague.
Hollywood is now irrelevant. Once-dominant movie studios have practically no shot at overtaking Netflix.
Machine learning is causing a crisis in science. Techniques used by scientists to analyze data are producing results that are misleading and often wrong.
Surprising discoveries
Pet dogs are helping US presidential candidates. They’re a crowd-pleasing way for Democratic hopefuls to differentiate themselves from Trump, who’s broken with tradition by not having a dog in the White House.
Australia is preparing to plant 1 billion trees. The country hopes the initiative will help it hit its Paris Agreement targets by 2050.
Someone attacked a wax statue of Sean “Diddy” Combs. The likeness of the rapper at the Madame Tussauds museum in New York was shoved so hard its head came off.
The most successful EV model to date is not from the US or China. That honor goes to Japan’s Nissan Leaf, first sold about a decade ago.
Lake Erie may get legal rights. Voters in Toledo, Ohio will soon decide (paywall) whether the polluted lake has the legal right “to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, ignored emails, and politically useful pooches to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Tripti Lahiri and edited by Isabella Steger.