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What to watch for today
Walmart takes stock. 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 watch what Walmart has to say about looming tariffs on goods from China.
Trump launches his Space Force. The US president will sign a presidential directive to establish the first new military branch in more than seven decades, at an initial cost of $100 million. It will reportedly be folded into the US Air Force, and is driven by national security concerns over Russia and China’s activity in space.
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). The prince will head to China next. Critics see the trip as a way to distract attention from last year’s murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Ireland finalizes plans for a no-deal Brexit. With the clock running down to Britain’s departure from the EU 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 traditionally arrived at a time of lean eating.
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. The US president made the emergency declaration in a bid to get funds to build a US-Mexico border wall.
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 ongoing trade talks, as both sides claim they are making progress on 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.
Honda closed its only European facility. Up to 3,500 UK jobs will be cut after Honda confirmed plans to close its factory in Swindon, citing “unprecedented changes” in the automobile sector. The Japanese car-maker previously said that a no-deal Brexit would cost it tens of millions of pounds.
HSBC took an end-of-year hit. The US-China trade war and Brexit uncertainty led the London-based banking giant to miss expectations on pre-tax profit and fourth-quarter earnings. The company’s strategy of pouring money into Asia, where it makes three quarters of its profits, is being challenged by slowing growth in China.
Membership
We’ll continue our look at Microsoft today with an essay by Dave Gershgorn on the company’s years under former CEO Steve Ballmer, who was responsible for the creation of two of Microsoft’s most successful cloud-based businesses. We also have a new Private Key feature looking at how many Indian crypto firms are pivoting to blockchain in order to survive.
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 misleading results.
Surprising discoveries
Australia is preparing to plant 1 billion trees… The country hopes the initiative will help it hit its Paris Agreement targets by 2050, which the OECD warns it could miss.
…while one of its animals fell victim to rising sea levels. The Bramble Cay rodent is the first documented mammal to go extinct (paywall) as a result of human-induced climate change.
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 protections normally reserved for humans. Voters in Toledo, Ohio will decide (paywall) whether the polluted lake has the legal right “to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.”
Scientists discovered 300,000 new galaxies. The find by a team of astronomers from 18 countries could help answer some of the universe’s biggest secrets.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, ignored emails, and suggested galaxy names 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 Adam Rasmi and edited by Jackie Bischof.