Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Vatican begins its four-day summit on clergy sexual abuse. Pope Francis has warned against inflated expectations regarding outcomes, but abuse survivor advocates want to see concrete progress on accountability, transparency, and ways to protect children from predatory priests.
Roger Stone is back in court. The Trump ally, who’s being held on charges of obstruction of justice, is expected to receive a gag order after posting a threatening message against a district judge on Instagram.
Israel’s first mission to the moon takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Beresheet probe weighs 1,290 lbs (585 kg), is about the size of a dishwasher, and, if the launch is successful, will make Israel the fourth nation to make a lunar landing.
While you were sleeping
The US Federal Reserve allayed investor fears over market liquidity. January’s minutes release Wednesday afternoon sparked a slight uptick on both the S&P 500 and Dow as the Fed reaffirmed its commitment to a more flexible balance sheet normalization process. That includes allowing up to $50 billion in bonds and assets to effectively disappear without the need for reinvestment.
Amid reports of faltering revenue in China, Tesla announced it’s losing its general counsel. The company is replacing Dane Butswinkas, who was on the job for just two months, with VP of legal Jonathan Chang. Last month, chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja quit; last September, chief accounting officer Dave Morton left after less than a month.
Vladimir Putin’s annual “state of the nation” speech included some pointed threats against the US. Though the Russian president referenced his country’s weaponry, the true goal of his rhetoric (paywall) may have been to convince America to stay in the arms-control treaty it recently abandoned.
Samsung introduced their new iPhone competitors. The suite of new Galaxy S10s included the company’s first phone designed explicitly for 5G and the category-defying Galaxy Fold.
Membership
Microsoft’s rivals. Today we have a stunning interactive that charts the many competitors Microsoft has battled over the years, and we take a close look at Microsoft Teams, the workplace chat platform that signals a whole new way of thinking by the company about communication. And in today’s Tipping Points feature, Allison Schrager writes about how the biggest division in our country may not be political, regional, or cultural, but generational.
Quartz Obsession
In 1995, one of Microsoft’s biggest failures predicted the future. Its infamous Bob software was a “social interface” for Windows, dropping inexperienced users into a cartoon house and using cutesy animated characters to guide them through basic home-office tasks. Bob burst and left an infamous legacy (Clippy! Comic Sans!), but its social interface was also well ahead of its time. We’ll show you around at the Quartz Obsession.
Matters of debate
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TV and newspaper ads are yesterday’s news. Facebook and Google show no signs of stopping their domination of the advertising industry, as digital advertising surpassed print and broadcast for the first time ever.
Workplaces can learn a lot from the “flipped” classroom. Offices could inspire more productivity if employees used them for unstructured networking instead of tackling big projects.
Going cashless isn’t as simple as eliminating paper currency. The UK’s latest initiative will only succeed if it’s willing to address the 25 million people who rely on cash and coins.
Surprising discoveries
More than 10,000 people want the US to sell Montana to Canada. A petition for the $1 trillion idea was launched in an effort to help pay down the considerable US national debt.
Japan is purging convenience store porn ahead of Tokyo 2020. Tens of thousands of 7-11, Lawson, and FamilyMart locations have pledged to KonMari the adult content by August.
A New York deli informed Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s feminism. At a time when few companies counted women among their staff, Russ & Daughters showed the US Supreme Court justice that female business owners can be just as successful as men.
Teens are more worried about, well, being worried than bullying or drugs. A recent Pew survey found that anxiety and depression was the biggest concern for US teens, with 70% of respondents considering both to be a “major problem.”
An enterprising Girl Scout turned Samoa cookies into Jason Momoas—and sales skyrocketed. The fifth-grader worked with her mom to feature the Aquaman actor on the box and says customers can’t get enough.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, Clippy fan art, and boxes of Momoas 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 April Siese and edited by Holly Ojalvo.