Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
Iran promises “severe retaliation” for the death of its top military strategist. A drone strike ordered by president Donald Trump killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and several Iraqi officials on Thursday. Former vice-president Joe Biden said Trump had “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox.”
The first significant US economic data of the year is released. The Federal Reserve publishes its December meeting minutes, possibly giving clues about its position on interest rates for the rest of the year. Most analysts expect the rate to remain unchanged in 2020.
The US Senate reconvenes, overshadowed by impeachment. Majority leader Mitch McConnell is expected to speak, but is unlikely to offer much detail about the trial of Donald Trump. Democrats have refused to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate until they better understand the structure of the process.
While you were sleeping
A Turkish airline accused an employee of helping Carlos Ghosn to flee Japan. MNG said one of its employees falsified flight records to help the former Renault-Nissan chief jump bail and escape to Lebanon from the criminal charges he faces in Japan.
Australia braced for a dangerous spread of bushfires. The fire service said that large areas in the state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, faced fire threats, and urged people to evacuate. A state of emergency has been declared, giving authorities broad powers to compel evacuations.
The popular Shibuya station in Tokyo opened to the public after a makeover. The station was moved from its previous location on the third floor of a department store, and now has more space. The area, known for its iconic scramble crossing, is going through massive renovations, as the city prepares to host the Olympic Games.
Floods continued to ravage Indonesia. At least 40 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced in Jakarta as the heaviest rain since the country began keeping records poured down in the capital and surrounding areas. Rainfall is expected to continue through the weekend.
The US banned most flavored vaping products. Manufacturers have 30 days to stop producing and selling flavored pre-filled cartridges for e-cigarettes amid a deadly health crisis related to vaping. The ban does not affect methanol or tobacco flavors.
Quartz membership
US president Dwight Eisenhower famously said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” In the Quartz at Work guide to structuring your day, Khe Hy explains how to overcome this dilemma—as well as why you need to schedule time in your calendar for “deep work.”
Quartz obsession
Feel left out of the conversation? Social media has interrupted our social lives, leaving us increasingly atomized between webs of virtual connections. Good conversation is an art, and it’s getting harder as we lose practice. So what’s the secret to a lively exchange? Have a chat with the Quartz Obsession.
Matters of debate
Apocalypse is the new normal. Wildfires, floods, and heatwaves are just a taste of the horrors of the unfolding climate crisis.
Forget resolutions. Focus on learning when to quit instead.
The internet is no longer disruptive. The dominant players—Google, Facebook, Netflix, Uber, etc.—are the new establishment.
Surprising discoveries
Delhi now has a “smog tower.” The massive air purifier, which creates a “clean air zone” around itself, is an attempt to tackle the Indian capital’s apocalyptic smog problem.
Boeing’s crisis dates back to its mega merger in the 1990s. Boeing acquired rival McDonnell Douglas in 1997, and inherited its culture of cost-cutting at the expense of innovation, which is at the root of the current 737 Max case.
Reading comic books can improve brain function. While texts present information sequentially, graphic storytelling compels us to interpret lots of visual information at once.
A virtual rendering of a Leonardo da Vinci painting helps explain a mysterious glass orb. Using computer graphics, researchers shed light on the curious optical properties of a glass sphere depicted in Salvator Mundi.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff gifted Steve Jobs AppStore.com. The enterprise software giant had been sitting on the domain name for years after a pivotal meeting with Jobs.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, valuable domain names, and da Vinci mysteries to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS or Android, and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Luiz Romero and Hasit Shah.