Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
India’s vice president vies for influence in West Africa. Hamid Ansari is finishing a trip to Nigeria before heading to the first high-level Indian visit to Mali in history. India has been touting itself as a preferable alternative to China for foreign investment in Africa, promoting its long history in the region and the potential for mutual benefits.
UberEats mushrooms across the world. The transport giant launches its food takeaway service in Dubai, Amsterdam, Johannesburg, and parts of Tokyo today, and has plans for even more cities in the near future. Next on the hit list: Hong Kong, Bangkok, Brussels, Taipei, Jakarta, and Stockholm.
The sun loops around the galaxy…sort of. A group of science fans thinks it’s a shame that we celebrate Earth orbiting the sun annually on New Year’s day but never give the sun proper kudos for its voyage around the Milky Way. Unfortunately, it only loops round once every 220 million years or so, so they’ve created “Galactic Tick Day,“ to celebrate little chunks of the rotation every 1.77 years.
While you were sleeping
Investigators determined the missile that downed MH17 came from Russia. The Dutch-led group of international prosecutors reviewing the July 2014 tragedy, which saw 298 people killed in a commercial airliner flying above Ukraine, say a Russian-made Buk missile was fired from territory held by Russian-backed rebels. Moscow said it could not accept these as the final findings.
OPEC agreed to drop oil output. And prices jumped 6%. Traders were caught off-guard, having expected Saudi Arabia and Iran to keep up their pump-at-will policy, held since 2014. Production is expected to fall by at least 750,000 barrels a day.
India and three other countries snubbed Pakistan. It was supposed to be a historic moment of reconciliation between two oft-warring neighbors, but India has pulled out of a regional summit in Islamabad. A senior Indian diplomat called Pakistan the “Ivy League of terrorism“ at the UN last week after 19 Indian soldiers were killed in an attack India blames on Pakistan-based jihadis. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Bhutan also dropped out of the summit, and Sri Lanka may follow.
Two massive Aleppo hospitals were bombed out of service. The buildings in rebel-held eastern Aleppo were hit twice by air and artillery attacks. John Kerry has threatened to drop ceasefire talks with Russia over the bombing campaign, which the Syrian Medical Society called “the extermination of a major city.” There are reportedly only 30 doctors left in eastern Aleppo.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was blocked from running for president of Iran. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the public it was not “in the interests of the country“ for the hardline former president, who opposes last year’s nuclear deal, to lead the country again.
Quartz obsession interlude
Christopher Groskopf on how internet companies delete your right to own your digital purchases. ”Terms of Service are essentially very one-sided contracts written by the company selling the digital goods. Often they include provisions that shield the business from liability and even prevent the consumer from going to court if they feel ripped off. Typically a consumer’s only choice is to accept them as they are, or to decline to use the service entirely. An overwhelming majority of internet users agree to them without reading them. In one experiment 98% of users failed to notice a clause requiring them to give up their first-born as payment.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Organizations actively discourage employees’ use of intelligence. Many companies claim to value IQ during hiring, but in the actual workplace, staff members are more likely to be rewarded if they blindly follow bureaucracy.
Civilization hasn’t made humans less violent. Some scientists argue that modern humans have inherited a tendency toward lethal violence from our ancestors that even the state can’t fully cure.
We need new words to describe Facebook and Google. These organizations so fully control everything in our lives that terms like “media company” or “platform” don’t even come close to projecting their power.
Surprising discoveries
Mexicans have 300 different ways of referring to corruption. A civil society group has compiled them in a book in a tongue-in-cheek effort to get Mexicans to own up to corrupt behavior in their country.
It’s fine to curse around kids. Slurs and swearing directly at kids is out of bounds, but hearing the occasional f-bomb won’t hurt them.
Man-made reservoirs emit more greenhouse gases than all of Canada. The artificial lakes harbor the perfect conditions to produce more methane than other water systems.
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Success in any field depends more on having the right developmental environment than on repetition, or even having good genes.
The CIA is protecting the privacy rights of a fictional journalist. During the Cold War, “Guy Sims Fitch” was a regular contributor to global papers; now the CIA won’t divulge any info on who or what was behind the pseudonym.
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