Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
NASA conducts an emergency spacewalk to repair the International Space Station. Two astronauts will spend an estimated two hours replacing a faulty computer that runs crucial systems such as solar power, heating, and cooling.
Park Geun-hye’s corruption trial begins. The impeached former South Korean president is accused of colluding with an advisor to accept $26 million in bribes from major corporations including Samsung. A judge is expected to decide whether Park and her advisor, Choi Soon-sil, should be tried separately.
China hosts the Antarctic Treaty Consultative conference. The 40th annual meeting of delegates from 42 countries and 10 major organizations will discuss climate change’s alarming effects on a teetering ice shelf. China has four Antarctic research stations and is expanding fishing operations in the Southern Ocean.
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump said the threat from Iran is driving Israel and the Arab states closer. During a state visit to Israel, the US president called on Tehran to stop funding “terrorists and militias,” and vowed that Iran would never obtain a nuclear weapon. Trump also seemed to inadvertently confirm that he shared classified Israeli intel with Russia.
Vivendi is considering an IPO for Universal Music Group. The French media conglomerate said the rise of music streaming services like Spotify may result in the sale of a minority stake in the world’s biggest music company. The industry’s streaming music revenue rose 60% to $3.9 billion last year.
Arconic reached a truce with activist investor Elliott Management. A bitter feud that resulted in the messy ouster of the aluminum parts giant’s CEO was resolved just days before a pivotal shareholder meeting. Arconic, a spin-off of Alcoa, will give three board seats to the hedge fund run by investor Paul Singer.
The US Supreme Court made it harder for patent trolls. Justices unanimously ruled that patent lawsuits should be heard in the jurisdiction where the defendant is incorporated. The ruling should limit “forum-shopping,” which brought thousands of cases to the plaintiff-friendly Eastern District of Texas.
The former US national security advisor refused a congressional subpoena. Michael Flynn declined to hand over documents related to a Senate probe of Russia’s interference in the US election, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination. Two other former advisors to Donald Trump—Paul Manafort and Roger Stone—complied with related subpoenas.
Quartz obsession interlude
Marc Bain on the history of America’s sexual coming-of-age costume: “A strange ritual takes place across the United States each spring … young people gather for a dance sanctioned by local elders, where they dress in fancy costumes that embody traditional gender tropes and old-fashioned notions of sexuality, to celebrate their transition from childhood to adulthood. The Americans call it prom.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Touted trip tames tongue / Travel’s torpor tamps tweeting. / ‘Til tomorrow, tops.
Matters of debate
The inevitable future of Slack is your boss spying on you. Its Orwellian acronym: Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge.
HTTPS is taking the sting out of online censorship. During Thailand’s recent crackdown on Facebook, users were notified when the government was watching.
K-Pop is not a musical genre. Despite the adoration of the world, it’s a generic term that only signifies popular music from Korea.
Surprising discoveries
The market gods have smiled upon the Church of England. Its £7.9 ($10.3 billion) investment fund returned 17% last year, second only to Yale’s endowment fund.
A South Carolina woman dressed up as a dinosaur to spook carriage horses. She was arrested for disorderly conduct after the carriage’s driver was injured.
Instagram is the most harmful social network for your mental health. Users were more prone to anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation, and body-image issues.
The world’s most popular index fund is ruled by a stock picker. Economist David Blitzer runs a committee that decides which companies go into the S&P 500.
Freeze-dried mouse sperm can survive a trip to space. Researchers successfully fertilized eggs with sperm that made a nine-month trip to the International Space Station.
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