Good morning, Davos delegates and devotees!
Are we at the halfway point already? Indeed we are, so pay attention.
Another sunny day today, with a positively balmy high of -3°C (27°F).
What to watch for today
What does Brexit mean? Theresa May’s Brexit roadshow comes to Switzerland, a few days removed from the big reveal of her intentions in divorce negotiations with the EU. Her pitch that Britain will thrive by signing new free-trade deals—after deciding to quit the EU’s single market—could get a cool reception from the multilateral-minded Davos crowd. What’s more, the news from bankers at the forum is that they’re already prepping their exits from London. A panel of continentals following May’s speech, dubbed “Which Europe Now?”, might get snarky.
Life after oil in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has struggled to balance its books amid persistently low oil prices, so it is embarking on a plan to greatly diversify its economy by 2030. But how feasible is removing subsidies when citizens have become so accustomed to cushy state largesse? We will be watching three Saudi ministers explain themselves, and try to read between the lines for hints about their expectations for the price of oil.
I remember you! Since 2011, when his Google co-founder Larry Page re-assumed the role of CEO, Sergey Brin has largely remained behind the scenes. Aside from a stint promoting the ill-fated Google Glass smart glasses, Google, and its new parent company Alphabet, has been almost all about Page. A sit-down session with Brin is noteworthy, then, because we’d like to know what he’s been doing.
Party planner. George Soros always speaks his mind during his annual dinner in Davos, so look for late headlines as reporters tap out the zingers on their mobiles. Quartz is co-hosting a dinner for young leaders with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. LT Smooth and the Black Eyed Peas will play the Salesforce nightcap, by far the coolest party thrown by a cloud-based customer relationship management software provider on Thursday.
Who won day two?
US vice-president Joe Biden, 48 hours from the end of his term, verbally strafed president-elect Donald Trump with an array of rhetorical weaponry. Visibly emotional, Biden urged Europe and the US to preserve the seven-decade-old liberal world order, which he said had delivered a middle-class income to hundreds of millions and bolstered people’s “basic sense of dignity.”
The speech had special poignancy, coming a day after Chinese president Xi Jinping made many of the same points on the same stage. A few hours later, Biden’s boss, president Barack Obama, held his final news conference, fiercely defending his administration’s policies toward Russia and Israel, frequently criticized by Trump during his combative campaign.
More highlights from yesterday
Ma courts controversy. Alibaba’s Jack Ma made a spirited defense of globalization, and walked smack into America’s bitterly partisan political buzzsaw. Ma said that the US’s economic problems aren’t down to globalization, but the trillions it has spent on wars. “What if they spent part of that money on building up the infrastructure?” he asked. At a press conference today promising “a major global announcement,” Ma will probably be hounded to explain himself further.
Can globalization be governed? Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven can empathize with factory workers losing their jobs to automation and outsourcing—that’s what happened to him when he was a welder. At a session moderated by Quartz, he drew on his own history to highlight how governments should protect workers, not jobs, by helping people develop new skills (like becoming prime minister). “Jobs will be lost,” he said. “It’s inevitable.”
The scourge of stereotypes. A panel featuring several powerful women, including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, picked apart the business world’s persistent bias when it comes to gender. How bad is it? Pretty bad. The Female Quotient, a networking group for women, and Unilever interviewed more than 9,000 people in eight countries and found that 77% of men believe that a man is the best choice to lead “high-stakes projects”; 55% of women said the same.
A $500 million fund for vaccines. Deadly outbreaks—like Ebola but worse—have the potential to do more damage than the worst natural disaster, but we remain unprepared to deal with them. A new global alliance launched at Davos is buying the world $500 million worth of health insurance to fast-track the creation of vaccines for deadly diseases like MERS, Lassa fever, and Nipah that threaten to become the next pandemic.
The day’s liveblogs. Catch up on the day’s action with Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and the WEF.
Seen and heard
Tortured metaphor of the day: President Trump will be like a pearl, a beautiful thing that emerges from constant irritation.
Quartz: “What can’t you put on the blockchain?”
Response, after a brief pause: “Nothing”
(This was at a blockchain dinner, obvs.)
This year’s big European elections, ranked in ascending order of unease among the cognoscenti: Germany, the Netherlands, France. If the Davos consensus is always wrong, that’s bad news for Merkel.
This doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Snoop on a conversation between Quartz and the mayor of Zurich about open cities, via 360 video.
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News from around the world
Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong avoided arrest in South Korea’s bribery scandal. A court denied prosecutors’ request to arrest him, ruling that there “appears to be no flight risk and no need to physically detain” the Samsung vice chairman. He still faces charges of bribery, embezzlement, and perjury—though he might not be punished severely due to Samsung’s influence on the nation’s economy.
Investors underestimated Netflix yet again. The streaming video giant easily surpassed quarterly expectations, adding 1.93 million subscribers in the United States and 5.12 million internationally, thanks to original hits like Stranger Things and Narcos. Netflix plans to spend a whopping $6 billion on content in 2017, up $1 billion from last year.
Donald Trump made his final cabinet pick. He wants Sonny Perdue, the former Republican governor of Georgia, to head the agriculture department. The agency directs the nation’s farm policy and several programs that Republicans lawmakers have suggested trimming, including food aid to the poor and new standards for school lunches.
US authorities sued Oracle for gender and race discrimination. The labor department alleged that the software company paid its white, male workers more and unlawfully favored Indian applicants for product development and technical roles. Oracle denied the charges.
2016 was the hottest year on record. That makes three years in a row of record-setting temperatures, with last year averaging 1.2 °C (2.2 °F) hotter than in the late 1800s. Temperatures in 2017 are likely to dip due to the absence of the El Niño weather pattern, but will still be in the top five.
Matters of debate
Mobile phones prove that US police lie. In the vast majority of cases they get away with it, even when there’s video evidence to prove them wrong.
The first step to save a good business: Cut the crap. That’s the advice Steve Jobs used to save not just Apple, but Nike too.
An Africa with open borders could be a nightmare. Although they were arbitrarily imposed, the continent’s divisions help contain diseases, terrorism, and xenophobia.
Surprising discoveries
The Mirai botnet began with a Minecraft rivalry. The malicious software that hijacks millions of connected devices was initially used to shut down the popular game’s servers.
A Finnish bear is holding his first art exhibition. Juuso paints with his fur and paws—and his abstract paintings are selling for up to €4,000 ($4,259).
Japan is standardizing the baffling array of control buttons on high-tech toilets. Tourists have long been shocked when their nether regions are sprayed with air and water.
The world’s second three-parent baby was born in Ukraine. The controversial technique is banned in the US and only available to mothers with genetic conditions in the UK.
China’s government posts hundreds of millions of fake social media comments every year. The aim is to distract the public from discussing real problems.
Our best wishes for an inspiring day at the forum. Please send any news, tips, 50-franc club sandwiches, and 60-franc cheeseburgers to me, Jason Karaian, at jason@qz.com. Today’s newsletter was made possible by strong coffee and reliable wifi at the Microsoft Lounge.
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