Google’s AI tries to pass Go, United Continental proxy fight, mansplaining International Women’s Day
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Syria peace talks resume. Negotiations were halted last month, but the UN Special Envoy hopes that a partial ceasefire, backed by the U.S. and Russia, will advance talks to end the war.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau arrives in Washington. It’s the first state visit by a Canadian leader in almost 20 years. He will meet with president Barack Obama to discuss key economic issues.
Google’s artificial intelligence takes on the Go world champion. The game, which is based on intuition and much more complicated than chess, will test the DeepMind AI’s abilities against a human expert.
While you were sleeping
A Palestinian killed an American tourist in Tel Aviv. Nine others were wounded by the man, who was wielding a knife. Several attacks took place as US vice president Joe Biden met with former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
Germany widened its investigation into Volkswagen’s cheating scandal. Prosecutors said that 22 VW employees are potential suspects in a criminal investigation. The automaker has admitted putting defeat devices in up to 11 million diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests.
A battle is brewing over control of United Continental. Two hedge funds say the airline’s board of directors is “unqualified” and “ineffective,” and have launched a proxy fight to name six new members, including a new director. That’s not a very nice way to welcome back United CEO Oscar Munoz, who is returning to work after a heart attack.
The World Health Organization is worried about sexually-transmitted Zika. Person-to-person transmission of virus, most commonly spread by mosquitoes, is “more common than previously assumed,” director general Dr Margaret Chan said. There’s also increasing evidence that the virus harms people of all ages and could be linked to birth defects besides microcephaly.
Male leaders bungled International Women’s Day. Russia’s Vladimir Putin said women “possess a mysterious power … yet remain tender, unforgettable and full of charm.” Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “a woman is above all a mother,” and Cambodia’s Hun Sen demanded the creation of an organization for men’s rights.
Quartz obsession interlude
Anne Quito on why female architects are being closed out of their own profession. “New York City architect Yen Ha says that discrimination comes from all sides—clients, brokers, engineers and most consistently from contractors. At one project kick-off meeting, she recalls a real estate agent telling a contractor, ‘I’ll have the real architect send the plans to you.’” Read more here.
Quartz markets haiku
Past the horizon
The catlike future crouches
Matters of debate
The US needs a feminist foreign policy… As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton made environmentally-friendly cookstoves an instrument of foreign diplomacy.
… And the corporate world needs more female leaders. Companies with a larger share of women in senior roles are more profitable, according to IMF research.
Game-based learning is the future of education. Teachers want technology like virtual reality headsets to be incorporated into the classroom.
Surprising discoveries
Donald Trump might be bringing in shockingly little income. He filed for a $300 tax break that only applies to couples making less than $500,000 a year.
Bill Gates is bummed he never got to ride a hoverboard. He listed them among dangerous technologies in a conversation on Reddit.
Syria’s first cosmonaut is now a refugee in Turkey. Muhammed Faris is a national hero who went to space as part of a Soviet program in the 1980s.
Grand Central’s clocks are wrong on purpose. The New York City train station sets them one minute ahead to hasten along commuters.
Alaskan Airlines is going out of its way to catch the solar eclipse. An Anchorage to Honolulu flight changed its departure time to allow passengers to see it from the air.
We inadvertently wrote about this morning’s (HK time) total solar eclipse in a day early, in yesterday’s Daily Brief. Apologies for the confusion: We were foiled by the esoteric mysteries of the international dateline.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, tax break tips, and wrong clocks to [email protected]. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day.