Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Still no resolution on elections in Haiti. Protesters and police continue to clash as politicians failed to agree on new elections. The government’s mandate expires tonight at midnight, after which the president would rule by decree.
France on high alert. President François Hollande will deploy 10,000 troops in sensitive areas such as Jewish schools, in the wake of last week’s attacks on the magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher market in Paris.
Will Alcoa beat expectations again? The aluminum companypublishes its fourth-quarter results after
The Turkish prime minister meets Angela Merkel. Ahmet Davutoglu will discuss Syria and Iraq with the German chancellor after both leaders attended a demonstration in Paris to show solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre (see below).
A look ahead for the automobile industry. Detroit’s annual auto show kicks off with keynotes from the CEOs of Fiat Chrysler, GM, Ford, Nissan, and Tesla. Expected announcements include new pickup trucks from Japan and electric cars from GM.
Over the weekend
Two big pharma buyouts. Switzerland’s Roche agreed to pay at least $1.03 billion for Foundation Medicine, a company that uses biotechnology to match cancer patients with drug treatments. Ireland’s Shire paid $5.2 billion for New Jersey-based NPS, which specializes in making drugs for gastrointestinal disorders, in Shire’s first return to deal-making since its plan to sell itself to AbbVie fell apart last year.
AirAsia’s “black boxes” were found. An Indonesian search and rescue official said divers zeroed in on the location of the cockpit voice recorder, just hours after recovering the flight data recorder on Monday morning local time. The boxes are expected to shed light on the cause of the plane crash en route from Indonesia to Singapore on Dec. 28.
Paris stopped to remember its victims. French president François Hollande and leaders from many other nations joined hundreds of thousands in a silent march to honor those killed in last week’s terror attacks. Hayat Boumeddiene, the partner of Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four kosher market customers and a police officer, may have entered Turkey on her way to Syria. Separately, ISIL released a videoshowing Coulibaly pledging his loyalty to the group.
Croatia narrowly elected its first female president. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic won 50.5% of the vote with 99% of the ballots counted, prompting center-left incumbent Ivo Josipovic to concede defeat. Grabar-Kitarovic’s win suggests a shift to the right in parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of the year.
China detained a top spy chief. Ma Jian, a senior counter-intelligence official at China’s security ministry, has been detained over alleged corruption, according to the South China Morning Post (paywall). The charges against Ma may be related to two high-profile mainland corporations involved in a bitter feud over insider trading.
A pro-democracy media outlet was firebombed in Hong Kong. The residence and former office of Next Media founder Jimmy Lai were attacked simultaneously on Monday morning, in what an aide called an act of political intimidation. Lai is a major backer of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
Women and children were used as suicide bombers in Nigeria.Two women blew themselves up near a mobile phone market in the northeastern town of Potiskum, a day after another suicide attack by a girl as young as 10 years old, which killed at least 20 people in the nearby town of Maiduguri.
SpaceX’s Dragon made its way to ISS. Elon Musk’s company successfully launched its autonomous spacecraft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station—a lift to the industry after failures by other commercial space companies in 2014. But the SpaceX experiment with recover
Quartz obsession interlude
Kabir Chibber on the biggest hypocrites celebrating free speech yesterday in Paris. “Perhaps most surprising of all in these circumstances, Ireland has had ‘blasphemy’ as a criminal offense on its books since 2009. Blasphemy is punishable with a fine of up to €25,000 ($29,500).” Read more here.
Matters of debate
History will eviscerate Barack Obama. On his watch the United States became less united, less democratic, and less free.
Actually, history will be very kind. Obama made the country moreprosperous, egalitarian, and sustainable.
A Grexit could happen by accident. The Syriza party no longer wants Greece to ditch the euro but it may have no choice (paywall).
This could be the year for rebuilding middle-class wealth. New savings options are entering the market.
Boko Haram is turning into the next Islamic State. It is gainingterritory and confidence in northeast Nigeria.
Surprising discoveries
A man named Doom helped create the first atomic bomb. He’s now 92 years old (but is not a doctor).
There’s a formula for falling in love. And you can make the choice to take the leap.
Mitt Romney is considering another White House run. Republicans spent $1.2 billion on his failed 2012 campaign.
GE knows what your insides look like. New images from its body scanner are impressive, if rather disgusting.
iPhone separation makes you dumber. Study participants reportedcognitive impairments when they couldn’t answer their smartphones.
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