Quartz Daily Brief—Ferguson police shot, Alibaba goes shopping, Saudi nuke deal, hunting mutants

Good morning, Quartz readers! First, some of our own news: Quartz Africa is launching in June.Like Quartz India, it will have a specialized team of writers to focus on some of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Sign up here to get an email when it launches, and follow our current Africa coverage here. What to watch for today The Philae lander gets a wakeup call. The space probe traveled 4 billion miles to land on a comet, only to run out of batteries. Now scientists will attempt to bring the spacecraft back to life. Dollar General goes on the offensive. Investors in the dollar-store chain will want to hear how it hopes to compete with its rival Dollar Tree, after Dollar Tree snapped up another dollar-store chain Family Dollar. US retail sales for February. Research firm Retail Metrics expects a1.9% gain year-over-year, after a 0.8% drop in January. While you were sleeping Two police officers were shot in Ferguson. The officers were hit by gunfire outside of the Missouri city’s police station early Thursday morning during a confrontation with protesters. One officer was hit in the face, the other in the shoulder; both are conscious. Alibaba bought a piece of Snapchat at a $15 billion valuation. The Chinese e-commerce giant will invest $200 million in the ephemeral messaging app, according to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal(paywall). Alibaba also announced that it is investing 1 billion yuan ($160 million) along with Chinese automaker SAIC to develop an internet-connected car. Ratuken bought into Lyft at a $2.5 billion valuation. The ride-hailing competitor to Uber closed a $530 million investment round (paywall), led by the Japanese e-commerce giant Ratuken. Lyft plans to expand its operations within existing markets and develop its Lyft Line service, which allows users to share cabs. South Korea joined the rate-cut trend. The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point to an all-time low of 1.75%, following a surprise cut in Thailand yesterday, and after similar moves by more than 20 central banks this year. South Korean inflation is at its lowest point since 1999, and exports are falling. Saudi Arabia signed a nuclear deal with South Korea. The countries agreed to investigate the possibility of building two Saudi nuclear reactors. The deal is seen as a Saudi move to counter Iran’s nuclear capabilities—especially if a deal with the west allows Tehran to maintain some enrichment capabilities—and could signal the start of a Middle East nuclear arms race. Ukraine’s economic forecast got a severe downgrade. The International Monetary Fund expects the economy to contract by 5.5% this year, a sharp revision from its previous expectation it would grow by 1%. The IMF, which is organizing a $17.5 billion bailout for Ukraine, predicted that inflation will “spike temporarily.” ISS astronauts made a photogenic return to Earth. One American and two Russians landed their Soyuz spacecraft safely in Kazakhstan, but not before a NASA photographer captured an beautiful image of their capsule parachuting toward a heavy fog. Quartz obsession interlude Max Nisen on pharma’s biggest nightmare. “For years, drug makers have feared an onslaught of competition from ‘biosimilars,’ the generic version of drugs that are made by living organisms. It finally arrived last week when the FDA approved Novartis’s Zarxio, a near copy of Amgen’s blood cancer drug Neupogen and the first biosimilar in the US.” Read more here. Matters of debate There are no good passwords any more. “Password1″ may be the worst, but two-factor authentication is the only secure solution. China’s feud with the Dalai Lama has become an absurdist comedy. A dispute about reincarnation is best seen “through the prism of Monty Python.” Netflix broke the spoiler alert. The solution is to have marathons, not binges, of new TV episodes. We’re suffering from opinion fatigue. Everyone is expected to have a take on everything—and our brains simply can’t cope. Governments need to invest in the internet. Private companies on their own won’t get the next several billion people online (paywall). Surprising discoveries The Apple Watch is triggering an obscure phobia. Trypophobics—who have a fear of objects with an irregular pattern of holes—are getting the heebie-jeebies. South African gamekeepers are breeding mutants for sport.Hunters pay $30,000 to shoot blue-eyed white lions, for example. France is freaking out over an extra-marital dating site. Gleeden is targeted at married women looking to have an affair. Death by firing squad might return to the US. Utah lawmakerspassed a bill approving the method if lethal injection supplies run short. A Florida church was actually just a nightclub. The Tabernacle hosted “naked paint parties” and “slumber-party Sundays.” Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, mutant lions, and TV marathon nominations to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.