Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The revival of TPP talks. The US pulled out of the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, but the chief negotiators from the remaining 11 nations are meeting in Japan and aim to move forward. They hope to finish the last stages of negotiation this week and reach a broad agreement at next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vietnam.
The first arrests in the US’s 2016 election probe. The FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the last presidential election could bear its first public fruit. A grand jury assembled by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller’s office approved charges against individuals on Friday; they could be taken into custody as soon as today.
Iceland starts to form a new government. After a snap election this weekend, neither prime minister Bjarni Benediktsson’s Independence Party nor any other won a majority in parliament. Today leaders from eight parties that won seats will meet individually with president Gudni Johannesson, who will decide who gets the first crack at trying to assemble a government—but coalition negotiations could take months.
Over the weekend
The Spanish government sacked Catalonia’s leaders. Over 140 people were dismissed early Saturday (paywall) as part of Spain’s takeover of the region, and a vote has been scheduled for Dec. 21 to replace the elected officials removed. In the region’s capital Barcelona, hundreds of thousands marched for a unified Spain yesterday, highlighting the divisions within Catalonia.
Nikon plans to close a digital camera factory because of competition from smart phones. The Nikkei reported that the plant (paywall) in China churns out entry-level devices, while the global market for compact digital cameras has shrunk to a tenth of its peak within the past decade. The company projects a sharp drop in the sale of such cameras this year.
HSBC reported strong earnings with help from Asia. The bank reported a pretax profit of $4.6 billion in the third quarter, up from $843 million in the same period a year ago, thanks in part to its expanding marketshare in Asia. The year-ago period was affected by a one-off loss from the sale of its Brazilian unit, and adverse foreign currency movements.
Whitefish’s $300 million Puerto Rico contract was canceled. The Puerto Rico Power Authority nixed a contract to rebuild the island’s energy grid at governor Ricardo Rossello’s urging. The unfavorable terms raised questions about how Whitefish got the deal, as did the company’s apparent ties to the Trump administration, which tried to distance itself from the affair.
An explosion killed at least 27 people in Mogadishu. Two car bombs exploded on Saturday just outside the Nasa Hablod Two Hotel—two weeks after the city was hit with the deadliest car bombings in Somalia’s modern history, which killed over 275. Al-Shabaab, the local branch of al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility.
Quartz obsession interlude
Annalisa Merelli on the US’s maternal mortality rate. ”On that May day, she joined one of the US’s most shameful statistics. With an estimated 26.4 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2015, America has the highest maternal mortality rate of all industrialized countries… While most of the world has drastically reduced maternal mortality in the past three decades, the US is one of just a handful of countries where the problem worsened.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Underwater gates will save New York. A nonprofit wants the city to put a series of massive underwater gates in New York Harbor, echoing the work of Dutch and UK governments, to prevent flooding.
Daylight savings time is massively disruptive. It’s only an hour, but it could make you cranky, and even dangerous.
A “millionaire’s tax” is not the answer to US tax reform. Republicans should argue it makes more sense to close the loopholes and subsidies that distort economic decisions (paywall).
Surprising discoveries
Scientists think they saw the first “interstellar comet” from beyond our solar system. Astronomers have waited decades to see the object they have dubbed A/2017 U1.
Kazakhstan may soon become Qazaqstan. The country’s president signed a decree swapping its 42-letter Cyrillic alphabet to a 32-letter Latin alphabet, to be fully implemented by 2025.
The tea-infusing business had its own Juicero. Teforia, a $1,000 internet-of-things device that brews loose-leaf tea, had its price slashed to $199 after the company went belly-up on Friday.
China could turn its western desert into “California.” Chinese scientists hope to build a 1,000-km (621-mile) tunnel to divert a Tibetan river into an arid region in Xinjiang, turning it into an agricultural mecca.
Martin Luther mailed it, not nailed it. The German monk behind the Protestant Reformation likely never nailed his 95 theses to a church door, historians believe. Instead, he mailed them to a Catholic archbishop.
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