Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Apple’s iPhone X finally launches. Potential sales in China are still a big question mark, but lines formed outside stores pretty early in Singapore, Japan, and Australia. Though investors worried that announcing three iPhones at once was a mistake, Apple’s quarterly earnings were solid, and shares hit a record high.
Berkshire Hathaway reports its quarterly earnings. This year’s extreme weather did a number on Warren Buffet’s collection of insurance groups. Analysts expect major losses, but Berkshire should still turn an operating profit.
Donald Trump visits Hawaii on his way to Japan. Pearl Harbor is the US president’s first stop before touring Asia. Japan is up first, then South Korea, China, Vietnam, and finally, the Philippines. Trump’s not going anywhere near the North Korean border, calling the Demilitarized Zone a “cliche.”
The US releases October jobs data. The US economy shed jobs for the first time since September 2010 because of weather disruptions. Economist surveyed forecast 300,000 new jobs (paywall) were added last month.
While you were sleeping
Venezuela announced plans for a debt restructuring. President Nicolas Maduro said the government will transfer funds for a $1.1 billion principal payment on state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela bonds that came due yesterday, and will then renegotiate the terms of its debt with creditors.
Twitter accidentally silenced Donald Trump. The social network said that the president’s Twitter account was shut down for 11 minutes by a departing customer-support employee on the last day of the job.
The US pulled back on fighting corruption in the oil industry. The White House said it would withdraw from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which requires members to disclose their revenues from energy and mining assets.
A billionaire closed down DNAinfo, Gothamist, and other blogs. Their owner, Joe Ricketts, who founded TD Ameritrade, shuttered the sites after New York-based staff decided to unionize last week. The decision involves blogs based in other cities too, such as Chicagoist, Shanghaiist, and LAist.
Quartz obsession interlude
Michael J. Coren on how Amazon competing with so many companies may not end well. “But Amazon’s unprecedented logistics and delivery infrastructure, paired with access to personal data about Americans’ purchasing habits, means it is unique in the history of global commerce. No company has ever wielded this combination of consumer insight and infrastructure, say historians and legal analysts, which means the company grows stronger and less assailable with every purchase.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The economic disparity in innovative cities is no coincidence. An analysis of US cities shows that growth in high-tech innovation causes a widening gap between the rich and the poor.
The new Fed chair isn’t an economist, and that’s fine. A chair with more political savvy than a lifelong academic may be what’s necessary to maintain the Fed’s independence.
Xi Jinping is not the “president” of China. His official title is actually “state chairman,” reflecting the emphasis not on republican representation, but authority.
We shouldn’t separate work from life. Instead, we should seek work-life integration by incorporating our personal and business interests into our daily routines.
Surprising discoveries
Finnair is weighing passengers at Helsinki airport. The airline is checking that the estimates it uses to calculate total weight, fuel, and safety are accurate.
Scientists discovered a void inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. The mysterious 30-meter-long space may have been a burial chamber, a gallery, or just a sealed-off construction passage.
NASA found another 20 promising planets for human colonization. If confirmed, this would increase the number of known, habitable near-Earth-sized exoplanets to around 50.
Kleptopredation is a new scientific term for super-sizing a meal at sea. It refers to a previously unknown behavior: a predator eating prey that itself just filled up on prey.
The world’s most expensive whisky is actually fake. Laboratory tests found that a £7,600 ($9,928) dram of 1878 Scotch, bought by a Chinese millionaire, was likely distilled sometime after 1970.
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