Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
The UN Security Council holds a meeting on North Korea. Ja Song Nam, North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, will be at today’s meeting in New York, where ministers will discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
Chile goes to the polls. The presidential election on Sunday is a tight race between conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera and center-left senator Alejandro Guillier.
The new White House website launches. The administration claims revamped security and maintenance measures on the site could save American taxpayers $3 million annually. It said the new style would be simple and “presidential.”
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump thanked Vladimir Putin for the compliments. He called the Russian president to thank him for “acknowledging America’s strong economic performance” at his annual press conference. National security adviser H.R. McMaster didn’t participate in the call, where the two leaders also talked about North Korea.
Airbus announced a major management shakeup. Tom Enders, the CEO of the European aviation giant that’s currently battling multiple corruption allegations, will leave in 2019. President and COO Fabrice Brégier will leave next year.
H&M suffered a fast-fashion slowdown. The Swedish fashion chain posted its biggest quarterly sales drop in a decade as fewer customers shopped in its stores—it will now shutter more shops and curb its expansion plans. H&M is lagging behind its rival Zara: the Inditex-owned company reported robust sales earlier this week.
Russia’s former economic development minister was found guilty of bribery. A court said Alexey Ulyukayev accepted a $2 million bribe from Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. The high-profile case has gripped Russia, as it affords a rare glimpse into the power plays of the country’s elite.
Australia pushed for a law to force religious leaders to report child abuse. That’s the recommendation from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse. Its five-year investigation found tens of thousands of child victims and cases of abuse cover-ups in the Australian Catholic Church. The Church rejected the report’s recommendations.
Quartz obsession interlude
Lily Kuo on how China is training the next generation of African elites. “In the 1970s, China actively tried to export its communist revolution to Africa, one of Beijing’s few diplomatic engagements at the time. Now, Beijing is promoting a more subtle movement: support for China and and its model of development. Instead of relying on Chinese emissaries in African countries, Beijing is bringing thousands of African leaders, bureaucrats, students, and businesspeople to China.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Next year will be even harder than this one for Facebook. Its challenges with taxation, regulation, and hate-speech-monitoring aren’t going away.
Nobody wants to work in a “fast-paced environment.” The clichéd job description suggests a culture that sacrifices quality for speed.
Disney’s Fox acquisition is about beating Netflix. It’s locking up content for the streaming service it hopes will poach some of Netflix’s 100 million subscribers.
Surprising discoveries
A Japanese company will pay employees in bitcoin. GMO Internet will give staff the option to be paid in cryptocurrency to help them better understand how it works.
Monorails are making a comeback. They’re a cheap transportation option for dense cities, and track production is set to double or triple in Asia and Latin America.
Wine glasses are almost seven times bigger than they were 300 years ago. In the 1700s, they were not much bigger than a shot glass.
Tolls hit $40 in Washington, DC last week. The price lasted for only six minutes but spooked commuters to reroute or carpool, as the toll was designed to do.
The Simpsons predicted its own takeover by Disney nearly 20 years ago. A 1998 episode joked that 20th Century Fox had fallen under the umbrella of Disney.
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