Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Facebook and GE report earnings. It’s been a costly year for the company, which has lost $200 billion in market cap. Still, Wall Street is expecting a 2% increase in monthly users to 2.28 billion, and operating profit of $5.79 billion (paywall). Meanwhile, General Electric shareholders are eagerly anticipating a turnaround plan from new CEO Larry Culp.
Rohingya repatriation talks. Myanmar and Bangladesh will hold a press conference after another round of negotiations in Dhaka on resettling refugees of the persecuted ethnic group who have fled to Bangladesh. According to the UN, a military-sponsored genocide is still happening in Myanmar.
The US-China Entertainment Summit. Despite trade-war tensions, the Los Angeles gala will tout recent blockbuster collaborations between Hollywood and Beijing such as The Meg. Meanwhile, the sequel to superhit Crazy Rich Asians could be partially shot in China.
The European Union’s quarterly GDP numbers. Economists hoped for a pick-up in the economy for the second half of the year, but with uncertainty around Brexit and trade tensions, that hasn’t materialized.
Apple in the Big Apple. After its Cupertino event last month underwhelmed, Apple will unveil new iPad Pro tablets and other updates in New York, two days ahead of its fourth-quarter results.
While you were sleeping
The White House warned of a comprehensive trade war if China negotiations fail. The Trump administration is prepared to announce tariffs “on all remaining Chinese imports” (paywall), worth a total of $257 billion, unless a resolution is found by mid-December, Bloomberg reported.
Typhoon Yutu made landfall in the Philippines. Known locally as Rosita, it is the 18th typhoon of the year to hit the country, and is expected to follow a path similar to typhoon Mangkhut last month, which killed more than 80.
Markets continued their wild ride with another down day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 245 points and the S&P 500 fell 0.7%, briefly dipping into correction territory (paywall) before bouncing back slightly. Tech stocks led the decline. China’s markets were more chipper on comments from the country’s securities regulator.
Cesar Sayoc appeared in court. The man suspected to be behind a wave of mail bombs in the US was in federal court Monday afternoon (paywall), but didn’t enter a plea. Earlier in the day, a post office in Atlanta intercepted an explosive parcel before it arrived at CNN’s nearby headquarters—the first to be discovered since Sayoc’s arrest last week.
Quartz Obsession interlude
Dave Gershgorn on the game that wrote the blueprint for nerds: “Dungeons & Dragons is staging a comeback in the culture it helped create. … But D&D never really lost its relevance. The game created a whole new way of thinking about how games could be played, and how a game could tell a story. Without it, nerd culture as we know it would not exist.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Facebook is better for autocrats than revolutionaries. Mark Zuckerberg’s company seems to be incapable of recognizing that its product is socially destructive.
Markets shouldn’t be too cheery about Brazil’s new leader. Jair Bolsonaro has promised to reduce debt, cut taxes, and ease labor laws, but has voted against reform in the past.
Developing brains and smartphones are a toxic mix. Rich schools—especially those in Silicon Valley—are figuring that out faster (paywall) than poor ones.
Surprising discoveries
Humans have been making chocolate for a lot longer than we thought. New research indicates that cacao was part of Mayo-Chinchipe culture about 5,300 years ago.
China is creating social credit scores for dogs. Owners in the eastern city of Jinan lose points if they walk pooches without a leash or fail to scoop poop.
Legal AIs beat out lawyers in a robot-human face-off. The bots found more flaws in legal documents than the humans, in a fraction of the time.
New Delhi will use Twitter and Facebook to fight air pollution. India’s Supreme Court has directed authorities in the capital to allow people to flag air quality on social media.
Goop’s “ancient Chinese” jade vaginal eggs aren’t Chinese. The eggs don’t turn up in scholarship on sex in ancient China, despite claims by Gwyneth Paltrow’s company.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, ancient chocolate, and jade eggs to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written and edited by Tripti Lahiri and Isabella Steger.