Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Barack Obama’s awkward meeting with Donald Trump. The US president has invited his successor—who is threatening to dismantle Obama’s entire legacy—to the White House to discuss an orderly transition. The two have barely had any contact before. Trump repeatedly questioned Obama’s US citizenship, while Obama said Trump was unfit to be president.
Narendra Modi in Japan. The Indian prime minister is looking to sign a civil nuclear deal. The two countries will also discuss trade, investment, and security during his stay.
Disney’s pivotal earnings. The media giant is under scrutiny after its lucrative ESPN network shed hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and theme park attendance declined. Fashion houses Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors will also report earnings.
While you were sleeping
Anti-Trump protests broke out across the US. Thousands of demonstrators thronged the streets of In New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities to protest Trump’s election victory. They chanted phrases like ”not my president” and burned effigies of the president-elect; in LA and Portland, rallies temporarily shut down big freeways.
European and Asian markets fought off a “Trump slump.” According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, global bond investors lost $337 billion in a single day yesterday. But Trump’s victory didn’t unsettle stock markets for too long: On Thursday morning the Stoxx Europe 600 had climbed back up 4.6% from its post-election low, the FTSE jumped 0.7% in early London trading and Asian stocks rebounded, with the Nikkei 225 surging by 6% in the morning in Tokyo.
Interpol elected a controversial new chief. Meng Hongwei is a former deputy head of China’s armed police, a paramilitary force often used to deal with unrest in areas like Xinjiang and Tibet. Human-rights activists worry Beijing will, through him, use the global policing body to track down and arrest dissidents who’ve escaped the country; it has already used Interpol to bring back miscreant officials who fled.
Siemens had an outstanding year. The German engineering giant’s fourth-quarter profit rose 18% year-on-year, and the profit in its closely-watched industrial operations unit was up 13% for the whole year, which according to its CEO was “one of the strongest in the history of our company“ (paywall). Plans are afoot to spin off the health-care arm and focus more on the energy divisions.
Generic competitors dented AstraZeneca’s revenues. The UK-based drugmaker’s third-quarter revenue dropped 4% and pre-tax profit came in nearly 30% lower than the same time a year ago, thanks to generic versions of its cholesterol drug Crestor (paywall). Still, its two new cancer drugs are selling well.
Trump reassured South Korea. In a call to president Park Geun-hye, he pledged his commitment to defend the nation under an existing security alliance, according to the Yonhap news agency. During the campaign he said he might withdraw US troops unless Seoul paid a greater share of their costs.
Quartz obsession interlude
Kevin Delaney on the need to champion globalization: “Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency undermines a vision of the new global economy that was already in crisis. Those of us who believe in a more connected world must make an urgent and compelling case for it.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
A madman now controls a massive surveillance state. But it’s not too late to stop Trump from taking our online freedoms.
Trump threatens to plunge Asian geo-politics into chaos. Japan and South Korea might get nuclear weapons, and southeast Asia will move further into China’s orbit.
2020 will be worse than 2016. If you thought this year’s US election was gnarly, just wait for the futuristic horror show on the horizon.
Surprising discoveries
A robot solved a Rubik’s Cube in a record 0.637 seconds. That’s about 10 times faster than the human record-holder.
A Canadian diver stumbled upon a possible lost American nuke. He was looking for sea cucumbers off the coast of Vancouver.
California marijuana could follow the same path as beer and wine. Cheap, homogenized weed for the masses, and artisanal cannabis on the high end.
There’s a virus that can spread between smart light bulbs. It travels via radio waves and could theoretically shut down wifi across an entire city.
The Back to the Future 2 villain was based on Donald Trump. Biff Tannen used a casino fortune to fund his quest for political power.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, artisanal weed, and Canadian sea cucumbers to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our iPhone app.