Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Barack Obama pays a final visit to his friend Angela Merkel. The US president left Greece and touched town for a two-day stay in Germany, to spend time with “my closest international partner these past eight years.” The mood is likely to be a lot less cheerful than when Obama made his first trip to Berlin in 2008, four months before he was first elected president.
Canada’s central bank reacts to the US elections. Deputy governor Timothy Lane will talk about Canada’s economic outlook (paywall) in the wake of Donald Trump’s big win. Roughly three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the US.
Chinese internet giant Tencent reports earnings. The owner of popular apps such as WeChat and QQ is expected to post a 45% increase in profit (paywall) as it expands its advertising and mobile payments businesses.
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump denied his cabinet-selection process was a mess. On Tuesday night, the president-elect tweeted: “Very organized process taking place…I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!” In fact, according to multiple news reports, it’s been chaotic, as the head of his national-security team quit, vice president-elect Mike Pence got rid of lobbyists, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner became the focus of “infighting.”
Snapchat filed for a “secret IPO.” Companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue can file for an IPO confidentially with the SEC. According to Reuters, the messaging app plans to go public early next year, and could be valued at $20 billion to $25 billion—that would make it the biggest IPO since Alibaba floated in 2014.
Emmanuel Macron announced his presidential bid. The former French economy minister quit the unpopular Socialist government in August. Although he’s never held elected office, he is one of the country’s most popular politicians. He and whoever the Republican party nominates in its primaries this Sunday will be rivals to face off against the nationalist Marine Le Pen in the final run-off.
ABN Amro’s cost-cutting boosted profit. The state-controlled Dutch bank, which returned to public trading last year after being nationalized during the 2008 financial crisis, beat estimates with a 19% jump in third-quarter profit. It plans to cut a further 1,500 jobs from its global workforce of 26,500.
Super Mario gave Nintendo’s shares a shine. The announcement that the Super Mario Run game for the iPhone and iPad will be released next month boosted Nintendo’s share price by as much as 5% in Tokyo. Nintendo shares have been on a roll, gaining more than 50% this year after the release of its smash hit Pokémon Go.
Quartz obsession interlude
Mike Murphy on Apple’s smart glasses. “Apple has explored at least one design for its glasses that looks similar to some popular sunglasses already on the market. In a design mockup shared with Quartz by a source with knowledge of the project, the glasses looked rather like a pair of sunglasses made by the online glasses startup Warby Parker.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
US cities will be the only effective counterweight to Trump. They are the only institutions still controlled by Democrats.
Humans and AI will be inextricably linked in less than a decade. “Symbiotic autonomy” will forever change the decision-making process.
Russia’s rulers are turning on each other. Recent bribery charges against a government minister suggest the elites are fighting over a shrinking economic pie.
Surprising discoveries
“Post-truth” is Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year. It’s the symbol of contemporary politics in which emotion has replaced reasoning and facts.
Argentina wants to exterminate its beavers. The invasive animals have wreaked havoc on its ecosystem.
A philosopher anticipated the rise of Trump in 1998. He also predicted his first move once elected: a truce with the ultra-wealthy.
Walmart is warning employees not to download a chat app. It was designed by a group trying to organize workers (paywall).
Human blood can revive old mice. Plasma from teenagers improves memory, cognition, and physical activity in one-year-old rodents (that’s 50 in rat years).
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, post-truth truths, and non-invasive beavers to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our iPhone app.