Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
UK chancellor Philip Hammond gives his first budget speech. Despite dire warnings about a post-Brexit downturn, growth forecasts are expected to remain around 2%. But predictions for 2017 and onwards are likely to be downgraded.
The Fed releases its pre-election minutes. The monetary policy meeting notes are expected to reveal hints that officials are increasingly keen to hike interest rates to 0.5% in 2017. Some markets have already begun pricing in an increase.
The US-China joint commerce commission in Washington. The annual meeting to discuss matters ranging from cybersecurity to agriculture will be a less sunny affair than last year, when the TPP and a US-China Bilateral Investment Treaty seemed a done deal.
While you were sleeping
A day of drama in the Trump transition. The president-elect cancelled and then reinstated a meeting with journalists from the New York Times, then appeared to renege on several key campaign issues: his promise to prosecute Hillary Clinton, climate change denial, and his embrace of the alt-right. Separately, the Trump Foundation admitted to violating laws that ban non-profit leaders from using charitable funds to help themselves or their families.
China moved forward with its own Pacific trade pact. The Beijing-dominated Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership may replace the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is now dead in the water. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Beijing was hoping for “early results” in negotiations.
The US cleared the sale of 100 Airbus jets to Iran. The move comes in the waning days of the Obama administration, and is likely to anger Republicans in Congress and the incoming Trump White House. The clearance, required because about 10% of components are US-made, could potentially be reversed by the new administration.
Barack Obama commuted his 1000th drug crime sentence. The US president reduced the sentences of an additional 79 people imprisoned for non-violent drug crimes—by far the most in recent US history. With criminal justice reform efforts stalled in Congress, the commutations are aimed at easing the effect of “outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws.”
A new Colombia peace deal failed. Conservatives in the opposition coalition rejected a new proposed settlement between the government and FARC guerillas. In a referendum last month, voters unexpectedly blocked a historic deal at the 11th hour.
Quartz obsession interlude
Dave Gershgorn on the limits of artificial intelligence In the fight against fake news: “Parsing a few paragraphs of text for factuality is nowhere near the complex fact-checking machines AI designers are after. ‘It is incredibly hard to know the whole state of the world to identify whether a fact is true or not,’ says Richard Socher, head of Salesforce Research.” Read more here.
Quartz haiku interlude
Yet more stock records.
Hope these winners won’t have to
give their medals back.
Matters of debate
Global gasoline consumption has peaked. The growing popularity of electric cars will have dire consequences for the oil industry.
America’s office of the first lady should go away. It’s a redundant form of modern royalty that doesn’t serve any purpose.
Donald Trump’s advisors are lying to him. Top aides have manipulated their boss on several occasions.
Surprising discoveries
The world’s largest brewers are pushing non-alcoholic beer. It’s a fast-growing market where profit margins are high and regulation minimal.
You can adopt a chunk of space debris. It will tweet its location at you to raise awareness about the dangers of space junk.
Everyone is getting high on Thanksgiving. Marijuana sales spike around the US holiday as people seek a way to deal with their relatives.
Yesterday’s Fukushima earthquake was an aftershock. Geologists traced its origins back to the devastating 2011 quake.
You can detect self-loathing in the way people speak. Linguistic tics signal psychological distress.
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