Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
More demonetization debate. Opposition parties in India plan a day of protest against prime minister Narendra Modi’s controversial move to demonetize Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency notes.
The end of shoelaces? Nike’s HyperAdapt sneakers go on sale today, to select users of the Nike+ app. Quartz’s Marc Bain says the self-tying trainers promise to be more than a gimmick, but at $720, they’re a way more expensive option than velcro.
The UN’s next chief visits China. Incoming secretary-general António Guterres, who succeeds Ban Ki-moon on Jan. 1, will spend two days meeting with foreign minister Wang Yi and other Chinese leaders. According to state media, China’s government “hopes the trip will boost mutual trust and map out the future cooperation between the two sides.”
Over the weekend
Fidel Castro died. Condolences for the Cuban dictator varied greatly in tone. Statements from Canada’s Justin Trudeau and India’s Narendra Modi called Castro a friend and sorrowfully mourned his loss, while other leaders were more circumspect in their appraisals. Castro was 90 years old.
Still more pressure on Park Geun-hye. Crowds calling for the South Korean president’s resignation swelled to their largest in the five weeks since they began. According to the BBC, organizers pegged the number of demonstrators at 1.5 million in Seoul and 400,000 elsewhere in the country, while police estimated there were 270,000 demonstrators in the capital. Park’s apologies for a scandal involving a questionable friendship have done little to quell criticism.
Nico Rosberg was crowned a motor sport king. The Formula One Japanese Grand Prix winner sealed the deal at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where his second-pace finish was enough to best Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for the world championship.
Mitt Romney stayed in the running for US secretary of state. Donald Trump is reportedly still considering the former Massachusetts governor for the post, even if the US president-elect’s campaign manager seems to be openly campaigning against the idea. The grumbling suggests former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to have his own shot at the cabinet position.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign joined the push for a recount of votes. On Saturday, campaign lawyer Mark Erik Elias said Clinton would join the recount effort begun by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, though he noted that the Clinton team’s own investigation has not turned up any evidence of tampering in the Nov. 8 US presidential election. Stein raised enough money to file for recounts in a handful of states where Clinton narrowly lost.
Quartz obsession interlude
Lynsey Chutel on why Africa is not conflicted about Fidel Castro’s legacy. “In Castro, African activists found a leader willing to share flaming rhetoric as well as practical guidance to freedom at a time when Africans had few political allies. Those liberation leaders became the founding fathers of modern Africa, and they never forgot Cuba’s help.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Louis Vuitton has become ordinary. So says a new luxury power ranking.
Small farms are key in the fight against climate change. The Paris agreement cannot afford to deny the impact of family-owned farms.
Einstein might have been wrong about the speed of light being a constant. Physicists are floating a new theory to explain what Einstein couldn’t.
Donald Trump’s plan to revive the US coal industry is doomed. One chart explains why.
Apple is outgrowing its corporate structure. Why else is it struggling to regularly update its desktop and laptop computers?
Surprising discoveries
Skateboarder Tony Hawk nearly destroyed his brand before understanding its value. A “Tony Hawk gear” toilet paper joke was a sign that things were amiss.
Scientists found evidence of water a third of the way down to the edge of Earth’s core. An imperfection in a deep-Earth diamond was their clue.
Poaching is causing an increase in the number of elephants born without tusks. Biologists can’t agree whether the rise counts as evolutionary adaptation or merely selection of an already existing trait.
Eric Schmidt struggled to answer a Google interview question. Then again, the company’s famous brainteasers never were very useful for identifying talent.
Urine is more than a waste product. For doctors, it’s the most useful bodily excretion.
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