Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
China hits luxury car buyers with a 10% tax. Chinese residents with deep pockets and a predilection for Ferraris and Bentleys will have to stretch a little further: The government is hiking taxes on autos worth more than $189,000.
US automakers release November sales. They dropped 6% in October, but Black Friday buying should bring a boost, as carmakers look for another year of record sales.
Wisconsin starts its presidential recount. Green party candidate Jill Stein requested the reexamination of ballots, and Hillary Clinton’s campaign is also taking part, even though almost no one expects the result to change. Stein is also demanding a recount in Michigan, which Donald Trump also won by a narrow margin.
While you were sleeping
OPEC surprised markets with a deal to end the oil glut. Saudi Arabia bore the brunt of the 2% production decrease, agreeing to allow Iran to increase its output slightly. Oil prices surged by more than 8%.
Trump’s new treasury secretary set his sights on bank regulation. Steven Mnuchin, a hedge fund boss and former Goldman Sachs partner, said he would “strip back” legislation enacted after the financial meltdown. He also aims to privatize mortgage finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Netflix finally offered offline viewing. The video streaming giant will let users download videos on mobile devices, which it has long resisted. The move is aimed at developing markets where mobile bandwidth is sparse, and comes as the company faces increased competition from Amazon.
The UN stepped up sanctions on North Korea. In response to the renegade state’s latest nuclear test, the Security Council slashed Pyongyang’s coal export cap, which could reduce revenues by $800 million. US ambassador Samantha Powell admitted it would do little to dissuade Pyongyang from developing more nuclear weapons.
Royal Bank of Scotland fell short in Britain’s bank “stress tests.” The state-controlled bank needs another £2 billion of capital to be able to get through another crisis, the Bank of England announced. Barclays and Standard Chartered also failed several measures, but were not required to raise more capital.
Quartz obsession interlude
Max de Haldevang on Donald Trump’s attempts to resolve his conflicts of interest: “His empire is just too sprawling, his web of connections too extensive, for him to take himself completely out of the firing line in the short period between election and inauguration. A better question is whether he can do it over the course of a four-year term.” Read more here.
Quartz haiku interlude
So touching: Iran
and Saudis overcome their rift
to make more money
Matters of debate
Facebook shouldn’t fact-check the news. Giving the company editorial power would be “unprecedented and dangerous.”
China’s sex education failures are a catastrophe. The country has skyrocketing HIV transmission rates.
An entire global generation has lost faith in democracy. Millennials are increasingly open to military rule.
Surprising discoveries
Fidel Castro moonlighted as Gabriel García Márquez’s editor. He regularly reviewed the author’s manuscripts.
The vice president of Afghanistan assaulted a rival at a sporting event. Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum is still reportedly holding Ahmad Ishchi on his compound.
Space travel requires a better astronaut diaper. NASA is offering a $30K prize for a device to collect urine and feces over a six-day period.
A backup copy of the internet is moving to Canada. The Internet Archive is wary of the next American president.
You’ll soon be able to get high on Hunter S. Thompson’s favorite weed. His widow extracted DNA from his preferred strains.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, space diapers, and gonzo ganja to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our iPhone app.