Good morning, Quartz readers!
Please check out 25 Days of Exchange—an interactive Christmas advent calendar from Quartz with stories on the origins, innovations, and economics of our global gift-giving traditions. You can also sign up here to receive a daily SMS holiday gift.
What to watch for today
One final Brexit appeal. The UK’s supreme court will weigh the argument that prime minister Theresa May cannot trigger an exit from the EU without parliamentary approval, despite last June’s referendum. The proceedings will take four days and be streamed live, but the court isn’t expected to decide until the new year.
The French prime minister joins the presidential race. Manuel Valls is to announce he will run as a Socialist party candidate in the ruling party’s January primary. If he wins that, Valls will go up against Les Républicains’ François Fillon and Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing Front National, in the election next spring. (He probably won’t win that.)
Greece under the microscope, again. The Eurogroup of finance ministers meets to discuss fiscal plans for the coming year. Germany’s Wolfgang Schäuble has said that Greece must implement economic reforms if it’s to remain part of the euro zone.
Over the weekend
Italy rejected change, so Matteo Renzi resigned. Italy’s prime minister suffered a major defeat over the weekend in a constitutional-reform referendum he proposed. The measure began as a streamlining of government decision-making processes, and evolved into a vote of confidence in Renzi himself. Italy’s main bank index dropped around 3.5% (paywall) early Monday.
China complained about Donald Trump. The US president-elect’s surprise phone call with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen—believed to be the first between leaders of the two countries since 1979—sparked an official complaint from China. With his inauguration only seven weeks away, and a vote recount looking unlikely, Trump’s foreign-policy chops are under increased scrutiny.
Apple hinted at a self-driving-car project. In a letter to US transportation authorities, the company said it’s ”excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation.” The statement is the closest Apple has come to acknowledging its car effort, code-named Project Titan.
The far right lost in Austria. The Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer conceded defeat to left-leaning rival Alexander Van der Bellen in the presidential election. Austria is one of several EU countries facing growing far-right parties—France, the Netherlands, and Germany all have elections with similar stakes next year. Still, Hofer did get 47% of the vote.
Fidel Castro’s ashes were buried in Cuba. Crowds lined the streets in Santiago—regarded as the birthplace of the Communist revolution in Cuba—to see the funeral procession carry Castro’s ashes to Santa Ifigenia cemetery, where they were interred next to those of 19th-century independence icon José Martí. Castro died on Nov. 25 at age 90.
New Zealand’s popular prime minister said he’ll resign. John Key surprised everyone by saying he will step down for family reasons, after eight years in office. He backed his deputy, Bill English, to succeed him. The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said he sent Key a message when he heard the news: “Say it ain’t so, bro’.”
Quartz obsession interlude
Mimi Onuoha on Broadway’s dramatic race problem. “The variability and lack of steady increase on the numbers suggest that while in recent seasons there might be more roles being written for and shows being produced that feature people of color, there’s no evidence of people of color being asked to audition more for the current crop of existing roles.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Trump’s infrastructure plan won’t work while he’s president. Effective infrastructure spending takes years to make an economic impact.
Online life is as real as ”real” life. Telling someone to go offline to get away from trolls is like telling them to stop leaving the house.
You’re not always entitled to your opinion. Using “opinion” as a defense only works if you have the evidence to back it up.
Surprising discoveries
A fake US embassy in Ghana was shut down after 10 years of issuing illegal visas. The rundown pink building had a portrait of US president Barack Obama hanging inside.
Pulling an all-nighter could be a quick fix for depression. The brain receptor altered by antidepressants is also affected by sleep deprivation.
An Egyptian engineer is promoting bees by wearing a beard of them. Mohamed Hagras attracts the insects to his chin by strapping on a box housing their queen’s hormones.
Tiny-armed robots could be the future of surgery. The Axsis robot, designed to operate on cataracts, has an internal algorithmic autopilot that keeps human surgeons from making dumb mistakes.
Five vintage Thomas Edison lightbulbs sold for $30,000. A Pittsburgh man bought the set of them (paywall) at an auction.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, bee hives, and vintage bulbs to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our app for iPhone (and, as of today, for Android!).