Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The US hands over 9,909 acres to Japan. In the largest return of US-occupied land since 1972, the American military will give back a portion of the Northern Training Ground in Okinawa to the Japanese government. In exchange, Japan is building helipads nearby for the use of US armed forces. Japanese activists have long fought to remove American military bases from Okinawa altogether.
The UN weighs in on Israeli settlements. The United Nations Security Council will vote on a draft resolution calling for the termination of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza. President Obama’s vote will determine his legacy on US-Israel relations, before Trump’s staunchly pro-Israel administration takes power.
The US Commerce Department releases data. The economy is expected to have expanded at a 3.3% annualized rate in the third quarter. Analysts anticipate a decline in durable goods orders for November, and an increase in Americans’ spending for the month. An improved economic outlook could encourage the Fed to boost interest rates again next year.
While you were sleeping
Trump named a China hawk to lead a US trade council. The president-elect announced the formation of the National White House Trade Council, led by UC Irvine professor Peter Navarro, to “advise the president on innovative strategies in trade negotiations,” coordinate US manufacturing capabilities, and lead a “Buy American, Hire American” program. Navarro is a strong critic of US-China trade relations, and authored a book called Death by China.
The search for Berlin’s truck terrorist continued. Local police have placed a 100,000 euro ($104,000) bounty on 23-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri, after finding his residence permit in the hijacked vehicle. Amri was previously placed under surveillance in Germany for suspicion of planning a robbery, and had served jail time in Italy.
Japan approved a record-high defense budget. The Abe administration allocated 5.1 trillion yen ($42.5 billion) for the year starting in April 2016, marking the fifth-straight year of increased defense spending. The budget for the coast guard rose 12%, amid growing tensions with China over the Senkaku islands which are also claimed by China.
Nokia sued Apple. The Finnish company alleges that Apple infringed on 32 patents covering displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets, and video coding. Apple has accused Nokia and Acacia Research Corp. of colluding to “extract and extort exorbitant revenues.” The suit is the latest in the smartphone patent wars, which began in 2011 when Apple filed a host of lawsuits against Samsung.
Uber’s self-driving experiment in San Francisco stalled. The California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the registration of Uber’s 16 semi-autonomous vehicles, prompting it to remove them from the roads. The move, prompted by Uber’s refusal to obtain permits designating the cars as test vehicles, follows a generally rocky rollout.
Quartz obsession interlude
Aimee Groth on Zappos’ “Holacracy” fail. “As it turns out, eliminating ‘the human element’ doesn’t make it go away. Worse, it leads to an undercurrent of resentment. At Zappos, dissatisfaction with Holacracy played a role in nearly a third of the company walking out the door in 2015. That same year, Zappos dropped off of Fortune’s ‘Best Companies to Work for list’ for the first time in years.” Read more here.
Quartz haiku interlude
Alas! Another
Day below Dow twenty K
The wait pains us so
Matters of debate
The Federal Reserve has China in a bind. Chinese monetary policy is caught in what economists call the “impossible trinity.”
Ambition and marriage don’t mix. In families where someone has a big job, all of the career ambition gets allocated to one person.
Latkes shouldn’t be Hanukkah’s “it” food. The potato pancake’s ubiquity leaves no room for other, more innovative, holiday dishes.
Surprising discoveries
40% of American millennials live with their parents. It’s the highest share of young adults living at home since 1940.
Cape Town is using drones to warn beachgoers about sharks. South Africa has the third-highest number of shark attacks in the world, after the US and Australia.
Illegal gold-mining is more profitable than drug smuggling in Latin America. Colombia’s drug cartels make $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year from heroin and cocaine, while gold smugglers make between $1.9 billion and $2.6 billion.
A meat-and-potato pie was sent into space. The pastry froze as it made its 100,000-foot ascent, before being cooked as it came back to Earth.
Turkey’s ripoff of Star Wars was almost lost to history. Çetin İnanç’s The Man Who Saves the World lifts footage from the George Lucas film to tell the story of two Turkish space adventurers.
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