Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
A glimpse of the future for US housing. Analysts expect pending home sales to have risen 0.5% month-on-month in November, up from 0.1% the year prior. The numbers, from the National Association of Realtors, would show buyers wanting to lock in purchases (paywall) before further interest-rate hikes take hold.
John Kerry makes a last-ditch Israel-Palestine peace proposal. Days after the US allowed the UN to pass a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion, the secretary of State will lay out a plan for a two-state solution. It will be symbolic, since Israel has resisted recent US peace efforts and Donald Trump is likely to dismantle them.
China and Pakistan talk roads. The Joint Cooperation Committee on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will meet to evaluate ongoing infrastructure and energy projects. CPEC has strong critics in both countries because of high costs, corruption, and poor working conditions.
While you were sleeping
Toshiba faced a massive writedown. The Japanese electronics manufacturer lost almost $5 billion in market value after announcing that cost overruns at a US nuclear business it bought last year could cost it billions of dollars. The troubled conglomerate is still trying to recover from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal.
Data cast a fresh light on German immigration. More migrants are voluntarily choosing to leave Germany, while twice as many were turned away at Germany’s borders in 2016 as in 2015, according to new statistics. Immigration will be a defining issue in the country’s elections next year.
South Korea fined Qualcomm $853 million. The country’s antitrust regulator has accused the chipset designer of imposing unfair licensing fees on mobile device makers using its patents. The company has faced similar hurdles in China and Europe, but South Korea is an important market: Samsung is Qualcomm’s second-biggest customer.
Vietnam’s economy slowed for the first time in four years. Full-year GDP growth was 6.2%, down from 6.7% in 2015. The government blamed a drought, the global economic slowdown, and an environmental disaster in April which devastated fisheries. Nonetheless, the country of around 90 million remains one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
Tributes poured in for Carrie Fisher. The actress, author, screenwriter, and script doctor—best known for playing Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy—was heralded as a one-of-a-kind talent after news of her death at age 60 in Los Angeles. Over the course of her career, Fisher was candid about her experiences with marital discord, drug addiction, and bipolar disorder.
Quartz obsession interlude
Amy X. Wang on music’s dizzying year of change. “Something new. That’s the key word here, the one that describes all the conscious efforts of many artists, in 2016, to make their releases stand apart. Musicians—true ones, anyway—have always done their best to differentiate their work from that of others past and present. (Some would argue that’s one of the most imperative points of art.) Now they’re doing the same with the way their music comes out, too.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Time management is ruining our lives. The quest for personal productivity only creates more anxiety.
Respect for others should be taught in school. Educators can respond to identitarian movements by helping students identify their own biases.
Humans should leave Mars alone. Making the planet habitable is theoretically possible, but also unethical.
Surprising discoveries
Carrie Fisher had a secret career as a script doctor. She quietly helped rewrite Hook, Sister Act, and the Star Wars prequels.
Chinese state media are blaming kitchen fumes for smog. Readers are incensed by an editorial attributing the toxic haze that has choked cities partly to greasy cooking.
An Amazon Echo might have overheard a murder. Arkansas police want to know if the device picked up sounds that could help in their investigation.
Governments once wanted to abolish passports. Enabling easy migration was seen as a vital international goal until World War I.
Egyptian fruit bats argue—a lot. About 60% of their disputes are over food, sleeping positions, unwanted mating advances, or personal space.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, scripts in need of fixing, and overheard bat arguments to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android.