Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Nationwide protests in India. The opposition Congress party wants to use the demonstrations to highlight the impact of prime minister’s Narendra Modi’s demonetization policy on the poor, accusing him of ”personal corruption.” Nearly all of the country’s discontinued bills were returned to banks, dashing hopes that “black money” would be flushed out of the system.
Purchasing remorse peaks in the US. United Parcel Service expects 1.3 million packages to be sent back on “National Returns Day.” That’s up from about 1 million packages the previous year, as more retailers offer free returns and pre-printed return labels.
Earnings reports. Monsanto, Walgreens, and Constellation Brands are among the companies sharing their latest results. The latter sells Corona beer and Svedka vodka but is considering adding marijuana to its lineup.
While you were sleeping
The British car market peaked. The UK saw a record 2.69 million new cars sold in 2016, the fifth consecutive year of sales growth. But the head of the Motor Manufacturers and Traders group predicts a 5% slump in sales in 2017 (paywall), as the weaker pound leads manufacturers to raise prices—and more than 85% of cars sold in the UK are imported.
Donald Trump started an overhaul plan for intelligence agencies. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US president-elect is working on a plan to slim down and restructure (paywall) the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates intelligence across all the agencies. He’s also said to be looking at restructuring the CIA. Trump has been harshly critical of US intelligence, especially over their reports that Russian hackers influenced the US election.
Ireland bounced back after the Brexit fallout. As one of the UK’s closest trading partners, Ireland was especially vulnerable after Britain’s vote to leave the EU—services and manufacturing growth slowed after June 2016. But growth in its services sector sprung back to pre-Brexit levels in December, and manufacturing activity this week hit its highest level in 17 months.
France began a massive duck cull. Authorities in the foie-gras producing regions of southwestern France started slaughtering ducks to try and contain an outbreak of bird flu—one of around 90 outbreaks reported in the last month in the country. As many as one million ducks are expected to be killed in the cull, which runs through Jan. 20.
Iran started to cut its oil output. OPEC’s second largest oil producer said it has started to implement the November OPEC decision to reduce its national oil output by 200,000 barrels a day to 4.3 million per day. However, on Tuesday, Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi accused the autonomous Kurdish region of the country of exporting more than its share.
Quartz obsession interlude
Joon Ian Wong on how America’s No. 2 app would be nothing without No. 1: “Facebook’s mobile app has long occupied the top slot, but the social network has now underlined its dominance with the Facebook Messenger ascension to No. 2. Of course, it’s easier to dominate when you force your existing users onto a new app. Facebook in August started to warn its users to install Messenger or lose access to the messaging feature.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The world’s first cyberwar is already under way. Whistleblowers and hackers have upset political stability as much as military forces.
2017 will be the year we take “tuning-in” to a whole new level. Our perceptions are being changed so much by technology that we are officially starting to become “transhuman.”
Beijing won’t keep North Korea in check. Keeping the status quo in North Korea protects China from an influx of refugees and other negative impacts.
Surprising discoveries
Mark Zuckerberg’s 2017 resolution is to meet people IRL. The social media king wants to meet Americans from all 50 states to see where Facebook falls short.
Amazon is getting into stretchy pants. The e-commerce giant is hiring for an in-house activewear line.
A 105-year-old man set a new cycling record. Frenchman Robert Marchand, who completed 92 laps at a velodrome, is “waiting for a rival.”
A strange deep-space radio wave has been traced to its source. Astronomers pinpointed its origin as a dwarf galaxy 3 billion light years away—but still don’t know what produced the high-energy wave surge.
Humans may have one more organ than previously thought. The mesentery is a gut membrane that keeps your intestines from falling.
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