Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Bank of England issues its interest rate decision… The central bank is widely expected to keep rates steady, as the economy has surpassed expectations since the Brexit vote. It will also release its updated inflation forecast.
…And Theresa May publishes her Brexit plan. The UK prime minister will lay out a white paper detailing her EU withdrawal plans, including the status of EU nationals living in Britain. Parliament overwhelmingly voted to move forward with Brexit on Wednesday.
James Mattis reassures US allies in Asia. The new US defense secretary will meet his South Korean counterpart to discuss North Korea’s missile program, before traveling to Japan on Friday. Mattis is expected to emphasize US security commitments to its allies.
While you were sleeping
Facebook earnings demolished expectations, once again. Revenue rose by 51%, easily surpassing what most analysts had forecast, as daily active users rose to a staggering 1.23 billion. Separately, Facebook and several of its employees were ordered by a jury to pay $500 million to a company called ZeniMax, which had claimed that Facebook’s Oculus Rift VR device improperly used its code.
Australia celebrated a record trade surplus. A strong rebound in commodity exports led to a surplus in December of A$3.5 billion (US$2.7 billion), well above the forecast of A$2 billion. Demand from China and Japan for coal and iron ore fueled the powerful performance.
Rex Tillerson was confirmed as US secretary of state. The former CEO of ExxonMobil will guide president Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy. Tillerson was narrowly confirmed by the Senate, with many lawmakers concerned about his ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Trump dissed an agreement to accept refugees rejected by Australia. The US president tweeted he would “study this dumb deal,” in reference to an arrangement reached under the Obama administration. The US agreed to consider accepting some of the refugees who’ve languished for years in offshore detention centers on remote Pacific islands.
Quartz obsession interlude
Tim Fernholz on the Republican plot to kill corporate income tax as we know it. “A border adjustment—and the consumption tax behind it—deserves consideration because it is what Trump might propose if he were interested in crafting policy not with the aim of offending trade partners, liberals, and the Republican establishment, but rather with the goal of bringing investment back to the US while still conceding the reality of a globalized economy.” Read more here.
Quartz markets haiku
Apple is surging
and Facebook soars. No wonder
tech is talking back.
Matters of debate
Scientists shouldn’t march on Washington. It would bolster the far-right rhetoric that science is a special-interest group.
Dystopian literature can help you resist Trump. Sinclair Lewis and Octavia Butler predicted Trumpian tropes decades ago—and showed readers how to defeat them.
Silicon Valley needs to stop being scared of sex. Female “sextech” founders in New York City are working to enhance intimate experiences.
Surprising discoveries
Johnny Depp spent $3 million firing Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes out of a cannon. Depp’s former managers included the event in a list of impressive expenses.
US roads are so bad FedEx is burning through tires twice as fast as it did 20 years ago. The company is grappling with too many potholes.
A university in California is teaching a class on plant-based meat. It’s a crash course on how to create and foster fake meat products.
Boston Dynamics’ latest robot has wheels and is terrifying. The Alphabet-owned company admits that “Handle” is “nightmare-inducing.”
Americans are worried about a bacon shortage. But it turns out the panic was nothing more (paywall) than a marketing stunt from pork producers.
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