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.
A tense Turkey trip for Angela Merkel. The German chancellor is in Ankara to meet president Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid major tensions over Turkey’s military role in Syria and the post-coup crackdown on dissidents and the media. Turkey recently accused Germany of harboring militants from the banned PKK party. Should be a fun sit-down.
While you were sleeping
Trump dissed an agreement to accept refugees rejected by Australia. After a reportedly heated phone call with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, the US president tweeted he would “study this dumb deal.” In the arrangement, reached under the Obama administration, the US agreed to consider taking some of the refugees who’ve languished for years in detention centers on remote Pacific islands.
Protests in Romania raged on into a second night. Furious at the government’s recent decriminalization of a list of corruption offenses, hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets of the capital, Bucharest, and cities across the country. Protests of this magnitude haven’t been seen since 1989, when an uprising ousted Nicolae Ceausescu from power.
James Mattis talked THAAD in South Korea. The US defense secretary, on his first overseas trip, said THAAD ( Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system) would only be deployed in the defense of “our allies’ people” and the US troops defending them. He added that the only nation that should be concerned is North Korea—but that probably won’t sooth a perturbed China.
Rising crude prices hurt Shell’s bottom line. The Anglo-Dutch oil group’s annual profit tumbled 37% year-on-year to just over $7 billion, its lowest level in more than a decade. It blamed the recovery of crude, which hiked up refining costs. Shell’s in the process of divesting $30 billion of assets to tackle its debt.
Deutsche Bank’s fourth quarter was even worse than expected. The German lender, buffeted by one enormous fine after another for various wrongdoings, reported a whopping €1.9 billion ($2.05 billion) loss (paywall) in the final quarter of 2016. It was a steeper loss than analysts expected; Deutsche’s shares took a 2.5% dip on Thursday morning.
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.
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.
Boston Dynamics’ latest robot has wheels and is terrifying. The Alphabet-owned company admits that “Handle” is “nightmare-inducing.”
News of a bacon shortage caused a panic. Fake news: turns out it was nothing more (paywall) than a marketing stunt by pork producers.
Volvo is looking for volunteers for self-driving cars. Drivers can do other things on the commute while an engineer sits ready to grab the wheel.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, spare tires, and crispy rashers to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android.