Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
China’s premier goes Down Under. Li Keqiang’s first trip to the country comes as China has begun to take a bigger role in promoting free trade. Australia is trying to maintain its alliance with the US while also courting China, its top trading partner.
Rex Tillerson hosts a global coalition on the Islamic State. The US secretary of state will host counterparts from 68 countries in Washington to discuss the Islamist extremist group. For NATO foreign ministers, it’s their last chance to talk to Tillerson for a while—he’s skipping a big meeting next month.
Rodrigo Duterte visits Thailand. The Philippine president will meet with military junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, as part of a series of meetings with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He’s also sitting down with some Filipino expats, who are among his biggest supporters.
While you were sleeping
Google apologized for funneling money to extremists. The company is in damage control mode after customers found their ads displayed next to hate speech. YouTube accounts associated with homophobic sentiments and Islamic terrorism received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Volkswagen, L’Oreal, and other big companies.
Goldman Sachs made plans to flee London ahead of Brexit. A top executive said the bank would hire “hundreds of people” in other European cities over the next 18 months. The UK’s loss promises to be a win for alternative financial centers like Dublin.
The UK followed the US in cracking down on in-flight electronics. Both countries are restricting carry-on laptops and other large gadgets on inbound flights from a number of airports in the Middle East and Africa.
US stocks fell on Trump fears. Investors think the US president will have difficulty delivering the tax cuts he promised, sending major indices down by more than 1% for Wall Street’s worst day since Nov. 8. Trump’s tax cuts are predicated on Congress passing a health care reform bill, whose prospects are looking iffy.
Paul Manafort faced fresh allegations in Ukraine. A lawmaker released documents alleging that Trump’s former campaign manager attempted to hide payments he received from ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. The FBI is also reportedly investigating Manafort’s ties with Moscow.
Quartz obsession interlude
Oliver Staley on the reasons why HR departments exist: “Agrawal encouraged a rambunctious, sexually explicit work environment where boundaries were not only crossed, but obliterated … So where was HR in all of this? Oh yeah: Thinx hadn’t bothered hiring an HR director.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Tax cuts always just
around the bend. Investors
won’t wait forever.
Matters of debate
The US should stop building airports. Upgrading existing infrastructure would create more growth opportunities.
Losing weight won’t make you happy. Eating a balanced diet, however, reduces the risk of depression.
It’s time for remote workers to return to the office. Distributed workforce pioneer IBM is demanding that employees return to the mothership.
Surprising discoveries
Spain had an outbreak of cannibalism 10,000 years ago. New evidence suggests that hunter-gatherers relied on a convenient source of protein.
Bots are learning to speak their own language. There’s no way to translate it into something humans can understand.
GIFs can be a deadly weapon. A man is facing a 10-year prison sentence for allegedly sending a strobing image to a journalist with epilepsy.
Jane Austen faked her own marriage—twice. The author, who wrote about socially advantageous pairings, registered two phony announcements at her father’s parish.
A mistranslated word led to fake news in the New York Times. An Italian astronomer’s 19th-century report of “canali” on Mars was misread as “canals.”
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