Amanda Shendruk

Update, Nov. 12 12:30 GMT: In a revised analysis published during COP26, Carbon Action Tracker downgraded its rating of The Gambia, based on a review of the country’s newly-submitted climate plan. The plan, according to CAT, does not represent an increase in ambition compared to its previous plan, and includes a higher projection for future emissions. As a result, its rating was dropped from “Paris Agreement compatible” to “almost sufficient.” The change means that none of the 40 countries in CAT’s analysis are on track.

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in Asia, has joined a club with only 10 other members—the 12-figure club. The chairman of India’s Reliance Industries is now worth $100.6 billion after climbing more than $7 billion in the last four weeks, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index. Reliance stock hit a record high on Oct. 8.

The US government’s flood insurance program will see its biggest overhaul in 50 years today, in an effort to rescue it from at least $20 billion in debt brought on by mounting climate change disasters.

India seems to be making some significant headway in its Covid-19 vaccination program. And most of this uptick has been in its rural districts.

Freight trains may soon travel more easily between Canada, the US, and Mexico after Canadian Pacific Railway finalized a deal to buy Kansas City Southern, positioning itself to become the first rail network connecting the three countries.

Good morning, Quartz readers!

The terrorist events of Sept. 11, 2001 changed airline security forever. In the US, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was quickly established, and airport security was heightened to never-before-seen levels.

The most important takeaways from the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report are easily summarized: Global warming is happening, it’s caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, and the impacts are very bad (in some cases, catastrophic). Every fraction of a degree of warming we can prevent by curbing emissions substantially reduces this damage. It’s a message that hasn’t changed much since the first IPCC report in 1990.

Climate change is a global problem. But the most prominent scientific voices in the climate change debate have often been from the global north, despite the fact that universities in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere have legions of high-caliber researchers focused on the problem.

With temperatures creeping up in Tokyo this week, athletes might not be the only ones setting Olympic records.

When the Tokyo Olympics close on Aug. 8, and the final medal tally is taken, we’ll likely be talking about the usual suspects: the US, China, and maybe Russia (currently competing as the ROC). These countries have huge medal hauls, large populations, and teams numbering in the hundreds.

In a few days, I am going on a four-week vacation.

Delegates from over two hundred regions will participate in this year’s olympics in Tokyo. There are 205 teams, to be precise, which is a curious number given there are only 193 officially recognized countries in the world.

The Covid-19 delta variant is fast becoming the most dominant strain globally.

When economists calculate inflation, they’re trying to determine how prices have risen or fallen across the universe of products and services out there. But since they can’t track these changes for every item in this universe, they make up a “basket”—a collection of specific products and services based on how people live and what they typically consume in the economy. The price of the basket’s contents are factored into a consumer price index, which helps measure inflation.

In the UK, US, and Canada, it is commonplace for public institutions—like the healthcare system, and the national census—to ask for your race or ethnicity. Because of this, they have robust statistics on the identities of their citizens. These nations, however, are the outliers.

For the first time in history, more than 1% of global adults are millionaires—that’s 56.1 million millionaires. But unless you live in a small handful of places, you’re unlikely to bump into one. According to the newest Credit Suisse Global Wealth report, just three countries contain just over 50% of the world’s millionaires—🇺🇸 the US, 🇨🇳 China, and 🇯🇵 Japan.

How much electricity does bitcoin consume globally? The answer is important not only for the health of the planet, but also for the currency’s value.

Seven countries, including the US and China, have already seen their per capita GDPs return to pre-pandemic standing, according to the OECD’s most recent economic outlook report. In looking at 46 countries, the organization suggests most of the global economy will reach pre-coronavirus levels by 2022.

Just hours before a midnight deadline to approve the controversial Texas voting rights bill, Democrats temporarily blocked its passage by walking out of the state legislature. Senate Bill 7 (or SB 7 for short) proposed an overhaul of the state’s voting process, which critics argue would disproportionately affect Black and Latino voters.