Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Kremlin braces for nationwide protests. Thousands of people across 200 cities are expected to show up for anti-corruption rallies helmed by Alexei Navalny, a lawyer and vocal critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin. In March, Navalny staged a similar protest that drew 8,000 people and resulted in over 1,000 detentions, including of Navalny himself.
Moon Jae-in talks policy in South Korea’s national assembly. The newly appointed president is addressing the country’s legislature for the first time since his electoral victory. He is expected to ask the opposition to support a 11.2 trillion won ($9.95 billion) stimulus package to help create jobs.
Aldi takes on Walmart. The German discount grocery chain is expected to lay out its plan for a $5 billion investment in 900 stores in the US over the next five years. It’s planning to set up shop in 2,500 locations (paywall) by 2022. Another German discounter is coming to America this week too—Lidl opens its first 10 US stores on Thursday.
Over the weekend
Theresa May reshuffled her cabinet. The UK prime minister placed two prominent pro-Brexit ministers (and former rivals) in positions of power. The moves are being interpreted as a way of appeasing members of her Conservative Party, after her call for an early election backfired badly, stripping the party of its majority in parliament.
Emmanuel Macron’s party won the first round of France’s parliamentary elections. Early poll results show the president’s brand new centrist party on track to win a huge share of seats. If the results are confirmed in the second round of voting on Sunday, Macron will preside over one of the largest majorities in post-war France, perhaps around 450 seats in the 577-member in the chamber.
Uber stayed tight-lipped about its CEO’s future. The board met on Sunday amid a crisis that ranges from a sexist workplace culture, to a federal probe into its business practices, to a trade-secrets lawsuit with Alphabet. Directors voted to adopt all the recommendations from an investigation by former attorney general Eric Holder, but didn’t confirm whether CEO Travis Kalanick will take a leave of absence. We can expect to know more on Tuesday.
Qatar held steady in the Middle East. After three neighboring Gulf states expelled Qatari citizens, Qatar on Saturday reassured its own foreign residents that it would not respond in kind. Kuwait, which is acting as a mediator in the dispute, announced that Qatar was open to listening to the concerns of its neighbors, which have cut off diplomatic and transport links to the country.
Puerto Rico voted to become the 51st US state. The US territory voted overwhelmingly in favor of applying for statehood, but turnout of just 23% may discredit the vote. The final decision is in the hands of the US Congress, and a Republican-led legislative branch isn’t likely to welcome a new Democrat-leaning state. The island’s economy has been in recession for nearly 10 years and it filed for bankruptcy in May.
Correction: In Friday’s Daily Brief, we wrote that Germany was experiencing record-high unemployment, this should have read “record-low unemployment.”
Quartz obsession interlude
Dan Knopf on why rich people in the US don’t display their wealth: “Instead of spending money on consumer products, the rich increasingly focus their spending on ‘nonvisible, highly expensive goods and services’ that allow them to have time to gain social capital and foster it in their children.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
There’s a writing crisis in economics. Economists have a duty to strive for clarity in communications, but papers in the field are tangles of jargon.
It’s totally normal to cut off your hair when dealing with loss. Researchers say it’s an attempt to control change.
Women’s workwear has lost all stylistic consistency. Increasingly liberal dress codes for the office have driven clothing companies into a state of confusion.
Surprising discoveries
Ikea sent some of its engineers to live in a Mars simulation. The goal was to answer questions like “What does comfort mean for compact living?” and “How do we feel in small spaces?”
Cary Grant used to drop acid 100 times a year. In the late 1950s, during the heyday of psychedelic research, the American actor was one of the first to go all-in on LSD therapy.
Korea exports menstrual cups, but they can’t be sold legally there. It’s one of many symptoms of the country’s alarming lack of attention to women’s health issues.
Pickup basketball is Silicon Valley’s answer to golfing with your boss. There’s a twice-weekly game at Stanford University where networks are built and million-dollar deals get done.
Chefs in California cooked a pizza 1.2 miles (1.9 km) long. The world record-breaking pie weighed over 17,000 pounds (7,800 kg)—more than most elephants.
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