Good morning, Quartz readers!
Since campaigning began in early 2016, Brexit has been chaotic. This week, it descended into mayhem. An agreement on the terms of the UK’s divorce from the European Union has blown up an unsteady truce among British officials charged with negotiating the departure.
Around the same time, Italy’s populist government provoked the EU’s ire by sticking to a budget that breaks the bloc’s spending rules. And then there is Donald Trump’s perpetually unpredictable presidency. Amid such stiff competition, what makes Brexit particularly destabilizing is that there appear to be few checks to stop a full-blown catastrophe.
In the US, the midterm elections proved to be one check on Trump; a divided Congress will serve as an obstruction to some of his most incendiary policies. Italy’s plan to run large deficits creates a headache for Brussels, but the EU can serve as an institutional check and take the extreme step of enforcing fines and other penalties on Rome for its spendthrift ways.
At this stage, the only thing capable of averting Brexit from its most destructive form are the financial markets. The undoing of Brexit is made technically difficult as both main parties overwhelmingly voted to begin the process, and the party with the power to call another general election or second referendum simply won’t. The collective power of traders has long been used to punish policymakers for misguided policies.
After an immediate post-referendum tumble, traders have been mostly clinging to the belief that the dreaded “no-deal Brexit” will be avoided when the split becomes official at the end of March. They are braced for a white-knuckle ride in the meantime. Prime minister Theresa May could be ejected by rebels within her own party. The Brexit deal she touted this week could be rejected by the full UK parliament, heightening the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.
Such recklessness could be brought to heel by financial markets, especially if the selling that has pushed down the pound seeps into government bonds. However, if Brexit’s true believers are motivated purely by ideology, then the markets—and the economy—don’t matter. A large portion of British politicians live in fear of disappointing Brexit-supporting constituents. If the government engages in a game of chicken with financial markets, both sides are sure to lose. —Eshe Nelson
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Being witty is a skill that anyone can develop. If you’ve ever felt self-conscious about your ability to keep up with sparkling repartee, take heart: A new book argues that we can all get better at playing with language. Ephrat Livni explains that the secret lies in reading voraciously, to better develop a diverse vocabulary that allows us to form unexpected connections.
Freddie Mercury would have had to flee his African birthplace. The sexuality of Queen’s gay frontman is a focus of the new film Bohemian Rhapsody. As Lynsey Chutel writes, the film is attracting interest in Mercury’s roots in Zanzibar, an island off Tanzania. But homosexuality is illegal there, and a recently announced task force aims to “hunt down” gay people, even as tourists flock to the house Mercury grew up in.
IKEA is taking on India’s air pollution. Every winter a thick smog blankets Delhi due to farmers in surrounding areas burning rice straw after harvest—the easiest and most economical way to prepare the field for the next sowing season. Suneera Tandon writes on the furniture giant’s plans to collect that straw for use in its products.
Victoria’s Secret inadvertently created its body-positive competitors. As the embattled lingerie brand struggles, rivals like ThirdLove and American Eagle’s Aerie are on the rise. Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz explains that the new breed of inclusive, diversity-conscious underwear companies can be traced back to the fact that Victoria’s Secret refused to update its retrograde model of femininity.
A novelist’s key to productivity. Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard used to struggle with writer’s block, despite having all the time he needed for writing. But once he had children and a more hectic life, he became far more prolific, writing the six-book series My Struggle between 2009 and 2011. As Ephrat Livni writes, his experience suggests limited time is useful—and waiting for inspiration is a recipe for getting nothing done.
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The egregious lie Americans tell themselves. “I can’t believe in the richest country in the world …” This, writes Jacob Bacharach for Truthdig, is the expression of incredulity that typically precedes some story about the fundamental impoverishment of American life. But the response, he argues, can’t mask the nation’s problems, including crumbling infrastructure.
The project aiming to save the planet’s corals from extinction. In the early 1990s, the Biosphere 2 in Arizona housed sealed-in researchers for two years, testing the idea of a self-sustaining bubble that could allow humans to survive on other planets. Now “the place where unusual things can be done,” as one scientist describes it, will host a bold climate-change experiment that could have global repercussions, as Hannah Hindley explains in Hakai magazine.
When Elon Musk tunnels under your home. Below the not-so-glitzy Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, the serial entrepreneur’s Boring Company is building a mile-long tunnel to pilot a futuristic transit system that will whisk cars containing passengers to their destinations. As Alana Semuels writes for the Atlantic, local residents are learning what it’s like to live in the way of technological progress, real or imagined.
Trump’s one steady stance. The US president isn’t known for consistency, but for decades he hasn’t wavered on one issue: trade. For the Wall Street Journal, Jacob M. Schlesinger shows how the New York real estate developer’s views on the matter solidified in the 1980s when Japan was ascendant and buying trophy properties in Manhattan (paywall). Trump started complaining bitterly of the US getting “ripped off,” and he hasn’t stopped since.
The week’s weightiest decision. On Friday, representatives of more than 60 nations gathered in Versailles, France to approve a new definition for the kilogram. For the Washington Post, Sarah Kaplan explains why the change is more profound than one might assume (paywall). As a scientist gushed, “It’s an emotional moment. I’m just really proud of our species.”
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, productivity tips, and rice straw to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day, or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Weekend Brief was edited by Steve Mollman.