Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The jailed Reuters journalists in Myanmar lodge their appeal. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested while reporting on the massacre of the Rohingya, were sentenced in September to seven years in prison for allegedly possessing classified documents.
Japan and South Korea talk amid flaring tensions. The meeting in Seoul between the country’s senior diplomats will touch on bilateral relations and North Korea, and comes amid tensions over South Korea’s recent Supreme Court rulings that Japanese firms should compensate forced Korean laborers.
An update on US economic activity. New figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago are expected to show a rise in economic activity in the midwest last month, suggesting a low risk of recession in the US.
Stock markets in the US and UK close early today to mark Christmas Eve, and will be closed all day tomorrow along with some Asian markets.
Over the weekend
The death toll from Indonesia’s tsunami rose past 280. With little warning, the giant wave, triggered by a volcanic eruption, hit the coasts of Sumatra and Java on Saturday night, injuring more than 1,000. Thousands of coastal residents have been forced to evacuate, with a high-tide warning in place until tomorrow.
A government shutdown began in the US. Various federal agencies employing some 850,000 people shut down as the clock struck midnight on Saturday, after the Senate didn’t pass a spending bill with funding for Trump’s border wall. It’s possible the shutdown will drag past Christmas and into the new congressional session in January.
Trump booted out Jim Mattis. Reportedly angered by the negative news coverage spawned by the defense secretary’s Dec. 20 resignation letter, Trump moved up Mattis’s last day to Jan. 1, almost two months earlier than planned. Mattis’s deputy, Patrick Shanahan, will become acting defense secretary until a permanent successor is named.
A couple arrested in connection with Gatwick’s drones was released. The man and woman from Crawley, West Sussex were released on Sunday without charge. Police are examining a damaged drone (subscription) recovered near Gatwick Airport, which is offering a £50,000 ($63,000) reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for disrupting flights over three days.
SpaceX launched its first US national-security space mission. Elon Musk’s space company had been trying for years to break into the lucrative market for military space launches dominated by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Sunday’s launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida carried a roughly $500 million GPS satellite built by Lockheed.
Obsession interlude
Happy holiday letter season! We don’t get much snail mail anymore—just 10 personal letters a year for Americans—but this 70-year-old tradition persists. The copy machine and the westward spread of Americans inspired the need for tiny mass communication, and coming in the MCM era, some brilliant design. Open up and read at the Quartz Obsession.
Matters of debate
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Most people don’t really want to be happy. A Nobel laureate says satisfaction is what most people actually want, and it’s entirely distinct from happiness.
Hollywood’s portrayal of girl power rings hollow. The commodification of feminism with feel-good “smash the patriarchy” applause lines brushes over the hard work of intersectionality.
American museums are failing at diversity. An analysis of 18 major art museums found that more than three-quarters of artists they featured are white men.
Surprising discoveries
Petrified horses were discovered at the site of Pompeii. Archaeologists also found a saddle decorated with bronze trimmings in what’s believed to the villa of a Roman general.
Italian violin makers are harvesting downed trees. Artisans are rushing to save the wood of red spruce toppled by powerful storms before it rots.
A letter sent to Santa via balloon from Mexico reached one of his helpers. An Arizona man who found the letter tracked down the girl to deliver the gifts (subscription) she asked for.
A stolen tiny house was found. A towing company offered to lug the home about 100 miles to its owner in St. Louis free of charge as an early Christmas gift.
A jazz musician played guitar during brain surgery. He made good use of his six-hour “awake craniotomy.”
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, balloon mail, and surgery music to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Alice Truong and edited by Isabella Steger.