Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Jailed Reuters journalists in Myanmar lodge an appeal. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested while reporting on the Rohingya genocide. Their lawyers will argue that their September sentencing to seven years in prison for allegedly possessing classified documents was a set-up.
Steve Mnuchin convenes a call on financial markets. The treasury secretary will gather (subscription) a group of top market regulators to discuss “coordination efforts to assure normal market operations.” Mnuchin called the CEOs of six bank major banks over the weekend to confirm they have “ample liquidity,” in a bid to reassure markets experiencing continued volatility.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg returns. The 85-year-old Supreme Court justice is working while recuperating in hospital from a surgery Friday to remove two malignant growths, a spokesperson said. The court meets again on Jan. 7; Ginsburg has never missed arguments.
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 risk of an imminent US recession remains low.
The US stock markets will close early today to mark Christmas Eve, and will be closed all day tomorrow.
Over the weekend
The death toll from Indonesia’s tsunami rose past 280. With little warning, a 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 partial government shutdown began in the US. Various federal agencies employing some 850,000 people shut down after the clock struck midnight on Friday, after the Senate failed to pass a spending bill with funding for Trump’s border wall. It’s possible the shutdown will drag past Christmas (subscription) and into the new congressional session in January.
Trump booted out Jim Mattis. The president moved his defense secretary’s last day to Jan. 1, two months earlier than planned, reportedly in response to the negative news coverage following Mattis’s Dec. 20 resignation letter. Mattis’s deputy Patrick Shanahan will become acting defense secretary until a permanent successor is named.
Turkey increased military activity. Following a Sunday call between Trump and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, Turkey began bolstering its defenses on either side of the Syrian border. The withdrawal decision prompted the US’s top envoy for fighting ISIS, Brett McGurk, to resign on Saturday.
Japan and South Korea talked amid flaring tensions. The meeting in Seoul between the country’s senior diplomats touched on bilateral relations, defense disagreements, and North Korea, and followed a divisive ruling by South Korea’s Supreme Court that Japanese firms should compensate forced Korean laborers.
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 what we really want is satisfaction, which is 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 bronze-trimmed saddle in what is believed to have been the villa of a Roman general.
Italian violin makers are harvesting downed trees. Artisans are rushing to save the wood of red spruces 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, tiny houses, and surgery jazz sets 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 Akshat Rathi and edited by Jackie Bischof.