🌍 Poland cleared Russia of missile strike rumors

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Here’s what you need to know

Poland and NATO stated the missile strike was not a Russian attack. Tensions have diffused after both parties said the blast on Polish territory that killed two was likely due to stray fire from Ukrainian air defense.

The G20 adopted a declaration condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine. The document mentioned “most members” agreed with the statement as the two-day summit came to a close.

The UK is expected to announce a multi-billion pound energy efficiency push. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget, set to be announced today (Nov. 17), will include a plan to lower the UK’s energy demand by 13% this decade, Bloomberg reports.

The US House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on FTX next month. The collapse of the crypto platform last week has triggered widespread chaos in the industry. A Committee member stated: “we need legislative action” (more on the debacle below).

Shanghai Disney Resort is reopening some attractions. The tourist destination, which was shut down twice this year due to zero-covid restrictions, is still leaving its main park closed.

Tencent is cutting its stake in food delivery giant Meituan. The Chinese tech conglomerate will distribute $20 billion of its shares as a dividend amid a drop in third quarter results and Beijing’s crackdown on Big Tech.

Microsoft is working on a new supercomputer with Nvidia. The multiyear agreement comes two years after Microsoft partnered with OpenAI to make the same type of technology.

What to watch for

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s new government is about to unveil its autumn budget today, a much-anticipated plan that has been rescheduled twice since a so-called mini-budget delivered by the previous government on Sept. 23 wreaked havoc on the country’s finances, reputation, and housing market.

The UK chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has to delicately balance reassuring investors the country is committed to fiscal discipline and supporting Britons who are experiencing an inflation rate of 11.1%, the highest in 41 years, as per new data released yesterday (Nov. 16).

Hunt claims he wants to shield the most vulnerable from the consequences of rising prices, but he also needs to lay out plans to reduce debt in line with the government’s fiscal plans. A cocktail of spending reductions and higher taxes is expected, and their mix and consistency will determine how easy it’ll be to swallow.

The latest crypto domino to fall

The lending arm of Genesis, a trading desk for professional investors, announced that it was halting withdrawals and new loan originations, saying in a tweet that market turbulence following FTX’s collapse had triggered a run on its lending arm, which lacked the liquidity to meet “abnormal withdrawal requests.”⁠

Genesis has $2.8 billion in outstanding loans, primarily offered to institutions, but also gives loans to customers with crypto as collateral. What’s not clear is whether that collateral was kept locked or lent out. According to the interim CEO, the trading and crypto custody arm of Genesis remains unaffected.

Here’s where crypto is currently:

😬 Crypto exchanges are desperate to show they’re not the next FTX

😬 FTX’s collapse has sent shivers down the spine of Africa’s crypto community

😬 The moment FTX was marked as a zero-dollar investment

Taylor Swift fans cannot be ignored

The practical implications of a monopoly made themselves known this week when US ticketing giant Ticketmaster began melting down under the sheer weight of Swiftie enthusiasm. Despite plenty of notice and a rather opaque vetting process, a presale for Taylor Swift’s 2023 tour broke that particular corner of the internet.

Ticketmaster has been doing its thing for decades, and its purchase by LiveNation in 2010 theoretically brought together two thoroughly tested logistics processes. So how did it go so wrong? The answer—say legions of fans and some notable politicians—lies in the fact that they shouldn’t have been allowed to merge in the first place.

✦ Stories like this from Ananya Bhattacharya are what makes Quartz, Quartz. Support our journalism and help keep our content accessible to all by signing up for a Quartz membership. Take 50% off, on us.

Quartz’s most popular

👴 How will aging nations pay for their retirees?

😎 Tom Ford enters the fashion billionaire club just as Kanye West is kicked out

🌆 Indian cities need $840 billion in infrastructure over the next 15 years

💅 To reach trillions of dollars, climate finance is getting an extreme makeover

🌱 More Americans are starting new businesses despite the slowing economy

💊 An unproven herbal covid pill is a big winner in Beijing’s new pandemic rules

Surprising discoveries

Ash Ketchum became the very best. It only took the show’s protagonist 25 years, but he finally was crowned a Pokémon world champion. Now what?

Babies born the old-fashioned way have higher amounts of beneficial bacteria. That leads to double the antibodies when they’re vaccinated, though doctors are playing around with ways to help Cesarean babies catch up.

Silkworms are the second-most farmed animal in the world. The domesticated ones look more like cute sky puppies than their wild, unremarkable counterparts.

Never mistake a regular black hole with a wormhole again! Just analyze the light that’s spinning around the object’s opening.

AI-generated selfies made it to Tinder. Catfishing, but make it DALL-E.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, real selfies, and on second thought, no selfies at all to [email protected]. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—become a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Julia Malleck, Sofia Lotto Persio, Nate DiCamillo, Morgan Haefner, and Susan Howson.