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China’s central bank wants to support domestic demand. The bank said it’ll use monetary policy that’s “precise and forceful” to fend off risks to its recovering economy.
A humanitarian pause in fighting was extended for two days in Gaza. Israeli and Hamas forces agreed to the temporary truce to allow for more hostage and prisoner swaps.
The US has a new supply chain resilience council. In its first meeting yesterday, president Joe Biden warned companies against price gouging and announced 30 actions aimed at improving access to medicine and economic data.
Tesla sued Sweden’s transportation agency. The US-based EV maker filed the lawsuit after striking postal workers failed to deliver license plates for new Tesla cars.
Amazon is beating out UPS and FedEx in package deliveries. The company now runs the biggest parcel delivery business in the US, and the gap between it and other carriers is only growing.
The US will extract more oil this year than ever before. A record-breaking 12.9 million barrels of crude oil is expected this year, more than double what the country produced a decade ago.
Why is Meta’s press secretary wanted in Russia?
Andy Stone, the press secretary for Facebook parent Meta, has been put on Russia’s criminal wanted list.
Soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Stone announced temporary changes to Meta’s hate speech policy to allow for “forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules, like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’”
The bent rules only applied to Facebook and Instagram users in select countries, and credible calls for violence and Russian president Vladimir Putin’s assassination were still banned. But this leniency hasn’t gone down well in Russia. Quartz’s Ananya Bhattacharya put together a timeline of Russia’s feud with Meta.
One big number: 2.9 million
Number of passengers that traveled through US airports on Sunday, a new daily record.
The US Transportation Security Agency beat a previous record of 2.88 million travelers screened, set on June 30 of this year. Echoes of last December’s travel woes—including Southwest Airlines’ total meltdown—had airlines on high alert to avoid another holiday fallout.
Quartz’s most popular
🪢 Japan and Vietnam have agreed to boost ties and start discussing military aid
🧌 The mayor of Paris says she’s quitting Elon Musk’s “global sewer” platform X…
💬 …while Musk is visiting Israel as accusations of antisemitism on X grow
🔦 The EU’s border agency is searching for missing crew after a cargo ship sunk off of Greece
🪧 Czech labor unions are staging a day of action in protest of spending cuts and taxes
🌾 Ukraine has a new way to get its grain to the world despite Russia’s threat in the Black Sea
Surprising discoveries
The UK reported its first case of swine flu in humans. Fifty cases of the illness have been reported around the world since 2005, but the most recent one is a new form of H1N2.
The CEO of the world’s most prominent chip maker has never read a science fiction novel. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang also started the company at a Denny’s.
A home in Atlanta where two Pulitzer Prize winners dwelled just listed for $2 million. Its terrace does look quite inspiring.
Mice on a diet that limited one particular amino acid ended up living longer. Too much isoleucine, found in meats, eggs, and dairy products, could affect a person’s lifespan, goes that theory.
Umami as a flavor was named in 1908, but wasn’t a widely used word until the 1980s. It’s a taste that’s been on the tip of humans’ tongues long before it had a name.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, your favorite sci-fi novel, and your favorite umami food to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.