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Here’s what you need to know
The post-coronavirus economic slump will be less bad in Asia than the West. The OECD’s latest worst case scenarios—which assume a second wave of the virus—predict 2020 GDP declines of 7.25% in Japan and India, 3.9% in Indonesia, 3.7% in China, and 2.5% in South Korea, compared to a world average 7.5% year-over-year drop. Separately, the US Federal Reserve forecast economic output will fall 6.5% in 2020.
China’s latest inflation data spell trouble for its factories. The country’s producer-price index declined 3.7% year-over-year in May, mainly due to lower demand from the US and Europe. On the consumer side, prices rose 2.4% as food inflation abated and fuel costs fell even further.
The EU accused China of running coronavirus disinformation campaigns. This is the first time the European commission has publicly named China as a source of false information. It’s another sign of the changing relationship between the EU and China (✦ Quartz member exclusive).
NetEase’s Hong Kong secondary listing was oversold by 360 times. The Chinese internet technology company plans to allocate an additional 15 million shares to retail investors to meet demand. The stock begins trading Thursday.
The Hong Kong government said protest cleanup cost $8.5 million. Officials said major repairs or replacements were needed on traffic lights, security cameras, and paving bricks. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s executive branch may approve an assistance plan for Hong Kong asylum seekers on Thursday, and Zoom shut down the account of US-based Chinese activists following their Tiananmen Square memorial broadcast.
Things are looking calmer along the China-India border. The two countries are reportedly pulling back troops from areas of the disputed border region in the Himalayas, a key step in de-escalating the recent standoff.
How to build an anti-racist company
There’s still time to sign up for our Remote Control workshop on how to turn good intentions into meaningful action. It may seem daunting, but inaction will take a higher toll as companies start to bear more of the responsibility for structural change.
Join us today at 11am EDT for a free online workshop that will help point you in the right direction, featuring Melissa Theiss, vice president of operations at Quorum, Nadia Owusu, associate director at Living Cities and author of Aftershocks, and Steve Pemberton, chief human resources officer at Workhuman.
Charting quit rates in the US
It might seem counterintuitive, but a low quit rate is very bad news. Quit rates are a leading indicator of the health of the labor market, and when more people voluntarily leave their jobs, it means there is a general sense of optimism about the future of the economy.
Right now, most employees are just looking to hang on to the work they do have, rather than trying to find something better, and fewer people quitting their jobs also has the effect of dampening wages.
We’re obsessed with tear gas
It’s enough to make you cry. Though tear gas is banned from battlefields, the chemical is deployed domestically worldwide to quell protests and civil unrest. Recent calls for police reform have prompted some municipalities to decide to outright stop the use of what’s termed a non-lethal weapon, but it’s not clear if the current moment will help widespread tear gas usage go up in smoke. How did we get here? Find out in the Quartz Weekly Obsession.
For members: China’s changing playbook in Africa
Africa’s relationship with China was changing prior to the coronavirus, but a full-blown global pandemic added a new wrinkle. To find out more, Quartz Africa spoke with Yunnan Chen, a senior researcher in development and public finance at the Overseas Development Institute who specializes in China-Africa relations, as part of this week’s field guide about China’s changing influence.
Quartz: “What are the consequences for the global economy if economic relations between China and Africa economic relations were to shift significantly in the wake of this moment?”
Chen: “A hugely important aspect of the China-Africa relationship of the last decade is the economic and developmental potential that it brings to African economies and societies after some half-century of various shifts in World Bank ideologies, policy, structural adjustment programs. The attitude of the Western consciousness and particular in the international development architecture, was to treat sub-Saharan Africa as sort of problematic in development.
“I think one important impact of this growing China-Africa relationship, nuances aside, it’s really brought Africa much more into the foreground as a potential site of growth, of opportunity, of investment and business and commercial opportunities in particular. The demonstration effect that China has brought in Africa has crowded in interest from other areas.”
Read the full interview, then check out the rest of this week’s field guide.
✦ Not a member? We’d love for you to give it a go, starting with a seven-day free trial. ✦
You asked about masks
Masks protect others from the droplets in my coughs and from my talking. Why don’t masks protect me from the droplets in their coughs and from their talking?
You’ve probably heard by now about the importance of wearing masks to protect others from Covid-19 (or any droplet-spread infectious illness, for that matter). To the best of science’s knowledge, this is true!
Masks of any sort help to block the large droplets we expel when speaking, sneezing, or coughing. But large droplets aren’t the only things we expel through our noses and mouths. We also expel even smaller droplets, aerosols, that can contain SARS-CoV-2. These are airborne, and can float around through the air and perhaps make it in through those tiny gaps in your mask and loosely-woven cloth. Aerosols cannot make it through specially-designed N95 masks, which are reserved for healthcare settings.
If that explanation doesn’t compute, think of the gross but effective pee meme, where SARS-CoV-2 is urine, and pants are a mask. If some people are going around peeing their pants, those wearing pants are less likely to get their urine on others. People who aren’t wearing pants can certainly pee on people wearing pants, and the urine will get through; pants aren’t flawless protection. But they help.
The alternative, of course, is not to pee your pants at all. This is where other hygienic practices come in! Washing your hands, staying away from others, and making sure you self-isolate if you are sick are still important, even if everyone around you is wearing a mask.
✉️ Do you have a burning question about how coronavirus is changing the world?
Surprising discoveries
Astronomers reconnected to a black hole’s signal. The dead star’s “heartbeat” had been blocked by the sun since 2011, but it’s still going strong.
Humans only see colors when looking straight ahead. A new study found our brains fill in the colors for what’s in our peripheral vision.
Imagine your very own brewery. Snap up Argus Brewery on Chicago’s Craigslist for $2.5 million and become the envy of all your drinking buddies.
Merriam-Webster is changing the definition of “racism.” The old version failed to mention systemic oppression.
One of Yellowstone’s oldest bears is still going. Number 399, aged 24, appeared in the US park with a set of cubs, prompting a nature photographer to text Jane Goodall, “She still lives!”
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, brewery deeds, and faux colors to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS or Android and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson, Katherine Foley, Jackie Bischof, Dan Kopf, and Liz Webber.