Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
Donald Trump is still in hospital. The US president’s condition is unclear: doctors said he could be discharged as early as today, but also revealed he’d received a steroid typically used for severe cases. He went out in his armored vehicle yesterday, potentially exposing his security detail to Covid-19, to greet supporters who’d gathered near the facility.
Cineworld is closing all its UK and US movie theaters. 45,000 jobs are at risk globally after the chain decided to suspend operations from Thursday. The delay to the latest Bond film, scheduled for release in November but now moved to April, is “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said one analyst.
Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other of attacking civilians. Fighting between the former Soviet states escalated over the weekend, with heavy clashes over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and claims of Azeri rocket strikes on its regional capital Stepanakert. The violence spilled over into Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second largest city.
Mecca’s Grand Mosque is open again. The holy site of Islam had been closed since March because of Covid-19. But as of yesterday, 6,000 pilgrims a day—only from Saudi Arabia for now—will be allowed to visit the mosque, which can accommodate as many as 4 million people at a time.
Pope Francis wants to reform capitalism. Laying out his vision for a post-pandemic world, his new encyclical criticizes free-market capitalism and advocates for migrant rights and a more communal society. The pandemic, he wrote, has shown that “not everything can be resolved by market freedom.”
What to watch for
Monday: The first Nobel prize of 2020, for medicine, is announced. Other prizes, including for chemistry, physics, literature, and peace follow throughout the week.
Tuesday: Japan hosts Australia, India, and US foreign ministers for a Quad meeting; the EU and Ukraine gather for a summit; bars close in Paris.
Wednesday: US vice president Mike Pence and senator Kamala Harris face off in a more socially distanced vice-presidential debate, while the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator resumes talks with his UK counterpart in London.
Thursday: Germany holds a full parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of payments provider Wirecard.
Friday: The UK releases its monthly GDP.
Charting the EU’s trade with China
The EU wants to redefine its economic relationship with China. It’s China’s largest trade partner, while the Chinese market is the second largest destination for EU goods and services after the US. And yet the economic relationship between Brussels and Beijing is not well regulated. That’s partly because it has grown quickly, outpacing their ability to legislate around it.
But it’s also because the most ambitious such effort—the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)—has so far failed to produce results. Read more here.
Navigating the data deluge
The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a deluge of data. There are statistics everywhere you look, from the number of tests administered and cases confirmed, to the jobs lost, stimulus money spent, and Peloton bikes purchased. Understanding data feels more important than ever right now.
Since the pandemic started, at Quartz we’ve been spending an even greater share of our time confronting difficult data questions. How do we know if a trend is caused by the novel coronavirus, or if it would have happened anyway? How do we appropriately describe the massive economic dip and recovery caused by the pandemic without misleading readers?
We wanted to share some of the answers we’ve conjured to these questions. In our latest field guide we help you get to grips with the data deluge, with a list of the very best coronavirus-related data on the internet, and by teaching you the tools you need to cut through the noise.
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Obsession interlude: Because China
Asia editor Tripti Lahiri explains how Quartz’s China obsession has changed over the years:
For a long while, reporting on China was stuck on this idea that the country still had to reach some sort of destination as a world power. Because China, which gets its name from an award-winning web series Quartz produced, instead chronicles all the ways big and small (but mostly big) its government and people have already reshaped the globe. It’s everything from the stuff people buy, to recycling, to shaping how people can (or can’t) talk about China. In the past year we’ve been looking especially closely at the rivalry with the US, and how Beijing is recasting Hong Kong in its own image.
This year, though, has been a reminder that despite how intertwined the world had supposedly become, and even if companies, lawmakers (and one president) in other countries can’t stop talking about China, they see it less and less as a place full of people with dreams and anxieties like their own. For many, it’s psychologically and emotionally distant. How else can we explain the fact that as China was drowning in misery in January and February, and millions were under a strict lockdown, other countries didn’t make good use of the lead time they had before the virus came to their shores?
One thing we’re trying to do in this obsession is to bridge that gap.
Read more:
- Another citizen journalist covering the coronavirus has gone missing in China
- China’s best Go player was canceled by a feminist backlash
- As in mainland China, Hong Kongers now use code to evade political censorship
Surprising discoveries
A lonely otter found love on a dating site. It was built specially for him by a seal sanctuary in England.
A tropical fern was hiding in Ireland. The rarest fern in Europe, previously observed only in the Caribbean, is a relic from thousands of years ago.
Buying the iconic “Crayola House” is a good deal. The postmodern mansion built in 2005 is now for sale, and the asking price is less than it cost to build it.
Venice has a plan to stay dry. Decades in the making, the sea walls had a successful debut this weekend.
Printers are the hot new Covid accessory. Exiled from the office, remote workers are discovering the old-fashioned joy of having a printer at home.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, rare ferns, and a new printer to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our iOS app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Hasit Shah, Sarah Todd, and Jackie Bischof.