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Xi Jinping gave a key speech in Shenzhen. Forty years after it was designated a special economic zone, a key milestone in China’s economic rise, the Chinese leader laid out his vision for the city as a leading global fintech hub. Hong Kong’s chief Carrie Lam nixed her own annual policy address to attend.
Thai protesters mark a democracy anniversary. On the date of a student uprising that forced a military regime to resign in 1973, protesters are gathering to call for reforms to the country’s monarchy to make the country more democratic. The city is bracing for clashes as pro-royal groups threatened to turn out in support of the king.
Indonesia’s controversial jobs law goes to president Joko Widodo. More groups have joined protests going on since last week against the legislation, which many say will harm workers and exacerbate deforestation. The text of the law, intended to cut red tape and attract investment, is also due to be published today.
Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen check in. The British prime minister and European Commission president are coming up against the deadline for an agreement to govern the UK’s relations with the bloc from 2021. Talks between the two sides haven’t been going anywhere.
China, Russia, and Cuba are joining the UN Human Rights Council. Citing their human rights records, activists had opposed seats for the three countries, as well as for Saudi Arabia, which wasn’t among the 15 countries elected to the council yesterday. The US withdrew from the council in June 2018.
There’s a 5G iPhone. Apple’s iPhone 12 comes in three sizes—but will no longer include a charger or wired headphones. Verizon used the iPhone reveal to announce the rollout of its US 5G network.
The next step for reparations
Last week, our “How to Do Reparations” series thought through how reparations would actually work in practice, asked what the UK owes, and started adding up the debt to Black Americans US companies have accrued. We’re taking it a step further this week.
- What Africa is owed. The loss of human life from the African continent due to the transatlantic slave trade had a real cost, but how can we calculate it?
- What we can learn from Germany. There’s a blueprint from not-too-distant history that the US could follow.
Charting Disney’s streaming metamorphosis
Disney had no streaming platforms three years ago. Today, its business revolves around them. On Monday, the company announced a “strategic reorganization” to further prop up its streaming services: Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. Effective immediately, Disney will separate content creation from distribution.
The Mouse House will not abandon cinemas, but its reorganization is an admission that theaters do not represent the future of the company—or perhaps of any Hollywood content company. Adam Epstein tunes us in on Disney’s fast-forward to streaming.
Whither the whiteboard
When lockdowns forced consultants the world over to work from home, one of the first challenges was how to replicate the on-site experience normally so central to their work. More specifically, they had to find a suitable stand-in for, you guessed it, the humble, powerful, usually ubiquitous whiteboard.
The sudden need to replicate brainstorming online has increased the popularity of collaborative, digital whiteboards. But it’s also led to other creative in-house solutions.
“We found both the value of some of the new tools has surprised us, [as well as] our workarounds to creating great experiences with clients…it has created its own interesting kind of energy,” says Clark Scheffy, a partner and managing director at IDEO, a global design consultancy. “I believe when we return to whatever this next world is after the pandemic, many of the things we’ve discovered and created will continue because they provide a unique value.”
Consultants keep many industries moving smoothly along, but how to consult during Covid? Read this week’s field guide to take a lesson from how the consulting world is coping.
✦ We consulted our whiteboard, and on it was written the code QZTWENTY, which will give you 20% off a year of field guides and presentations without a paywall in sight. It’s all part of a Quartz membership.
Obsession interlude: Rethinking Cities
If we ask you to think of climate change and urban design, you might conjure an image of solar panels and sea walls. But for many cities around the world, an even more important project will be improving access to affordable housing. As people are forced to move away from communities that flooding, wildfires, and other climate impacts have made unlivable, they will need somewhere to go. A recent study projected that there may be 13 million such climate migrants in the US alone by 2100.
The trouble is, the housing market in cities that could be “climate havens”—those that are relatively isolated from environmental impacts and have room to grow—is trending in the opposite direction. Of 10 US cities researchers identified as likely climate havens, all but one have seen the availability of affordable housing decrease in recent years, most faster than the national average:
Read more about the effort to prepare cities for climate migrants—and take a stab at designing your own climate haven—in our Green Haven package, part of our Rethinking Cities obsession.
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Surprising discoveries
An Indian jewelry chain was bullied over a heartwarming ad. Tanishq withdrew the spot after right-wing Hindus lost it over the depiction of Muslim in-laws holding a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law.
Germany’s draft bankruptcy law sparked a language debate. It used feminine word endings, while the country usually uses masculine word endings in legalese to cover everyone.
California’s Republican Party set up fake ballot drop boxes. The boxes were designed to look like actual ballot boxes and labeled “official,” but privately set up ballot boxes are illegal.
A designer created a “self-picking” guitar. Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien is a fan.
Stealing from Pompeii brings bad luck. At least according to a woman who sent back artifacts she took from the site 15 years ago.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, unifying messages, and self-singing microphones 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 Tripti Lahiri, Mary Hui, Susan Howson, and Liz Webber.