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Here’s what you need to know
WHO warned that Covid-19 is likely here to stay. Widespread, effective vaccination doesn’t guarantee elimination. Officials also cautioned the next pandemic could be much worse.
US stimulus news drove the Nikkei to close at a 30-year high… The possibility of an expansion of the latest US relief package led to the index’s best day since August 1990.
…but dashed hopes tempered US markets. US senator Mitch McConnell blocked an attempt to quickly push through $2,000 pandemic relief checks, leading US stocks to retreat from their own record highs.
China and the EU agreed to mutual investment. The two blocs, which have been in talks since 2013, have finally reached agreements over China’s labor laws and are set to sign a deal today—without waiting for the US’s incoming Biden administration to give its input.
Indian farmers postponed a tractor march. An umbrella body representing 40 unions remains steadfastly against three new agriculture laws ahead of today’s scheduled negotiations with the government.
What to watch for
It’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which means that in China, it’s time for the flurry of annual sentences of dissidents.
On Monday, a court in Shanghai issued its first sentence of a citizen journalist who reported from Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic. And another in Shenzhen began hearing evidence against 10 of the “Hong Kong 12,” activists who tried to flee the city for Taiwan by boat in August only to be intercepted by Chinese authorities and taken to the mainland to face a closed trial. A verdict could come as soon as today (link in Chinese).
It was the prospect of being prosecuted in China under a proposed extradition law that sparked last year’s protests in Hong Kong. But despite that public opposition, as Mary Hui writes, the national security law imposed on the city this year managed to breach the firewall between the mainland’s opaque legal system and Hong Kong’s common law judiciary, now the last bastion of autonomy in a city where the executive and legislature are firmly with Beijing. The pressure on Hong Kong’s courts is mounting, with the first prosecutions under the new law set to unfold next year.
Charting the cost of natural disasters
According to an analysis by the reinsurance giant Swiss Re, global economic losses from natural disasters amounted to $175 billion in 2020. Of that, $76 billion were insured, the fifth-highest total since 1970.
While the geophysical impacts of climate change are widely distributed among rich and poor countries, the economic toll is felt most acutely in the latter, where disaster insurance is still a rarity. According to Munich Re, almost three-quarters of the $5.2 trillion in global natural disaster damages since 1980 were uninsured.
Ticket to ride
We’re in a new era of the haves and the have nots: Those who’ve gotten a complete Covid-19 vaccine, and those who are still waiting for theirs. Digital vaccine passports could make it easier to keep track of who’s got antibody protection and who doesn’t—but would they work for everyone?
Quartz’s Tim McDonnell and Katherine Ellen Foley break down common questions about potential vaccine passports: how they’ll work, who’s making them, and—perhaps most importantly—who they’ll exclude.
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Surprising discoveries
A German pilot took a syringe-shaped flight. He made the 200-km (125-mile) journey to celebrate the rollout of Europe’s Covid-19 vaccine campaign.
Chinese millennials are slacking off at work as a subtle form of protest. Tactics include getting up every 50 minutes to get a glass of water.
Japan is hoping to leave no trace in space. Researchers are working on wooden satellites to cut down on the debris orbiting Earth.
Not the plot of the next Marvel movie (or is it?). Dark matter could come from primordial black holes formed by collapsing “baby universes” in the early multiverse.
We know it feels like Brexit negotiations dragged on for decades… but references to 1990s technology like Netscape Communicator are probably just a bad copy-paste job.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, vaccine-themed flight paths, and your Mozilla Mail address 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, Ana Campoy, Katherine Ellen Foley, Jordan Lebeau, and Liz Webber.