Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
The UK and EU want a “win-win” on Covid-19 shots. They signaled a desire to defuse weeks of tensions over supplies, as the bloc discusses potential export controls today.
Foreign brands face an online backlash in China over Xinjiang. Celebrities have cut ties H&M and Nike while Weibo users called for a boycott over retailers’ statements expressing concerns about Uyghur forced labor.
Mastercard faces a $19 billion class action lawsuit. If a London court allows the case to proceed, it would be the UK’s first mass consumer claim, alleging the firm overcharged millions of people for years.
US regulators began applying a law that could delist Chinese firms. Chinese tech stocks fell sharply on the the Securities and Exchange Commission’s move, which targets foreign firms that violate US auditing standards.
Chinese hackers used Facebook to target Uyghurs abroad… The social media giant said the campaign used the platform to identify, spy on, and track Uyghur activists and journalists around the world.
…while senior Australian officials’ phones were also hacked. Hackers reportedly impersonated health minister Greg Hunt to expose pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, days after the country’s finance minister said his phone was breached.
The Suez Canal is still blocked. An official said it could take at least two days to move the grounded cargo ship. That’s better than the eight years that ships were stuck there for at one time. Read more below.
What to watch for
Like everything else, the Olympic torch relay is a year late. Today, the flame begins its Japanese journey in Fukushima, the site of a devastating earthquake and nuclear disaster a decade ago.
How weird will these Olympic and Paralympic games be? A look by the digits:
0: Number of overseas spectators that will be allowed in Tokyo
0: Number of athletes representing Russia, because of a doping-related ban
Up to 10: Number of Russians competing as “neutral athletes” in track and field events
26,000: Number of beds in the Athletes Village—they will be made almost entirely of renewable materials
6.2 million: Number of cellphones donated to create gold, silver, and bronze medals
For more Olympian numbers, use the coronavirus living briefing to assess the impact of the pandemic on the Games, Asian economies, and key global industries.
Charting global trade through the Suez Canal
Low visibility and 40-knot winds during a sandstorm grounded a container ship on the Suez Canal on Tuesday—completely blocking the important shipping lane. It’s not just a fascinating photo—the blockage disrupts global shipping the longer it stays in place, explain David Yanofsky and Clarisa Diaz.
This isn’t the first time the canal has been blocked. Following military and political conflict in the region, Egypt blocked the canal to shipping for six months beginning in 1956 and from 1967 to 1975—the latter closure trapped 14 ships and their crews for eight years.
Stealing from the rich
Meme stock trading seems to have settled down somewhat, but Robinhood’s upcoming IPO and GameStop’s latest moves are demonstrating what the landscape looks like after the dust clears.
🏹 Robinhood filed confidentially for an IPO—that is, the IPO itself isn’t secret, but some key financial details are, at least for awhile longer. (It also means the company’s employees won’t yet be able to see how much its leaders—those calling for the democratization of finance—are making.)
🎮 GameStop had a dismal earnings call on Tuesday—being a meme stock doesn’t necessarily benefit a company’s sales. But the same evening, GameStop filed a 10-K that indicated it considered selling shares during the height of GME mania, but decided to wait. It’s either a laudable sign of restraint or a missed opportunity for a brick and mortar whose business model is becoming obsolete.
✦ What manner of bubble even is this? Quartz members can get a sense by diving into our field guide on the next bubble. Try out a membership for free. It won’t pop your budget.
Handpicked Quartz
🍩 America’s businesses have discovered vaccine marketing
🇧🇷 Why have two long-dead Austrian economists become cult figures in Brazil?
🎤 The case for inviting a standup comedian to your next Zoom meeting
📈 The new wave of retail traders is younger, less white, and less male
🍛 India’s first food delivery IPO is finally on its way—but Amazon could be a speed bump
🇮🇳 Rising US treasury bond yields could threaten India’s economic recovery
🇨🇳 Beijing’s European sanctions are also a bid to control who tells the China story
🕷 Disney’s Black Widow decision is a huge blow to a desperate theater industry
Surprising discoveries
For-profit nursing homes are understaffed by design. Cutting labor costs is the fastest way to boost profits.
China can’t stop memeing a 3,000-year-old gold mask. Hello Kitty looks particularly fetching while sporting the newly discovered artifact.
Researchers figured out why our brains much larger than those of primates’. A molecular switch that controls growth is in the off position in our chimp and gorilla cousins.
Pollution has caused babies to be born with smaller penises. Make all the jokes you want, but it’s a problem for human reproduction.
The Large Hadron Collider finally made another discovery. Nine years after proving the existence of the Higgs boson, scientists at CERN found evidence of a “brand new” type of particle.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, giant brains, and new particles 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 Mary Hui, Tripti Lahiri, Oliver Staley, Samanth Subramanian, Susan Howson, and Liz Webber.