J&J vaccine problems, Coinbase goes public, spider chats

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Here’s what you need to know

The US, EU, and South Africa suspended the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. US data suggest a one-in-a-million chance of blood clots, which is twice as unlikely as a lightning strike.

Grab secured the largest-ever SPAC merger. The southeast Asian tech company will go public on the Nasdaq, following a near-$40 billion valuation from California-based Altimeter Growth Corp.

The US will withdraw troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. President Joe Biden set the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks as the new deadline to end the US’s longest war.

US prosecutors are deciding on charges for an ex-cop who killed a Black motorist. Protests erupted after 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot dead outside Minneapolis—the officer and police chief both quit.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba’s CEO stepped down. Nobuaki Kurumatani’s sudden departure follows reports of a $20 billion buyout of the company by a UK-based private equity group.

The Suez ship is still stuck. Egypt won’t let it go until the Japanese owners have paid compensation; meanwhile, the extra pollution caused by the traffic jam can be seen from space. 

What to watch for

Will Coinbase become the most valuable publicly listed exchange on the planet? That’s what investors (and a few envious exchange CEOs), as well as Quartz’s John Detrixhe, will be watching to see when the crypto platform begins trading on Nasdaq today. Some estimates indicate the eight-year-old company could be valued at $100 billion—nearly double that of Intercontinental Exchange, operator of the New York Stock Exchange and other important venues.

The offering is a direct listing instead of a traditional IPO. That means the market, rather than the underwriting investment banks, will determine the opening trading price for Coinbase shares under the ticker COIN. If the company’s stock trades anything like bitcoin and the other crypto assets that change hands on its exchange, get ready for a rollercoaster.

Charting Twitch fans

Twitch viewership doubled during lockdown, but mostly, users weren’t logging on to see epic zombie battles or car chases—they tuned in for the far less dramatic experience of watching people sit in front of their webcams and talk, Samanth Subramanian reports.

Inveterate gamers once used to ridicule users, often women, who were too into chatting and not enough into playing, which resulted in its own kind of inherent sexism. Three years ago, Twitch spun the feature off into “Just Chatting” and once Covid-19 put a serious dampener on in-person conversation, the category exploded.

We’d all do well to keep up, as video game live streaming may be the future of entertainment.

Could you handle being a pandemic health minister?

Austria’s health minister Rudolf Anschober resigned yesterday, in the middle of a “third wave” of coronavirus infections—it’s not the only country to have had trouble keeping that role filled.

Before you start brushing off your CV, let’s take a look at some territory that seems to come with the job:

😴 You won’t be able to catch many hours of sleep, but, hey, you could catch Covid-19!

🔪 When your head of state makes bad decisions you may have to take the blame—even if their supporters threaten your life.

☠️ In fact, you should probably get used to death threats.

🤭 You probably won’t get a lot of praise for a job well done. (But you might get an embarrassing nickname.)

Still interested? Annabelle Timsit has more about the trials and tribulations of Anschober and his colleagues across the globe.

✦ Former health ministers: Your career needs help—can we interest you in Quartz At Work? You’ll hit a paywall eventually, but a Quartz membership will sort you right out. Try it for free.

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Surprising discoveries

Siri scooped Apple when asked about the date of its next event. The company later confirmed the voice assistant’s response with formal invitations.

Facebook mistakenly took down the official page for the French town of Bitche. It seems something was lost in translation.

Researchers translated spider web vibrations into musical tones. They hope to someday use the findings to “talk” to arachnids.

Have you seen this rabbit? The world’s longest bunny is missing, and police fear he was kidnapped.

Some people actually understand NFTs. Listen to two of them—Quartz senior reporter Samanth Subramanian and Nadya Ivanova of tech research firm L’Atelier BNP Paribas—in discussion on Clubhouse on Thursday, April 15 at 12pm US Eastern time.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, health minister job listings, and giant rabbit sightings 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, Jane Li, Mary Hui, Susan Howson, and Liz Webber.