US vaccine donation, big earnings week, dolphin BFFs

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Here’s what you need to know

The US is releasing its stockpile of 60 million AstraZeneca doses. Many are likely to go to India, pending a safety check, but it won’t be enough to halt the constant rise in infections there.

US population growth is in decline. There have been lower birthrates and fewer immigrants, while the census data will also redraw the political map.

Tesla had a mixed first quarter. The company saw a 74% rise in revenue, with a record net income of $438 million—thanks to sales of bitcoin and tax credits—but shares fell.

HSBC and BP beat profit expectations. The European bank reported income of $5.8 billion for the first quarter of 2021, while the energy giant brought in $2.6 billion.

But other banks were hit by the Archegos fallout. UBS and Nomura lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of their exposure to the collapsed fund.

It’s a big week for earnings reports. More today: Microsoft, Alphabet, Visa, Eli Lilly, UPS, Starbucks, 3M, General Electric, AMD, Mondelez, Capital One, Pinterest, and Hasbro.

What to watch for

Brexit is still not 💯, totally, completely done yet. We know. We can’t believe it either.

Somehow, there are still i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed. Today, the European Parliament finally votes to ratify the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement that’s already been approved by the Brits, and has been implemented all year—it governs the flow of goods and services between the former partners.

Why does this matter? Technically, Parliament could decide to throw a very late spanner in the works. The deadline for ratification is only four days away, and there is scope for mischief and gamesmanship.

But most likely it’ll go through, and Brexit will continue to trundle along until the next dispute.

Charting sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest problem

The Covid-19 pandemic is widening the income gap between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world, according to the International Monetary Fund. This is particularly concerning for a region where millions have already been pushed into poverty by the pandemic.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s projected growth of 3.4% this year is the slowest in the world. While this projection is an improvement on last year’s contraction of 1.9%, it’s still below the global growth projection of 6%.

This personality test may give you an identity crisis

At least, that’s what happened to us. Quartz’s Sarah Todd writes about billionaire Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio’s new project, PrinciplesYou.

What distinguishes it from other personality tests, Dalio says, is its comprehensiveness. The qualities it measures are based in part on the Big Five test (the gold standard among scientists who study personality), which assesses people on five traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, open-mindedness, and neuroticism. It also draws from psychological research including Grant’s work on “givers” and “takers,” and measures qualities that Dalio discusses in Principles, like humility and toughness.

Sarah and some of her Quartz colleagues took the 40-minute test, gathered to discuss, then learned that, no matter whether the guinea pigs found the results accurate, maybe the discussion itself is the key.

✦ Personality tests—useful guide or capitalist tool? We’ve written about it all. Whatever your Myers-Briggs letters, we know you’ll put a Quartz membership to good use. Try it free for a week.

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Surprising discoveries

A man dated 35 women at once to get extra birthday gifts. He has since been arrested on suspicion of fraud.

Fans finally voted off an unwilling reality-show singer. The Russian contestant had originally signed on to the Chinese program as a translator.

Dolphins form teams with their friends. And they learn each other’s “names,” or signature whistles.

Kanye West’s 2008 Grammys sneakers set a record. The pair of Nike Air Yeezy 1 sold for $1.8 million.

A woman’s 20-year overdue VHS rental came back to haunt her. She was charged with felony embezzlement for never returning Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, surplus presents, and expensive sneakers 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 Jane Li, Mary Hui, Hasit Shah, Carlos Mureithi, Susan Howson, Liz Webber, and Jordan Lebeau.