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Here’s what you need to know
Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget aims to expand the US middle class. The president plans major investments in infrastructure, education and healthcare.
Japan is extending its state of emergency. There will be an extra three weeks of restrictions, as the Covid-19 crisis continues and the Olympic Games loom in July.
Nike dropped Brazilian superstar Neymar over sexual assault allegations. The company ended the partnership following an accusation—which the soccer player denies as “baseless”—involving a Nike employee, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Jimmy Lai will serve even more time in jail. The already-imprisoned dissident Hong Kong media tycoon, 73, was sentenced to 14 more months for taking part in a 2019 protest.
Russia is blocking flights that are avoiding Belarusian airspace. Air France and Austrian Airlines have already canceled services because Russian aviation authorities rejected their revised flight plans.
China censored parts of the Friends reunion. Music stars BTS, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber were cut from the broadcast, possibly because they may have offended China in the past.
What is Twitter Blue? It’s in app stores, and may be something to do with paid subscriptions to the social media platform, but nobody is completely sure.
What to watch for
Chinese food delivery giant Meituan today reported a 120% increase in revenue, year on year, to 37 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) for the first quarter of 2021. Its net losses widened, however, to $750 million from $270 million in the same period last year, because of heavy investments in 2020 and 2021. There are several other aspects worth watching:
Antitrust scrutiny: In late April, China’s top market regulator launched an investigation into Meituan, raising fears the company could become the next target of Beijing’s crackdown on big tech.
Outspoken CEO: Wang Xing stirred huge controversy this month after he posted and deleted an ancient Chinese poem that some say is a veiled criticism of Beijing. Whether Wang will join today’s earnings calls and what remarks he might make are likely one focus for investors.
Updates on new initiatives: The company has said it will spend part of the $10 billion funding it raised in April on drone technology. It has also been developing autonomous delivery, which has been in use in Beijing for some orders.
Tallying India’s true death count
Journalists in Narendra Modi’s home state exposed India’s Covid-19 deception. Rajesh Pathak, resident editor of a 98-year-old local newspaper in Gujarat, was alarmed by government figures counting local Covid deaths at 0 on a day his wife had personally seen two dead bodies. So he sent his reporters digging.
Sandesh’s Ahmedabad journalists talked to sources at the biggest hospital in the state’s biggest city. With every conversation, their suspicions became clearer: There was a glaring gap in the Covid death counting at the facility. The team then took it upon itself to piece together the reality, and found that undercounting dead bodies was just the tip of the iceberg.
Is there a way to make brainstorming meetings more productive?
Some experts believe that open-ended, idea-gathering meetings are better done virtually, but that isn’t exactly conclusive given the various distractions associated with working remotely. Who among us has not experienced a Zoom grid of awkward silence during a virtual brainstorm?
Dylan Field, the co-founder and CEO of Figma, says the answers lie in playfulness and clarity. “I think that when we’re in a state of play, we’re able to think more creatively, which often improves whatever work we’re doing,” says Field. His company’s tool, Figjam, combines a multi-player game mentality with a pared-down interface that evens the playing field for designers and non-designers alike.
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You asked about vaccine hesitancy
How can we encourage people who are skeptical about vaccines to get their jabs?
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that the issues around who is not getting vaccinated and why are more nuanced than simply being anti-vax. A recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine classified individuals’ attitudes towards vaccination on a “spectrum of vaccine ‘hesitance,’ ranging from being ‘vaccine ready’ to ‘vaccine neutral’ to ‘vaccine resistant.’” Different forms of vaccine hesitancy call for different public health approaches.
Some US states, for example, offer lottery tickets and free beer to adults who get vaccinated, which might help nudge vaccine receptive or vaccine neutral adults. For those who are receptive to vaccines but not “avid seekers,” simply facilitating access could do the trick. Giving more information about vaccines to the “vaccine neutral” group might help sway them.
Once all the people who are receptive to vaccines have been inoculated, the NEJM paper makes the case that governments should go back to providing vaccines where people are used to seeing them, like doctors’ offices, because they have a better chance of reaching people who identify as “vaccine resistant” there than in baseball stadiums and theme parks.
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Surprising discoveries
“Charlie Bit Me” won’t be leaving YouTube after all. The buyer of the non-fungible token (NFT) version of the viral video decided it was too important to internet culture to take down.
China hopes to improve marriage rates by making it cheaper for men to tie the knot. Special economical wedding zones have been set up to weed out traditions like “bride prices.”
Europeans welcome their robot overlords. About half of respondents to a recent survey want to replace some government representatives with AI.
A tiger did the voiceover for the MGM lion. The distinctive roar was added in the 1980s.
Is this the original turducken? Scientists say a fossil shows a shark eating a squid eating a lobster.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, tiger roars, and turducken recipes 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, Tripti Lahiri, Mary Hui, Ananya Bhattacharya, Amanda Shendruk, Annabelle Timsit, Susan Howson, and Liz Webber.