Infrastructure bill, Square buys Afterpay, quantum time crystals

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Here’s what you need to know

US senators finally unveiled a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. Late on Sunday night, they dropped a 2700-page bill that represents president Joe Biden’s statement policy initiative.

Square is taking over Afterpay for $29 billion. The US digital payments company agreed a deal to purchase the Australian “buy now, pay later” giant.

Meanwhile, US firm Parker-Hannifin agreed an $8.8 billion deal for the UK’s Meggitt. The British defense and aerospace company employs more than 9,000 people globally.

HSBC’s profits more than doubled. The bank made $10.8 billion (before tax) in the first half of 2021, compared with $4.3 billion for the same period last year.

Olympic news

A Belarusian athlete refused to fly home from Tokyo. Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya says her life would be in danger in Belarus, and is applying for asylum at the Austrian embassy in Japan.

Gymnast Simone Biles has now withdrawn from all but one Olympic event. She hasn’t indicated if she will participate in the beam final on Tuesday, her last chance to compete for the US in Tokyo.

A 33-year-old Olympic record was finally broken. Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah retained her women’s 100m crown, running 10.61 seconds to beat Florence Griffith Joyner’s time from the 1988 Seoul Games.

There was a shock winner in the men’s 100m final. Relative unknown Lamont Marcell Jacobs claimed gold for Italy with a European record of 9.80 seconds.

What to watch for

This evening in Tokyo, Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, will become the first openly transgender athlete to compete in an Olympics. At 43, she’s also the fourth oldest weightlifter ever to participate in the Games. Hubbard left the sport for fifteen years after competing as a man became “just too much to bear,” and returned in 2017, five years after transitioning.

Hubbard will have to perform in the midst of a debate over her right to be there—a debate the International Olympic Committee’s medical director described as “large, difficult, and complex.” The IOC is reviewing the requirements for athletes participating in women’s events, including their reliance on testosterone levels, and the rules are likely to change before the next Games.

“As an athlete all I can really do is to block that out,” Hubbard said in 2017, about the controversy. “Because if I try and take that weight on board it just makes the lifts harder.”

There are seven days left of the Tokyo Games. It’s not too late to sign up for our Need to Know: Tokyo Olympics newsletter. Hit the button below to sign up.

Why US companies can mandate shots

Last week, as Delta cases rose dramatically in the US, Google, Facebook, and other big tech companies pushed back their return-to-the-office plans and said that when employees do return, they must be vaccinated. Walmart announced it will require vaccination for workers at its headquarters, and Disney will expect all non-union employees to get their shots.

Fewer than 10% of US companies have mandated vaccination policies so far, but they can and should lead on this. Firms have the legal grounds to require vaccination, and their employees trust them more than any other institution, including the government, to “do what is right” and give them reliable information.

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Surprising discoveries

As city lights swallow the stars, some species may get disoriented. Animals like the dung beetle, which uses the Milky Way as a guide, are robbed of their ability to navigate.

The Toronto Blue Jays returned home after 670 days on the road. During the pandemic, the Canadian government wouldn’t allow the Major League Baseball team to play at home.

Astronomers discovered the largest known comet. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is between 62 and 124 miles (100 to 200 km) across, and will make its closest approach to the sun in 2031.

Time crystals have been realized, physicists claim. It’s a phase of matter that cycles forever between states without consuming energy, and researchers at Google and Stanford say they’ve created it inside a quantum computer.

Hungry sheep uncovered 500 graves in Ireland. The grazing farm animals were used to clear an overgrown graveyard, where they discovered tombs dating as far back as 1711.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, wayfinding bugs, and peckish sheep 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, Amanda Shendruk, Zach Seward, and Katherine Bell.