Crypto heist, prison diplomacy, polar bear weapons

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Here’s what you need to know

Hackers stole $600 million in a huge cryptocurrency heist. They took thousands of digital tokens from blockchain site Poly Network, which admitted to a vulnerability in its system.

AMC will accept bitcoin at its movie theaters. The company has become a meme stock this year, and its share price jumped again following CEO Adam Aron’s cryptocurrency announcement.

Chinese authorities jailed a Canadian man for 11 years. Michael Spavor was arrested on charges of spying in Dandong soon after Canadian police detained Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is fighting extradition to the US, in 2018.

Joe Biden washed his hands of Afghanistan. “They’ve got to fight for themselves,” the US president said of Afghans, as the Taliban gradually takes over the country once again.

Scandal-hit New York governor Andrew Cuomo is stepping down. Kathy Hochul will become the US state’s first female governor, following Cuomo’s resignation over sexual harassment allegations.

The UK will relax travel rules for COP26 attendees. Prime minister Boris Johnson wants in-person discussions at the global climate summit, scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November.

What to watch for

The world’s largest phone makers launch a fleet of new smartphones. OK bear with us, it’s a heady couple of days: Samsung, the world’s #1 phone manufacturer, is expected to unveil two new folding phones today. Meanwhile, Xiaomi, which just surpassed Apple to become the world’s second largest phone-maker, announced a long-awaited new addition to its high-end Mi Mix series. The newly demoted Apple will probably launch its own new phones in September.

There’s more. Tomorrow, budget smartphone brand Honor will announce its first new phone since it split off from Huawei (which was #1 until US-led trade restrictions torpedoed its sales last year). Much of Huawei’s market share went to Xiaomi—so Honor’s new release will be its attempt to claw some of those customers back.

Visualizing the IPCC report

The most important takeaways from the 4,000-page Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released this week are easily summarized. Global warming is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, and the impacts range from very bad to catastrophic.

While much of it is written in inscrutable scientific jargon, if you want to understand the scientific case for man-made global warming, look no further. We’ve reviewed the data, summarized the main points, and created an interactive graphic showing a “heat map” of scientists’ confidence in their conclusions. The terms describing statistical confidence range from very high confidence (a 9 out of 10 chance) to very low confidence (a 1 in 10 chance). Check out our full visualization.

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1️⃣ Decide why you want to learn this thing, and write that motivation down.

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Surprising discoveries

China’s migrating elephants are heading home. Over the course of the animals’ months-long trek, 150,000 people have been evacuated to avoid conflict.

Africa accounts for just 1% of new car sales in the world. Car loans tend to have very unfavorable terms, if they’re available at all.

There’s exactly one way to tickle a rat. It mimics their play, and helps make them happier and more willing test subjects.

Polar bears sometimes use rocks and ice to take out prey. How else are they going to kill a 2,500 lb walrus?

Hermit crabs get turned on by plastic garbage. Such pollution releases a chemical that may make the crustaceans “sexually excited.”

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, tickling strategies, and “Welcome home, elephants!” signs 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, Susan Howson, Tim McDonnell, Amanda Shendruk, and Liz Webber.