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Here’s what you need to know
France banned nonessential travel to and from Britain. The travel restrictions come as the UK broke another daily record on Thursday for new covid-19 infections. As the omicron variant spreads, more border closures could arise.
India’s cryptocurrency bill isn’t expected until next year. Any crackdowns on digital currency will likely be pushed to the parliament’s first budget session in the first quarter of 2022.
European banks differed on rate increases. A day after the US Federal Reserve signaled it would raise rates in 2022, the Bank of England raised its benchmark interest rate, while the European Central Bank signaled it likely won’t follow suit.
US regulators are investigating PayPal and Affirm. Officials are concerned about the “buy now, pay later” premise of those companies and others. Affirm stock fell more than 10% on Thursday.
Japan’s prime minister isn’t planning on attending the Beijing Olympics. But Fumio Kishida didn’t go as far as to join a diplomatic boycott of the games.
Nigeria’s startup bill moved closer to becoming law. The regulation, which is on its way to parliament, will formalize relations between startups and regulators in Nigeria.
What to watch for
When Hong Kong turned out to protest in 2014, and again in 2019, it was to call for full-fledged competitive elections at all levels of government. But polls on Sunday (Dec. 19), the first legislative race since a sweeping national security law came into force in 2020, will instead offer a close-up look of the kind of “democracy” Chinese leaders want to see. Many democracy activists are behind bars—and those who aren’t would have been disqualified under newly “improved” election rules intended to weed out “unpatriotic” candidates.
The election still has to at least look democratic enough to keep up the pretense that Hong Kong’s government has any trace of legitimacy left. To that end, Hong Kong has criminalized the “incitement” of election boycotts—and even threatened the Wall Street Journal for allegedly violating that law.
Putting natural gas on the back burner
New York City just became the largest city in the US to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings, a step toward the city’s efforts to become carbon neutral by 2050. As the largest US city to pass a natural gas ban, the measure is expected to prevent 2.1 million tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere by 2040, according to an estimate by the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Of course, it faced strong opposition from builders and natural gas providers. But bans like these are a focus for climate policy advocates as local governments attempt to cut emissions at the city level, and it could pave the way for other major cities to follow suit.
The charts that made 2021
Did a chart—at Quartz or elsewhere—help you better understand the world? Perhaps the chart above that we made for you this very day!
We’re rounding up your most-loved charts from 2021. Send us a screenshot or link, along with a couple of sentences about why you like it, to reply@qz.com.
(Can’t remember how to find it, exactly? If you’re thinking of a Quartz chart, we can probably get our hands on it if you give us a brief description.)
Handpicked Quartz
☁️ China’s covid-zero lockdowns loom over the global supply chain
💔 A celebrity couple’s divorce has become a symbol of declining China-Taiwan relations
😷 Is a mask mandate in the US the same as a law?
🎞 As Africa’s artifacts start to be returned, what about its films?
🔮 How US Fed chair Jay Powell sees inflation evolving in 2022
🎨 What greenwashing looks like for BlackRock
Surprising discoveries
An album of endangered bird sounds topped music charts in Australia. Songs of Disappearance beat out stars like ABBA and The Weeknd.
Somebody’s selling a certificate of 500,000 Theranos shares as an NFT. He may be the only investor to make money off the fraudulent company.
Scientists made a robot to ward off invasive fish. The tiny mosquitofish can pretty much eat or live anywhere, but a fake largemouth bass is its worst nightmare.
A millipede that actually has more than 1,000 legs was found. E. persephone has been crowned the world’s leggiest, and is our worst nightmare.
In manufacturing, Six Sigma refers to 99.999% accuracy. Learn how many defects the gospel of Six Sigma actually allows in the latest episode of the Quartz Obsession podcast.
🎧 Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google
Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, bugs with acceptable numbers of legs, and robots to scare them away 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 Mary Hui, Clarisa Diaz, David Yanofsky, Camille Squires, Morgan Haefner, and Susan Howson.