đ Japanâs mega steel deal
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Japanâs Nippon Steel paid $14.9 billion to buy US Steel. The acquisition is a bet on US president Joe Bidenâs infrastructure bill, which includes spending and tax incentives.
Apple will stop selling its latest smartwatches because of a patent dispute. The Series 9 and Ultra 2 timepieces, some of the companyâs bestsellers, will stay on shelves during the busy US holiday shopping season.
Jimmy Lai is on trial in Hong Kong. The pro-democracy media tycoon is being charged with breaching national security and collusion, all of which he denies, but if heâs found guilty, Lai could face life in prison.
Nikola founder Trevor Milton was sentenced to four years in prison. He was convicted last year of misleading investors about his companyâs zero-emission trucks.
Pope Francis said priests could bless same-sex couples. The Vatican clarified that the decision is not the same as a marriage sacrament and doesnât amend the Roman Catholic Churchâs doctrine.
Shipping giants are boycotting the Suez Canal
The fallout from the Israel-Hamas war is reverberating in the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen has responded to the conflict by intensifying its attacks on vessels going to or coming from Israel, and the worldâs biggest shipping containers are starting to avoid the Suez Canal.
Instead, reroutings are popping up that will have cascading events throughout the global supply chain. Hereâs a look at shippingâor lack of shippingâin the Red Sea, by the digits:
12%: Share of global trade that currently passes through the Red Sea
10+: Ships the Houthis have attacked since Oct. 7
19 to 31 days: How much longer the journey lasts for a vessel circumnavigating from the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, depending on the vesselâs type, speed, and destination
40%: Share of cargo arriving in Israel that passes through the Suez Canal
$400,0000â$1 million: Cost increase per ship thanks to the longer journey and added delays
The driverless car industry had a bumpy year
Driverless car and trucking companies have promised to bring us into the future, but so far, all that many of themâand their valuationsâhave managed to do is crash.
Major businesses in the self-driving vehicle and tech space lost a combined $40 billion in value between going public and October 2022, and the sectorâs bad fortunes have only continued this year.
Quartz compiled 12 of the biggest failures in the self-driving vehicle world in 2023.
Quartzâs most popular
đ„€ Where McDonaldâs new CosMcâs drive-thrus are expanding to next
đź Sectors: The S&P 500's 7-layer dip
âđœ Immigrant cleaning workers say itâs time to get what they deserve
đ„ The largest nursing home in St. Louis closed suddenly, forcing out 170 residents
đ The EU is targeting Russiaâs diamond industry in its latest round of Ukraine war sanctions
âïž Adobe called off its $20 billion deal for Figma after antitrust pushback from EuropeÂ
Surprising discoveries
A $4 thrift store vase sold for more than $100,000 at an auction. It was a 1940s glass Venini piece designed by Carlo Scarpa.
And a $4 thrift store painting that was actually a rare N.C. Wyeth work finally found a home. Its first auction buyer backed out, but another person put up more than $100,000 for it.
Archeologists are fighting over a site in Indonesia. Some are saying itâs the oldest building in the worldâ25,000 years old to be exactâwhile other experts are saying thatâs absolutely wrong.
Grouse are kind of weird birds. They donât fly well. They eat bitter and toxic plants. They grow snowshoe-like toe extensions in the winter. And they wonât let one manâs guests go home.
The anxiety around AI can be described as âtoo many paper clips.â Gizmodo tech reporter Maxwell Zeff talks to host Thomas Germain about how GPTsâdigital brains any of us can makeâcould finally be the sci-fi game changers weâve been promised for so long. The Quartz Obsession podcast is back for Season 6!
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, grouse friends, and paper clips to [email protected]. Todayâs Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.