🌍 US takes on China over Uyghur rights

Plus: New York’s natural gas ban [Quartz]( Sponsored by Good morning, Quartz readers! Until the end of the year, every Quartz story you click on in the Daily Brief will be paywall-free. It’s our gift to you, along with 40% off a year of Quartz membership. (Use code [QZLOVE]( at checkout.) Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Sign up here](. Forward to a friend who’s [a big fan of The Boss](. Here’s what you need to know US senators passed a bill effectively banning imports from China’s Xinjiang region. Latest in a string of US measures to censure China’s [alleged genocide]( of the Uyghur Muslim minority, companies will [have to prove]( their goods have not been produced with forced labor. The bill now heads to president Joe Biden’s desk to be [signed]( into law. 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. Women in the US can now order abortion pills online. The food and drug administration’s decision [no longer requires]( patients to make in-person visits to pick up mifepristone. EU leaders gave up without reaching a consensus on energy price hikes. A summit in Brussels ended early as member states [failed to agree]( on how to curb volatile prices as well as on whether nuclear energy should be considered a climate friendly investment. 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. Sponsor content by Galaxy Fund Management These five brands are changing the world as we know it. Some are household names; others are low-key superstars. But they’re all looking far beyond their initial mission statements and business plans to fundamentally alter the way we work, exercise, invest, and even fall in love. [Explore this new interactive]( from Galaxy Fund Management x Quartz Creative to see how a company becomes a catalyst. 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 [A chart showing the monthly energy use of large stand-alone NYC buildings, with electricity having much milder hills and valleys than natural gas, between January 2019 and November 2020.] 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](. Quartz announcement Your experience as a Quartz reader means everything. Tell us about yourself, why you read Quartz, and what you’re obsessed with by taking our audience survey and we’ll make it worth your while. Complete the survey and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card. [I’m in!]( The charts that made 2021 [A graphic with grey lines, grey, blue, and pink dots of various sizes, lines meant to represent several different kinds of charts.] 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]( Sponsor content by Galaxy Fund Management These five brands are changing the world as we know it. Some are household names; others are low-key superstars. But they’re all looking far beyond their initial mission statements and business plans to fundamentally alter the way we work, exercise, invest, and even fall in love. [Explore this new interactive]( from Galaxy Fund Management x Quartz Creative to see how a company becomes a catalyst. 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]( SPREAD THE WORD Over 500k readers and counting. You already know why half a million people read the Daily Brief, so why not spread the word? [Share the Daily Brief today]( and get rewarded. Our best wishes for a productive day. 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