🌍 Putin’s Mariupol ultimatum

Plus: Why stock splits are so popular right now. [Quartz]( Sponsored by Good morning, Quartz readers Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Sign up here](. Forward to the friend who [loves Die Hard](. Here’s what you need to know Putin won’t stop bombing Mariupol until the city surrenders. But the Russian president [might be misinformed]( about the [situation in Ukraine](. Meanwhile, the Georgian region of South Ossetia [wants to join Russia](. America will tap its strategic stash of oil. Joe Biden is expected [to release]( a million barrels of oil daily from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to combat rising energy prices. Russia won’t change its gas prices, but it will demand payment in rubles. It’s [a strategy]( to minimize [the impact of sanctions](. European countries have rejected the idea, and Germany and Austria started taking steps [towards gas rationing](. Meta paid a Republican consulting firm to convince the US that TikTok is dangerous for children. The campaign [spread misinformation]( about the origin and effect of some social media trends. The US chief strategist for sanctions against Russia is visiting India. [His meetings]( come a day ahead of Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s trip to Delhi, during which Lavrov is expected to broach the topic of selling India discounted oil. Google’s sister company Waymo is putting driverless cars in San Francisco. The [rides are free](, but only available to Waymo’s employees. Sponsor content by Accenture How to find mentorship anywhere. To achieve your goals, you must have mentors. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have a formal mentor who meets all of your mentorship needs. More likely, you’re searching for guidance to help you take your work and your career to the next level. It’s critical to have people around you who can promote you, counsel you, champion you and team with you. [In today's workshop](, you’ll learn how to connect with people who can help, where to find less obvious sources of guidance, and ways to prepare yourself to be open to the career advice you receive.[Advertisement] [Register now]( What to watch for Today is the deadline for Northern Ireland’s government to provide abortion services. Abortion became legal in the country in October 2019, and the UK mandated that Northern Ireland’s Department of Health fully commission abortion services by Mar. 31, 2022. The region will miss the deadline, leaving the provision of the service to the occasional initiative of individual doctors, and forcing many of those seeking abortions to obtain it outside the country. But the UK government is [stepping in](, planning to use its full power to override local authorities and speeding up the process of setting up abortion services. At a time when anti-abortion measures are cropping up elsewhere, too—[notably the US](—the Northern Ireland case shows how fragile reproductive care can be, when even an abortion-permitting legal framework fails to actually permit abortion. Why do the splits? Earlier this week, Tesla announced that it will split its stock for the second time in two years, following similar plans by Amazon and Alphabet. The move will lower share price—or appear to, anyway. In reality, the stock will be split up into smaller shares, making it easier to invest. This is a marketing move, designed to make a company’s stock more enticing to retail investors who feel uneasy about buying fractions of a share of stock—and research shows [it actually works](. Tesla should know; the automaker has done it once before, a 5-for-1 split in August 2020 that doubled ​​net stock purchases within weeks. It’s already a darling with retail investors, who own 39% of the company, much more than they do Meta or Alphabet (though nowhere near as much as GameStop, of course). [A table showing the most mentioned company names on the subreddit WallStreetBets, with GameStop far exceeding every other company (Tesla is number 3).] The future of nukes [A map showing the estimate nuclear arms by country as of 2021. The US has 5,550 and Russia has 6,257.] Not since the 1980s has the specter of nuclear war been so real in popular consciousness, but the world today is not the same as it was during the Cold War. Learn more about the future of the weapon that [exists to not be used](. ✦ Support Quartz’s journalism—and get The Forecast in your inbox!—by [becoming a member](. Handpicked Quartz 🤐 [Google asked its Russian translators not to refer to a “war” in Ukraine]( 🛢 [The Ukraine crisis could keep banks from dropping fossil fuels]( 😡 [Soccer fans’ rage could have financial consequences in Nigeria]( 😬 [Business school mainly teaches managers to keep wages low]( 🍆 [Vasectomy rates suggest it’s not likely that men would take a birth control pill]( 🎼 [Can the Grammys replicate the Oscars’ recovery from falling viewership?]( Sponsor content by Accenture How to find mentorship anywhere. To achieve your goals, you must have mentors. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have a formal mentor who meets all of your mentorship needs. More likely, you’re searching for guidance to help you take your work and your career to the next level. It’s critical to have people around you who can promote you, counsel you, champion you and team with you. [In today's workshop](, you’ll learn how to connect with people who can help, where to find less obvious sources of guidance, and ways to prepare yourself to be open to the career advice you receive.[Advertisement] [Register now]( Surprising discoveries Putin may be cracking—it’s in his voice. Analysis of [voice samples]( from the Russian leader’s speeches in the past two months suggest his confident exterior might be hiding growing stress. Chile is the hottest new destination for Indian startup founders. Tech expertise, government support, and market size [are attracting investors](. Bad at directions? Blame the matrix. New research shows growing up in grid-shaped cities can [affect navigation abilities]( later in life. Pigs have a lot to say, and we might be close to understanding it. Researchers were able to classify domestic pig calls from birth to slaughter [based on their emotional value](. Solar and wind energy powered 10% of global electricity in 2021. This is [a new milestone]( in the use of renewable sources, but coal use rose too. 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. Send any news, comments, tickets to Chile, and best words to say in Pig Latin 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 Scott Nover, Annalisa Merelli, Samanth Subramanian, and Susan Howson. [facebook]( [twitter]( [external-link]( Enjoying Quartz Daily Brief? Forward it to a friend! They can [click here]( to sign up. If you’re looking to unsubscribe, [click here](. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10010 | United States Copyright © 2022 Quartz, All rights reserved.