🌎 Juul pays up

Plus: Apple's reveal day. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Sign up here]( [Quartz]( September 7, 2022 [View in browser]( Sponsored By Good morning, Quartz readers! Here’s what you need to know Juul agreed to pay a $438.5 million settlement in a marketing probe. The e-cigarette maker was [accused of advertising]( nicotine-addictive products to minors. Bed Bath & Beyond named a new interim CFO. Laura Crossen is taking on the role while [remaining chief accounting officer](. The EU blocked Illumina’s $7.1 billion acquisition of biotech firm GRAIL. The US life sciences company will [appeal the decision](, which would force it to divest from GRAIL—a takeover also under scrutiny in the US. Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes asked for a new trial. Her lawyers claimed a [key witness felt guilty]( about his testimony. A New Mexico county commissioner lost his seat for participating in the Jan. 6 riot. Couy Griffin is the first state official in more than a century [to be constitutionally barred]( from public office over insurrectionism. U.S. Soccer players signed an equal pay agreement. The athletes’ contracts now include [identical pay structures](, no matter their gender. Sponsor content by Fidelity Introducing a new way to have a professionally managed, personalized stock portfolio tailored to what matters most to you. Learn more about Fidelity Managed FidFolios℠[Advertisement] [Learn more]( What to watch for Apple will stage its annual September product launch event today, which is [expected to announce]( four new iPhones, three new Apple Watches, and a new Airpods Pro model. Even as inflation begins to [slow down consumer spending](, Apple is expected to [discontinue the iPhone mini](, its cheapest smartphone model, and [raise the price]( of the high-end iPhone Pro, which will get a big camera upgrade and may feature an [“always on” display](. Breathless rumors are also swirling that Apple will finally replace the iPhone’s maligned “notch,” which houses its front-facing camera, with…an almost identical [pill-shaped screen cut-out](. Apple will also tout a software update that will apply to anyone who has bought an iPhone since 2017. With the arrival of iOS 16, users will be able to [edit or unsend]( iMessages and customize a set of widgets that appear on their lock screen. Apple is also wading into the [”buy now pay later” business model]( with a new short-term loan scheme dubbed [Apple Pay Later](. National Cinema Day buzzed the tower The US’s first National Cinema Day wasn’t just a success for the movie theater business, it also helped [Top Gun: Maverick]( soar higher, pushing it past Black Panther as the fifth-highest grossing domestic movie of all time, at $701 million. Graphic: (Adario Strange) National Cinema Day allowed moviegoers to pay just $3 per ticket for any movie on over 30,000 screens at over 3,000 movie theater locations on Sept. 3. The promotion was launched by the Cinema Foundation, a non-profit created by the National Association of Theatre Owners to foster the growth of the movie theater business. And it worked. The association’s publication, Box Office Pro, claims that the promotion helped to generate $24.3 million in box office revenue, roughly 9% higher than the previous Saturday. It’s further proof that fan-focused fake holidays are [Hollywood’s best new marketing tool](, especially for an industry still struggling to find its footing after the pandemic threw it for a loop. This one trick to getting past Chinese censors Let’s say you want to post something in China that’s critical of the government. Sure, you could get past Beijing’s sprawling internet censorship apparatus by using [Martian, emojis, and even braille](. Or, you could simply switch to Cantonese, the language spoken by close to a hundred million people. Officially, Beijing designates Cantonese as a dialect, and while many have long argued it’s a language in its own right, its very unofficialness is helping it citizens (relatively) freely express discontent. Mary Hui looks into why posts [cursing the mothers of some local officials](—and other spicy examples—got past the censors. ✦ Do stories like these spice up your week? Support our journalism by signing up today for a membership. While you’re at it, take [40% off](, on us. Quartz’s most popular 🏫 [Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where out-of-school children keep increasing]( ⛈️ [Amazon and Google are not happy with Microsoft’s cloud changes]( 💸 [A mega acquisition is underway in India’s digital payments sector]( 📱 [Chinese smartphones are leading in Africa’s 5G market]( ⚔️ [HBO’s House of the Dragon and Amazon’s Rings of Power face off]( 💵 [Zambia’s kwacha is the world’s best performer against the dollar]( Sponsor content by Fidelity Introducing a new way to have a professionally managed, personalized stock portfolio tailored to what matters most to you. Learn more about Fidelity Managed FidFolios℠[Advertisement] [Learn more]( Surprising discoveries A Japanese man is selling companionship for 10,000 yen ($71). Shoji Morimoto said he’s been booked [about 4,000 times]( in the past four years. Covid lockdowns had an impact on primates other than humans, too. Enclosed gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and baboons [behaved differently]( when zoos were shut. Aquatic salamanders are key to understanding cell regeneration. Axolotls’ self-regenerating brain cells [share similarities]( with those found in humans. Chinese motorcyclists gave “hell’s angels” a new meaning. The riders [volunteered to help firefighters]( battling the Chongqing wildfire. Spare a thought for the woman who claimed the Twitter handle @LizTruss. The user, active since 2009, is [not the new UK Prime minister](—but few bother to check before tweeting. Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, other Lizzes, and pandemic-traumatized primates to hi@qz.com. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—[become a member](. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Nicolás Rivero, Adario Strange, Sofia Lotto Persio, Julia Malleck, and Susan Howson. 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