🌎 China's unrest shakes the markets

Plus: US taxpayers’ gift to Amazon Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Sign up here]( [Quartz]( November 28, 2022 [View in browser]( Sponsored By Good morning, Quartz readers! Here’s what you need to know Markets felt the impact of the protests in China. The [anti-government demonstrations]( over the weekend have caused [stocks to tumble and pushed oil prices]( to their lowest point so far this year. US Black Friday sales welcomed shoppers back to the stores. Sales were up 12% compared to last year, with retailers [recording an uptick]( in physical store purchases. The US approved an expansion of Chevron’s Venezuela operations. The six-month permit marks [a cautious reopening]( of the oil-rich country as its leadership holds talks with the opposition. Frontier Airlines shut down its customer hotline. In yet another [cost-cutting measure]( from the budget carrier, Frontier will fully handle communications via digital channels. Barbados is negotiating slavery reparations with the descendent of a colonizer family. Richard Drax, a British Conservative lawmaker, inherited [a 17th century sugar plantation]( that participated in and profited off slave labor. Gaslighting encapsulated the spirit of 2022. The Merriam-Webster dictionary saw a [1740% increase in searches]( for the term year-on-year. Sponsor content by University of Wisconsin Extended Campus Can we do business better? Learn how to drive innovation, minimize risk, and reduce costs by integrating social responsibility into business strategy. Sustainability degrees and certificates from the University of Wisconsin. ,Courses are 100% online and begin January 24. [Learn More]( What to watch for Avatar: The Way of Water is set to hit theaters in China on Dec. 16. After the blockbuster success of James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar—the highest-grossing film of all time—Disney is hoping Chinese moviegoers can help it score a round two win at the box office. But another victory [is not guaranteed](. Disney has cleared at least one hurdle, with Beijing giving Avatar 2 a greenlight while a spate of other films have been banned in recent years. But now a surge in daily covid cases, which have reached [a record high of nearly 40,000](, could be a major stumbling block. China has recently dropped to the [second-largest theatrical market]( in the world, behind North America, due to pandemic lockdowns. Box office earnings have also taken a dive, falling from nearly $9 billion in 2019 to just $831 million so far this year. Disney will still need the Chinese market to meet or surpass Avatar’s previous record, but covid restrictions could mean The Way of Water is more likely to sink than make a splash. US taxpayers’ gift to Amazon Amazon has received over $5 billion in US-based subsidies—about a sixth of the $30 billion in estimated tax breaks and incentives US entities use to attract business. [An illustration showing where state and local tax subsidies for Amazon go. ]( Illustration: (Amanda Shendruk) Thirty-eight states have doled out breaks for the corporation, [with Virginia leading the pack at $824 million](. Just over half of Amazon’s US subsidies—or $2.7 billion—were for distribution centers, while 31% were for offices, and 11% went toward data centers. The data comes from Good Jobs First, a nonprofit that tracks agreements between Amazon and state and local governments, as part of the Make Amazon Pay campaign. The movement aims to draw attention to the company’s poor record on worker’s rights, climate change, and tax avoidance. The US is not alone in offering Amazon significant tax breaks and incentives. But global data is also hard to find. So far, Good Jobs First has counted [half a billion dollars]( (pdf) in other countries. Africa is thirsty for World Cup goals The Qatar World Cup didn’t start off amazingly for the five African teams that qualified for it. In the first matches, Morocco and Tunisia fought hard for goalless draws, while Senegal, Cameroon, and Ghana lost—despite the latter being the first African team to score a goal in Qatar. To reach the knockout round, the five will have to get better at shooting goals. Quartz’s west Africa correspondent Alexander Onukwue explained in the [latest Africa Weekly newsletter]( that, in a World Cup first, each participating African team is led by an indigenous coach, a welcome break from the habit of hiring foreign coaches. But after an average first round, the continent’s tacticians need to show that they can match their European and South American rivals. ✦ Sign up today for the Quartz Africa Weekly. And while you’re at it, grab a Quartz membership—[we’ll even knock 50% off]( our usual price. Quartz’s most popular 💥 [Is Tesla’s stock crashing because Elon Musk is distracted by Twitter?]( 🏆 [The first Ugandan Grammy nominee makes music videos of poverty, not glamor]( 😜 [Effective altruism solved all the problems of capitalism⁠—until it didn’t]( 🥅 [Qatar’s $200 billion splurge will be hard to justify when the World Cup ends]( 👟 [An investigation into Ye’s behavior calls for a time of introspection at Adidas]( ☕️ [Starbucks sued an Indian coffee shop for serving Frappuccinos]( Sponsor content by University of Wisconsin Extended Campus Can we do business better? Learn how to drive innovation, minimize risk, and reduce costs by integrating social responsibility into business strategy. Sustainability degrees and certificates from the University of Wisconsin. ,Courses are 100% online and begin January 24. [Learn More]( Surprising discoveries A trove of Aztec artifacts was found under Mexico City. Archaeologists said the discovery, which includes [more than 165 starfish](, offers more clues about the group’s rituals. Further south in Peru, students rediscovered an ancient mural. The [depiction of warriors]( surrounding a deity hasn’t been seen in a century. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the world’s priciest drug. It costs [$3.5 million a dose]( and treats a rare blood-clotting disease. Scientists detected exactly when ketchup shifts from smoothly coming out of a bottle to splattering everywhere. Oxford researchers [insist it’s an important finding](. Next time you need an exterminator, call these school kids in New Zealand instead. As part of a competition, children at a small school in the country’s south have caught [more than 600 rats]( in 100 days. Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, ketchup splatter art, and rat obituaries to hi@qz.com. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—[become a member](. 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