Hello Quartz members,
Welcome to Sunday Reads! Take into account it half two of our member-exclusive Weekend Temporary electronic mail. Right here every week, you’ll discover our favourite tales from Quartz, in addition to tales we beloved from elsewhere, plus a hyperlink to a enjoyable showcase of unusual discoveries from the previous week. We’ll additionally set you up for the week forward with a curated calendar of occasions our newsroom is maintaining a tally of.
Obtained concepts for what you’d prefer to see sooner or later? Tell us.
5 issues we particularly appreciated on Quartz
🛢️ Past pissed. At a raucous annual shareholders assembly, BP executives bought excoriated by local weather activists and UK pension funds over a choice to backtrack on the corporate’s emissions discount objectives. However as Aurora Almendral studies, the ultimate vote tally on resolutions to resurrect more durable emissions targets and toss BP’s Helge Lund out of his chairman position despatched out a special form of message fully.
🚀 Starship’s dust-up. When the world’s largest rocket took flight final week, it pressed greater than 6,000 metric tons of pressure on every thing beneath it, damaging the launch gantry and kicking up a mud storm affecting residents miles away from SpaceX’s base in Texas. Tim Fernholz explains why SpaceX proprietor Elon Musk wants to deal with this rapidly. (By the way, mud is a motive why Moon landings are so troublesome, too, which Tim additionally explored this week within the wake of a failed lunar mission by Japan’s ispace.)
🌎 Taiwan on the poll. There’s just one South American nation that acknowledges Taiwan as a sovereign state, though Diego Lasarte and Clarisa Diaz clarify how that would change relying on the outcomes of immediately’s presidential election in Paraguay. Centrist candidate Efrain Alegre, who’s in a statistical useless warmth with the ruling right-wing celebration’s candidate, says his nation should be compensated for icing out China by attracting extra funding from Taiwan—both that or change stance, undertake the One China coverage, and open the door to commerce offers with Beijing.
🎉 Ode to pleasure. As Quartz at Work editor Anna Oakes notes on this week’s version of The Memo e-newsletter, the traditional Egyptians supposedly requested two questions on their deathbed: Did you deliver pleasure? Did you discover pleasure? In an interview with Mazzy Cameron, writer of the brand new guide Hacking Pleasure: The Playbook, Anna finds out how we will apply these inquiries to our careers—and the way some small shifts in perspective can transfer us nearer to pleasure at work.
💵 Public-private prosperity. Nate DiCamillo’s delightfully wonky evaluation of the most recent US GDP knowledge suggests federal spending is offering greater than its fair proportion to the nation’s financial development. That’s as a result of new laws just like the CHIPS Act not solely authorizes public funding; it encourages non-public funding, too.
5 nice tales from elsewhere
🇸🇪 Up north. Younger Chinese language have been flocking to Sweden lately. Some are fed up with China’s work tradition, and drawn to Sweden’s utopian enchantment, whereas others are interested in the aesthetics and guarantees of a Nordic life-style. However the actuality of life up north is harder than many anticipate. Sixth Tone speaks to Chinese language expats, each present and former, about their choice to reside in Scandinavia.
📺 Tuned in. The thought of “mass media’’ was as soon as tied to the expertise of collective viewership. However that’s all altering: Within the age of streaming and private gadgets, media consumption has change into atomized. Now, archivists are preserving the historical past of broadcasting in its heyday. As NiemanLab explains, meaning going past the conservation of radio, tapes, and TVs, and encapsulating what it was prefer to be a listener and viewer in a specific time and place.
🌮 Eat this. Relating to meals gimmicks, Taco Bell is continually cooking up new concepts. However bringing recipes from the drafting board to the chopping board is an entire different course of. The New Yorker offers an inside take a look at the quick meals chain’s “Innovation Kitchen,” the birthplace of masterpieces just like the Large Cheez-It Tostada. Within the phrases of Liz Matthews, the chief meals innovation officer: “We’re Madonna. We’re at all times reinventing ourselves.”
😔 Onerous instances. Craig Coyner was as soon as the mayor of Bend, Oregon. He died as a houseless resident of town this yr. The New York Occasions recounts Coyner’s life story, together with his decades-long profession as a lawyer and Metropolis Councilmember, the place he labored to assist poor members of the group. Private challenges ultimately landed Coyner on the streets, whilst town he as soon as ruled grew extra affluent.
🦢 Swan regulation. There’s a in style perception that the monarch of England is the proprietor of all of the swans in Britain. Bizarre Medieval Guys on Substack swoops in to make clear that’s, in truth, a fable. Nevertheless, Britain does have a posh historical past of regulation surrounding the gorgeous, aggressive bipeds that dates again to the Center Ages. As soon as thought-about a luxurious merchandise, the birds have been flaunted at feasts and on properties, and positively weren’t for the widespread folks.
Stunning discoveries
Every weekday in our Each day Temporary, we share 5 shocking discoveries, taken from throughout. And now, we’re showcasing our 5 favorites from every week—simply in case you missed them. Try this week’s greatest, most shocking discoveries right here.
What to look at for this week
These are a few of the occasions our newsroom can be watching out for this week.
- Monday: UK financial institution vacation, outcomes of Uzbekistan’s constitutional referendum, MGM Resorts earnings
- Tuesday: A smorgasbord of earnings—Pfizer, HSBC, Starbucks, BP, Uber, Marriott, Ford, Prudential Monetary, Yum China
- Wednesday: World Press Freedom Day; plus earnings studies from Adani Inexperienced, Airbus, Etsy, Hyatt, Lufthansa, and Yum! Manufacturers
- Thursday: Netflix capitalizes on an glorious funding and releases its Bridgerton prequel; prepare for a lot of Star Wars jokes; and there’s a good greater earnings smorgasbord—Apple, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Regeneron, Lyft, Volkswagen, Moderna, Motorola, Sq., DoorDash, Expedia, Coinbase, Adani Fuel, Yelp, and Wayfair
- Friday: Cinco de Mayo; a BLS replace on the US employment scenario
- Saturday: The coronation of King Charles III—the UK will get a bonus vacation in celebration on Monday, Could 8
Thanks for studying! Right here’s to the week forward, and don’t hesitate to attain out with feedback, questions, suggestions, pleasure, or Madonna-like reinventions. Sunday Reads was dropped at you by Susan Howson, Heather Landy, and Julia Malleck.