đ Sweden inches toward NATO
Good morning, Quartz readers!
Hereâs what you need to know
Sweden got one step closer to joining NATO. The Turkish parliament approved the Nordic countryâs bid to join the military alliance, and now it awaits president Recep Tayyip ErdoÄanâs signature.
China is buying a greater share of its intermediate goodsâthose used to make productsâfrom Taiwan. That change has come at the expense of imports from South Korea and Japan.
TikTok laid off workers. The cuts by the social media video app follow widespread layoffs in the tech sectorâincluding the one-time darling of Silicon Valley, Brex, which just laid off 20% of its workforce.
Alphabet cut ties with an Australian AI company that helped train its Bard chat bot. The decision will affect at least 2,000 subcontracted Alphabet workers.
The European Commission is investigating Lufthansaâs planned takeover of ITA Airways. Regulators are worried about less competition if the German airline were to absorb the struggling Italian carrier.
Quotable: Boeingâs problems are Unitedâs
âWith the Max grounding, this is the kind of straw that broke the camelâs back with believing that the Max 10 will deliver on the schedule we had hoped for.â âUnited Airlines CFO Michael Leskinen said in a call with investors yesterday.
United CEO Scott Kirby clarified that the company isnât canceling its Max 10 orders, which total 277 across the next decade. Instead, itâs taking those aircraft âout of [its] internal planâ and preparing to operate without them.
China wants homegrown semiconductorsâfast
Two trade numbers indicate that Beijing wants to quickly make its own semiconductors: Chinaâs imports of chipmaking machines hit a near-record last year, while its chip imports saw their steepest decline on record.
Helping drive that growth is imports of specialty chip-making machines from the Netherlands, home of lithography giant ASML. In November, imports of Dutch lithography systems to China surged over 1,000% as Chinese players scrambled to procure the advanced technology critical to making cutting-edge chips.
Meanwhile, Chinaâs imports of chips fell at their sharpest pace on record last year, slumping to $350 billion and marking two consecutive years of decline. Itâs a game of progress and urgency, and China is trying to balance both.
Netflixâs WWE bet shows thereâs no chill for sports streams
Though fans had to pay $5.99 for the privilege, the NFLâs AFC Wild Card gameâs debut on Peacock this year was the most-streamed event everâand itâs probably just the start of a new era of live sports streaming.
Netflix is the latest to enter the arena with its $5 billion deal to become the home of WWEâs Monday Night Raw. It wants a slice of the huge (and dedicated) live sport streaming viewership, which its competitors have already started gobbling up.
đ Amazon paid $1 billion to be the home of the NFLâs Thursday Night Football
đ Warner Bros. Discovery started moving more NBA games to its Max service
đď¸ Apple was rumored to be mulling a $2 billion-a-year deal to stream Formula 1 races
Quartzâs most popular
âď¸ Baby boomers are hoarding houses and leaving a laundry list of big fixes for younger buyers
𧳠2024's most powerful passports ranked
đ ExxonMobil is suing its own shareholders over a proposal aimed at reducing emissions
đ¤ Itâs expensive to replace humans with AI, MIT says
â Instant is in, fancy is out. Nothing stays the same for long in the world of home-brewed coffee
đ 1.8 billion reasons why Wall Street loves the fashion worldâs favorite hiking sneakers
Surprising discoveries
More than 2,200 companies have directors aged 123 and over. Seeing as the oldest human ever to live was 122, somethingâs up.
Russia is home to nearly half of the land in the Arctic. Data about how climate change is affecting that area has been inaccessible since the country invaded Ukraine.
More than 55,000 offices are expected to be converted into apartments in the US this year. The trend is most notable in Washington DC.
If awards season isnât your thing, try the Razzies. This yearâs nominations for worst actors go to some of Hollywoodâs GOATs.
A world map of all the places that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have mentioned in their songs is impressively full. But let us not forget the celestialââspaceâ was named 67 times.
Did you know we have two premium weekend emails, too? One gives you analysis on the weekâs news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. Become a member or give membership as a gift!
Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, 942-year-old directors, and corner office apartments to [email protected]. Todayâs Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.