Biden in UK, GameStop’s pivot, internet outage explainer

Plus: India has embraced quick-service dining. [Quartz]( Good morning, Quartz readers! Was this newsletter forwarded to you?[Sign up here](. Make an impact on someone else’s day—[letters can do that](—by forwarding it to a friend. Here’s what you need to know The US loosened travel restrictions for 61 countries. But the list [doesn’t include the UK](, despite successful British and American vaccine programs and a “special relationship.” Of course, Joe Biden still gets to go to London. The US president [lands in the UK]( today, doesn’t even have to quarantine, and will meet this week with prime minister Boris Johnson, G7 leaders, and the queen. The US Senate approved $250 billion in funding against China. A quarter of the that is for semiconductors, while the remainder is meant for [US tech innovation]( and secure supply chains. Tesla’s China deliveries are growing again. After a slow April, the company’s [shipments increased 29%]( in May, but recent bad publicity could still put a dent in retail sales. The IRS is investigating ProPublica’s billionaire tax allegations. But it’s trying to find out [who leaked the info](, rather than close tax avoidance loopholes. Ferrari appointed a tech specialist as its new boss. Reflecting deep shifts in the auto industry, the [Italian luxury car maker tapped up]( Benedetto Vigna, who currently runs a division of STMicroelectronics. What to watch for GameStop’s meme-fueled rise faces another test today as the company behind the fanfare reports its quarterly earnings. Infused with an enormous amount of capital, and under the gaze of a skeptical world, the company will try to prove it’s worth its bizarre $300 stock price. Ye olde brick-and-mortar video game shoppe is trying to get with the times—and fast. It’s betting big on a new thing called e-commerce, funding its pivot with recent stock offerings that netted $551 million. But GameStop has been reluctant to cash in on its newfound success, issuing only 3.5 million new shares of stock while fellow meme craze AMC Entertainment has [issued more than 100 million new shares]( since the trading frenzy began in January. That’s seen the movie theater chain surpass GameStop in market capitalization while, somehow, its stock price continues to rise. [A chart showing the fluctuating market values of AMC and GameStop.] The memelords have delivered GameStop to glory. Can it seize the day? Charting quick-service dining in India [A bar chart of the restaurant types that make up the Indian food industry, with quick service restaurants far exceeding any other category. Second place is dine-in restaurants.] [Quick-service restaurants (QSR) are proving to be pandemic-proof in India](, where takeout is quickly gaining more acceptance. This is good news for companies like Devyani International, the biggest Indian franchise of US-based fast-food conglomerate Yum! Brands. It’s IPO hasn’t even been approved yet, but it’s already being heralded as a success. After all, Devyani International is hitting the market at a time when Indian share indices are close to their lifetime highs, and other QSRs like Burger King India have had big IPO successes in recent months. While KFC and Pizza Hut stores have made up a big slice of Devyani International’s revenue, the company has said that there’s still a chance Covid-19 could end up eating away at its profits in the future. Breaking: The Internet [A screenshot of what qz.com looked like during the internet outage. The text reads: Error 503 Service Unavailable. Service Unavailable. Guru Mediation: Details: cache-lhr7374 LHR 1623146414 256103164. Varnish cache server] Large parts of the internet—including Quartz!—collapsed on Tuesday (Jan. 8) when servers belonging to cloud computing service provider Fastly went down for more than half an hour. Fastly and other similar companies perform a crucial service: offering users just-cached versions of web pages from a server close to them, instead of forcing them to wait (milliseconds) longer to access the originals of these pages stored on servers much further away. We used that 30 minutes to brush up on our internet outage knowledge. Here’s a quick lexicon: Error 503: The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) code issued by a server when it can’t handle a request made by a user because it is down or overloaded. Varnish cache: A proxy server that helps users access HTTP websites faster. Varnish is the web-acceleration software that Fastly is built on. Guru mediation: Fastly’s tongue-in-cheek twist on “guru meditation,” an error message popularized by a 1980s computer company called Amiga. Its “Joyboard” was a foot-controlled joystick. When the system crashed, Amiga engineers would relieve their frustrations by sitting cross-legged on the Joyboard, trying to be as still and balanced as a yogic guru. Is it too risky to rely on just a few providers for our digital access? [Not necessarily](. Their companies’ servers are spread out around the world, which diversifies the ecosystem rather than concentrates it. And these kinds of outages are relatively rare. When they happen, they don’t last long. In fact, if you think about it, it’s sort of astonishing that the internet stays up as much as it does. ✦ If you found yourself panicking about Quartz’s brief disappearance, it might be time to consider a membership. [Try it for free]( and access all of our journalism, workshops, emails, and more—as long as the internet’s working. Quartz announcement Join us for our next virtual workshop, How to get the most out of hybrid on June 10 from 11 am - 12 pm US eastern standard time. As offices slowly reopen, many of us who adapted to working from home are wondering what comes next. What does a hybrid office look and feel like? And how do we ensure that office returnees and those who remain remote feel equally heard in meetings, similarly plugged into company culture, and fairly assessed and treated when it comes to promotions and talent development? [Register now for this free workshop.]( Handpicked Quartz 🌊 [Is the tide turning on reparations to Africa?]( ✅ [The prioritization plan that brought balance to one writer’s work and home life]( 🥺 [The case for a week-long, company-wide vacation]( ⏪ [In less than two months, the Modi government walks back its “liberalized” vaccine policy]( 🚀 [What is Jeff Bezos trying to tell us about Blue Origin?]( 🗺 [The Apple employees’ complaint letter is also a road map for reopening offices]( (Psst.☝️ We took the last story out from behind our paywall to make sure you don’t miss it.) Surprising discoveries Anyone could have edited The Verge during the Fastly outage. The news site [swapped in a Google doc]( for its homepage but forgot to change the permissions. A woman got back the wallet she lost in 1975. The contents included a [Grateful Dead concert ticket](, poetry, and forgotten snapshots. An award-winning landmine-sniffing rat is retiring. Magawa helped clear [more than 225,000 square meters]( (55 acres) of land in Cambodia during his five-year career. Australia has a new largest dinosaur. The recently discovered species, nicknamed “[the southern titan](,” would have been 6.5 m (21 ft) tall and 30 m (98 ft) long. A Miami Beach condo is the most expensive home bought with cryptocurrency. How many pizzas could you buy with that [$22.5 million](? SHARE TO EARN SWAG Coffee cups, tote bags, free membership, and more. Refer the Quartz Daily Brief to friends, family, and coworkers to earn all of these premium prizes. [Share the Daily Brief today]( and start reaping the rewards. Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, 46-year-old concert tickets, and suggested edits to Quartz’s homepage 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 Hasit Shah, Sumnima Lama, Tripti Lahiri, Niharika Sharma, Annabelle Timsit, Samanth Subramanian, Scott Nover, Susan Howson, and Liz Webber. [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 © 2021 Quartz, All rights reserved.