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Quartz is your ally and resource in developing better ways of doing business. Read more from our co-founder and CEO.
Here’s what you need to know
New data show the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has 94% efficacy for over 65s. Last week, preliminary data showed 90% protection against Covid-19. Alongside US company Moderna, whose vaccine showed similar efficacy earlier this week, Pfizer and BioNTech will apply for regulatory approval as soon as possible.
Boeing’s 737 MAX is set to fly again. The US Federal Aviation Administration today approved the safety upgrades Boeing has made since the aircraft’s grounding 20 months ago, following two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. The 737’s unavailability cost the company around $20 billion.
US regulators approved the first rapid at-home coronavirus test. It has been developed by California-based Lucira Health, and can be completed from start to finish in one location and in only 30 minutes, without requiring an external laboratory to analyze samples.
Donald Trump fired his top election security official. Christopher Krebs was axed for contradicting the president’s baseless claims of voting fraud. Meanwhile, the US Senate blocked the appointment of Judy Shelton, Trump’s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve.
A US rare earth miner’s comeback
The New York Stock Exchange will feature a new company today: MP Materials, a producer of rare earths—a group of 17 minerals critical to many high-tech products. Behind its ticker, MP, is a tale of the American rare earth industry’s erstwhile dominance, how it ceded that to China, and the US’s attempts to regain it.
MP is the owner of the Mountain Pass rare earths mine in California. It was shuttered in 2002 and its previous owner went bankrupt in part due to pressure from China’s low prices. Wary of being reliant on China for critical minerals, the US wants to rebuild its domestic rare earths supply chain, and MP is part of that effort.
But being independent from China is no simple task. For one thing, MP is minority-owned by a Chinese firm, and is largely dependent on Chinese customers for its revenue. Mary Hui explains why the US wants to tackle China’s rare earths dominance, and the challenges ahead.
The most retailful time of the year
- Secondhand is king. The reselling industry is growing at a rate that should make fast fashion nervous, but it could just be another way to encourage excess consumption.
- No one can foretell holiday shopping predictions this year. With no precedent to guide them, the only thing analysts agree on is that ecommerce better be ready.
- But Walmart has hopes for Joe Biden. CEO Doug McMillon just wants everyone to move on and get shopping—hopefully powered by a new stimulus bill.
Charting rubber demand
After a low in April, rubber has bounced back, buoyed by a depressingly strong demand for surgical gloves as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on. US Census data show the number of rubber gloves imported into the US rose 57% to 244 million pairs in the third quarter. Imports of all rubber gloves rose 28% to 14.6 billion pairs in the same period.
It’s not just gloves—tires are where the rubber meets the road, and new tires come standard with every new car. China’s automobile market is making up for lost time, while many Americans are favoring cars over public transit.
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The stories that matter from the world’s fastest-growing major economy:
The birth of cool
“Cool” is one of those overused words whose definition has become fuzzy around the edges. Shoppers chase it, companies try to sell it, and generally speaking it indicates something positive, but with a range of connotations including stylish, original, authentic, rebellious, and more.
Originally, though, it had a slightly different meaning. Jazz musician Lester Young coined this usage of cool, unrelated to temperature, in the late 1930s. “When Young said, ‘I’m cool’ or ‘that’s cool,’ he meant ‘I’m calm,’ ‘I’m OK with that,’ or just ‘I’m keeping it together,'” professor and author Joel Dinerstein wrote in his book The Origins of Cool in Postwar America. The modern equivalent might be more like “chill.” For jazz musicians throughout the 1940s and 1950s, this attitude would translate into a sound marked by relaxed intensity and an emphasis on expressing one’s personal style.
To understand this early concept of cool, there’s no better method than listening to it. We asked Dinerstein to create a playlist for Quartz, and he put together a list of tracks representing the original sound of cool as it first evolved in jazz. Listen to it while you read our field guide to the new meaning of cool.
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✨ Become a Quartz member ✨Surprising discoveries
A tiger wandered nearly 2000 miles in India. Named Walker by wildlife officials who tracked him with GPS, he eventually settled down in a sanctuary in the western state of Maharashtra.
The world’s most expensive cities are Hong Kong, Paris, and Zurich. Osaka and Singapore fell in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual rankings.
The young Barack Obama read Foucault and Marcuse to pick up girls. So goes the former US president’s recollection of his college years in his new memoir, A Promised Land.
The platypus just keeps getting stranger. The venomous egg-laying mammal also glows under a blacklight.
There’s a baby seal boom in England. The Blakeney Nature Reserve expects a record-breaking 4,000 gray seal pups to be born this winter.
Read the best of Quartz’s coverage about and inspired by the animal kingdom.
