Ananya Bhattacharya

Good morning, Quartz readers!

With omicron cases surging the world over, even countries with high vaccination rates are taking no chances.

The University of Oxford has made history by appointing Patricia Kingori to a full professorship, making the sociologist the youngest Black woman ever to receive tenure at Oxford or Cambridge.

The Serum Institute of India (SII), headed by billionaire Adar Poonawalla, has pledged £50 million ($66.2 million) to the University of Oxford, with which it has already partnered to produce the world’s most widely used covid-19 vaccine.

In its first major shakeup since 2017, Samsung has rejigged its business from three divisions to two, and reshuffled its top brass.

Nearly two weeks ago, on Nov. 26 and 27, Switzerland introduced a mandatory 10-day quarantine for arrivals from a dozen countries—mostly from the southern Africa region, but also including the UK—because of fears over the omicron variant. However, on Dec. 4, the Swiss scrapped the quarantine for all travelers, becoming the first country to roll back some restrictions.

A reckoning for tech’s bro culture is long overdue, many believe.

Taxing sugary drinks is an “effective and sustainable” way to curb their consumption, two new studies published by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) have found.

In a first, Uber is gearing up to ferry passengers who don’t have the Uber app downloaded.

Good morning, Quartz readers!

In light of a new covid variant emerging in southern Africa, named omicron by the WHO, the UK revived its red list and several European countries reinstated travel bans against six African countries today (Nov. 26).

This story has been updated with news of WHO’s classification of the variant, and new travel restrictions.

Apple seems to have pressed pause on its Turkey operations as the country goes through one of its worst economic upheavals in history.

As holiday travel picks up, and with complaints about unruly passengers on the rise, the US justice department is trying to keep the peace up there by telling prosecutors to come down hard on federal crimes on commercial aircraft.

NFT, the more commonly used abbreviated version of non-fungible token, is Collins Dictionary’s word of the year.

One of India’s largest film production houses could soon launch its own streaming service.

India is releasing 5 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic petroleum reserves.

Two lotteries later, the US has still not doled out its allotment of 85,000 H-1B visas for the year. It’s hoping that an unprecedented third draw to fill the quota.

India’s stocks are sliding down after two major business disappointments.

Bob Kotick, the longtime chief executive of gaming giant Activision Blizzard, is facing a barrage of calls to step down after a scathing Nov. 16 Wall Street Journal report suggested that he knew about and downplayed allegations of sexual misconduct at the company. But despite an avalanche of accusations, ongoing regulatory probes, and an employee walkout, the Activision board is holding the line, and “remains confident” in Kotick’s leadership.

Apple has over 500 retail stores around the world—but none in India. That could soon change. Yesterday (Nov. 17), the company advertised over 13 retail store job listings in the country on its website.

Millions of online shoppers in the UK are receiving emails notifying them that Amazon will stop accepting UK-issued Visa credit cards after Jan. 19, 2022. Amazon says Visa’s fees are too high.

Hollywood studio Miramax is suing director Quentin Tarantino for trying to sell artifacts from his iconic film Pulp Fiction as non-fungible tokens (NFT).

On the face of it, many of India’s bright new companies have benefited from Chinese involvement.