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Here’s what you need to know
Twitter ended remote work. CEO Elon Musk said in an email that employees must be in-office for at least 40 hours a week. Meanwhile, Twitter’s security, privacy, and compliance officers are leaving, and Chipotle has joined the list of companies pausing paid ads on the platform.
US inflation slowed. It dropped to 7.7% in October, its lowest level since January of this year, sparking a Wall Street surge.
Amazon started a cost-cutting review. CEO Andy Jassy is reportedly looking to trim expenses and unprofitable businesses amid a company-wide hiring freeze.
The UK workforce has shrunk by half a million since 2019. The exiters cited long-term illness as a reason for leaving the job market, raising concerns about the UK’s post-covid economic recovery.
China and the US will talk at the G20 summit next week. Chinese president Xi Jinping and US president Joe Biden will have their first face-to-face meeting since Biden assumed office.
FTX is seeking a $9.4 billion bailout. The embattled crypto platform has been looking for an investor life raft after Binance reversed on its rescue deal, and has secured some help from blockchain network Tron, Reuters reports. In other crypto news, Coinbase will cut jobs for the second time this year.
What to watch for
Today (Nov. 11) is the largest online shopping day in the world—China’s Singles’ Day.
The event, which started as a celebration of singledom in the 1990s, was turned by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma into the e-commerce giant’s flagship shopping festival in 2009. The bonanza sales day—also known as Double Eleven because of the date 11/11—draws sellers and stars from around the world.
For a while, there seemed to be no limit to its revenue-generating power. In 2020, Alibaba and its rival JD.com generated a record $115 billion in sales during the 11-day shopping spree. This year, Singles’ Day sales have been on for a fortnight, but don’t expect such a blockbuster performance amid China’s economic slowdown.
With sales failing to impress, companies and brands are trying to use the shopping extravaganza to woo and lock in customers for the long-haul by offering lucrative loyalty programs. And there’s probably no better occasion than Singles’ Day to forge long-term customer relationships.
The not-so-sneaky climate whisperers
It’s unlikely you’ll hear the CEO of Shell boast of his influence on the Paris Agreement at the ongoing COP27 climate meeting in Sharm El-Sheik. But there’s no denying that, even on the DL, fossil fuel lobbyists are shaping discussions at the conference.
Of the 33,449 registered attendees at COP27, 636 are lobbyists for fossil fuel or fossil-reliant energy companies. That’s larger than any nation’s group at COP27, apart from the 1,000-person delegation from the United Arab Emirates.
The sheer number of opportunities lobbyists have to whisper in influential ears about the role fossil fuels could play in the future has watchdog groups worried. Climate lead Brice Böhmer from Transparency International says, at a minimum, rules should exist that ensure civil society voices get the same access to airtime with delegates as lobbyists.
Keep up with the latest news from Sharm El-Sheik with our limited email series, Need to Know: COP27.
How the Twitter saga could end
It’s been yet another wild week for Twitter. Elon Musk found himself in a virtual standoff with advertisers (TL;DR: he needs them more than they need him), blue check chaos ensued, and cracks from the company’s mass layoffs began to show.
There’re several directions in which Twitter’s missteps could take the company. The next Quartz Weekend Brief will look at some of the most likely scenarios, and others that maybe aren’t so clear. Whatever the path, the ramifications will reach far beyond the platform.
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Surprising discoveries
A pair of used Birkenstocks could sell for as much as $80,000 at auction. They belonged to Steve Jobs and were later plucked from a garbage heap back in the ‘80s.
Cephalopods also get the urge to chuck things. The so-called “gloomy octopus” flings shells and silt at their own species when they’re ticked off.
Nasa piloted a UFO-shaped heat shield. Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or “LOFTID,” may be deployed in future planetary missions.
Broccoli gas could be the key to finding aliens. Scientists have a hunch that methyl bromide, a gas released by the brassica vegetable family, could signal there’s life on other planets.
Have you ever wondered what Blink-182's “All the Small Things” would sound like if Johnny Cash sang it? A major UK retailer adopted the cover as the soundtrack to its much-anticipated yearly Christmas ad.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, brand spanking new Birks, and cephalopod reality TV shows to hi@qz.com. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—become a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Ananya Bhattacharya, Sofia Lotto Persio, Tim McDonnell, Julia Malleck, and Morgan Haefner.