Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
German police arrested the former CEO of Wirecard. Prosecutors in Munich confirmed today that Markus Braun turned himself in. He resigned from the company last week after an audit revealed that billions of euros were missing, causing shares to plummet.
Seattle is taking back a zone that’s been occupied by protesters. After a weekend of violence, with three shootings taking place in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest area, mayor Jenny Durkan said that police will return to their abandoned precinct building “peacefully and in the near future.”
Donald Trump blocked new foreign workers. The US president’s latest executive order, in place till the end of the year, bars new visas for both skilled and seasonal workers, as well as halting green card applications. Indians are major beneficiaries of visa programs, and their loss could hurt the US economy.
MLB awaits the players’ response to its restart plans. They have until 5pm ET to accept or reject a proposal that was originally agreed in March, and has once again been ratified by team owners. If it goes ahead, there would be a 60-game season with expanded playoffs and a universal designated hitter.
A racist banner marred the Premier League’s successful resumption. Just as Manchester City and Burnley soccer players took a knee at the start of their game last night, a plane towing a “white lives matter” banner flew overhead, apparently organized by Burnley fans. The team apologized.
An Indian matrimonial website removed skin tone filters. An Indian-American woman, Hetal Lakhani, organized a successful petition against shaadi.com. Darker skin is often considered less desirable, but the company claimed the filter didn’t work and was a “product debris we missed removing.”
The science of decision making
Q3 looms large. While workers and the stock market alike eagerly anticipate some return to business as usual, many companies have to redefine what that business looks like in the first place. We’re bringing together experts on the science of decision making for a workshop on crafting strategy amidst ambiguity.
Join speakers Paul Glimcher (co-director of the NYU Institute for the Study of Decision Making), Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (chief talent scientist at Manpower Group) and Louie Pastor (executive vice president and general counsel at Xerox) for our latest Remote Control virtual workshop on Thursday, June 25 at 11am ET.
As always, these workshops are free to attend! Simply register here and then start getting your questions ready.
Charting salary history bans
Women and people of color continue to earn lower wages than white men. One big reason is that many employers require job applicants to reveal their previous salary in order to set their new one. This strips workers of bargaining power, and can lock in lower compensation.
Since 2016, 20 US states, cities, and territories—including Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia—have passed salary history bans. These laws are working, especially for women and Black workers, a new study from Boston University’s School of Law found.
The researchers also discovered that workers who changed jobs in the private sector earned an average of 5% to 6% more annually. The gains were even greater for women and African Americans.
For Members: Oil’s in a barrel of trouble
The coronavirus crisis has broken the fossil-fuel industry’s 150-year-old boom-bust cycle, and presented an existential crisis for the oil-and-gas industry.
Let’s briefly get into some history:
1859: Edwin Drake strikes the world’s first successful oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, creating a generation of prospectors and kickstarting a cycle of rapid expansion and contraction.
1870: John D. Rockefeller founds Standard & Oil. By 1899, it controls the vast majority of the oil sold in the US, and is looking overseas.
1900s: Foreign rivals proliferate, as demand soon eclipses even Standard Oil’s ability to supply or control it.
1945: Oil consumption begins to rise sixfold, powering post-World War II economic expansion.
1960: OPEC is created. Its five founding members—Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran—represented more than 80% of the world’s oil production.
2000s: Six supermajors emerge from a series of acquisitions and mergers. By 2013, they are spending at least $100 billion per year on exploration and production.
2013: Fracking helps the US reclaim the mantle of world’s top oil producer. But by late 2014, with US oil production still soaring, global oil supply began to exceed demand.
And this year, the world changed on a dime. Who can foretell the future of fossil fuels?
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You asked about treatment supply chains
I’ve been hearing a lot about dexamethasone as a possible treatment. How soon will that be available and who will it help?
Dexamethasone is a generic steroid that’s still being tested for the purpose, but so far seems to be an effective treatment for some Covid-19 patients in critical condition, and the most exciting thing about it is its supply chain. OK, maybe the second most exciting thing.
Shortages are a concern—and a justified one—for many other potential Covid-19 treatments. But less so for dexamethasone, says Michael Ganio, the senior director of pharmacy practice and quality at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. For one thing, it’s a common drug that has been on the market for nearly 60 years, and its generic status means that manufacturing plants all over the world make and ship the drug, which in pill form is a relatively simple medicine to produce.
Even if hospitals did run into shortages of dexamethasone, they could make substitutions pretty easily since steroids make up a huge class of drugs. Plus, the fact that it treats only a specific segment of Covid-19 patients means there would most likely be less hoarding.
Surprising discoveries
Women are less likely to swipe right on a guy with a cat. The same man is considered less masculine and less datable when pictured with a feline friend.
There is now ramen pizza. Ok then.
The Arctic Circle could be experiencing its highest-ever temperatures. The mercury may have recently reached 100 degrees in Verkhoyansk, a Siberian town.
We can set up a Mars colony with 110 people. Researchers concluded that was the minimum number of humans required to viably settle on a different planet.
A durian shipment forced a German post office to evacuate. The baffled workers didn’t know what to make of the pungent fruit.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, Siberian summer clothes, and a regular margherita to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS or Android and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Hasit Shah, Katherine Ellen Foley, Karen Ho, Susan Howson, and Nicolás Rivero.