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Here’s what you need to know
Donald Trump banned TikTok and WeChat… The US president barred transactions with the two apps or their respective Chinese parent companies after 45 days. The video app’s users may not need to despair—Microsoft is in talks with ByteDance to buy all of its global TikTok businesses. But the US gaming industry—WeChat parent Tencent owns or has major stakes in the developers of popular games including League of Legends and Fortnite—could be collateral damage.
….and upped the pressure on US-listed Chinese companies. Separately, the US took steps to force these companies to follow US auditing rules or delist by 2022, a move that would cut off China’s technology companies from a major source of capital.
Sri Lanka gave the Rajapaksa political dynasty a landslide win. The ruling party of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is close to a supermajority in parliament, which will allow it to change the constitution to give him more power, and allow his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa to continue as prime minister.
Belarus holds a presidential election. Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled for nearly three decades, is expected to win yet again in Sunday’s poll despite unprecedented levels of support for opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a former teacher whose husband was barred from running and then jailed.
Taiwan gets a rare top-level US delegation. Health secretary Alex Azar’s visit starting Sunday is the highest-level visit by a US cabinet member since 1979, and has already drawn condemnation by Beijing. Azar will meet president Tsai Ing-wen and praise the government’s handling of the coronavirus.
Trusting the 2020 US presidential polls
Don’t discount the underdog. On July 14, we asked the readers of this email “Would you rather be a dog or a ghost?” Thousands responded. 46% of you said you would rather be a dog, 43% of you chose ghost, and 12% were undecided.
This three-point advantage for dog over ghost is almost exactly the same as Hillary Clinton’s lead on Donald Trump going into the 2016 US presidential election. Yet as we know, Clinton didn’t win. Still, if you made us bet on who would win an official vote on Quartz readers between dog and ghost, we would still go with dog. As Quartz data editor Dan Kopf explains in his exploration of whether we can still trust survey data, 2016 polls were not all that inaccurate, and polling was very precise for 2018 midterms. So if you want to put some trust in Biden-Trump polls, go right ahead.
Charting lipstick sales
During dire economic times, lipstick sales spike—or so goes the logic of the “lipstick index,” a shorthand to gauge consumer spending. When more extravagant luxuries seem out of reach, the index suggests, lipstick is an affordable treat.
That economic indicator hasn’t held up during the current pandemic-induced recession—just yesterday Shiseido said its earnings were sharply down in the first half of 2020. Not only do masks cover up the mouth, but have you ever tried to wear lipstick and a mask at the same time? Even before the pandemic, the lipstick index was becoming less and less reliable, and it might be time to let it go.
✦ For members: Show your future self the money
It’s a tricky time to try and carve out a clear path for your financial future, and there’s a lot of conflicting information out there. Our Mindful Money series continues with advice that may cut through the confusion and give you some clear direction.
- Regarding retirement, the “4% rule” is a great starting point, but there are other factors that have to be considered.
- Learn the way of the saving samurai from an anonymous financial blogger whose advice you may not always like to hear.
- Dabble in the financial corners of Reddit, but please, keep some caveats in mind.
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You asked about Covid-19 and pregnancy
How worried should I be about Covid-19 if I’m pregnant?
We wish we had a solid answer for you here, but we think it’s important to know just why the answer is so nebulous, at least in the US. Some studies have suggested that pregnant women of color are disproportionately affected by severe cases of coronavirus, and that any woman with Covid-19 at the time of delivery is more likely to experience complications.
But before you panic, we need to tell you that, consistent with the US’s poor track record when it comes to maternal health data, the numbers we have so far are poorly collected, and overall unreliable. “We do not know the total number of cases and are seeing in these data the cases that represent those who are most likely to get tested and to have their status reported,” says Neel Shah, a gynecologist at Harvard Medical School who has long been working to tackle maternal mortality in the US. So the total number of pregnant women with Covid-19 remains unknown.
It will take a long time to get clarity, too. Because records often don’t accurately account for the cause of death and require extensive review, data on maternal mortality in the US currently take years to be collected and formally analyzed. The one thing we do know is that, while taking every precaution is a good idea just in case, excessive worrying isn’t good for you or the baby.
Surprising discoveries
Scientists are aglow over a new solid fluorescent material. Typically, only gases and liquids exhibit fluorescence.
Italians are reviving a plague-era drinking tradition. “Wine windows” allow shops and bars to serve needed alcohol from a safe distance.
A lack of sports bras hinders women in Africa from doing sports. A charity is now remedying that by donating the garments to girls in need.
He’s gotta have his vape. Malaysia’s foreign minister got busted smoking an e-cigarette behind his face mask during parliamentary proceedings.
Microsoft Excel wins this round. Scientists have renamed 27 human genes because the spreadsheet software kept reading them as dates.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, Excel hacks, and fluorescent objects to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Tripti Lahiri, Isabella Steger, Annalisa Merelli, Dan Kopf, and Alexandra Ossola.