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TikTok could go public to appease US concerns. ByteDance reportedly plans to list the new company that will operate TikTok globally on a US stock exchange with Oracle and Walmart owning minority stakes, but president Donald Trump’s approval is still pending. That kind of convoluted relationship isn’t unique—just look at Apple in China—but it is becoming rarer, as investment between the US and China has taken a major hit in 2020.
China rebuked a US official’s Taiwan visit. Chinese officials also said the country will make a “necessary response” to the arrival of a high-level US diplomat, who is scheduled to meet with Taiwan’s president on Friday before attending a memorial service for former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui.
Tencent Sports is the new home of the English Premier League. After prematurely ending its TV contract with Chinese streaming service PPTV earlier this month over missing payments, the league has signed a one-year deal with Tencent to broadcast all remaining matches.
Thais plan a major demonstration. Thailand’s prime minister has ordered the police to avoid clashes, as student protest leaders expect tens of thousands to march on government offices tomorrow to demand that the military-backed administration be dissolved, a new constitution be drafted, and the monarchy be reformed.
Ant Group moves closer to its public debut. Shanghai’s STAR Market will review the application for the Alibaba-backed fintech company on Friday. Ant also plans to list simultaneously in Hong Kong for what could be the world’s largest IPO—but investors would be wise to beware the second-day slump.
QZ&A: What’s Joe Biden’s plan for space?
Election day in the US is just seven weeks away… and space is not the top issue. Still, changes at the White House are the rare moments that can shift the slow-grinding gears of the US space program. Quartz spoke to Casey Dreier, the senior space policy adviser at the Planetary Society, about what’s on the horizon for US space policy. Read more…
Charting science’s widening gender gap
Covid-19 has disproportionately forced women to trade paid work for care work. Academic medical researchers are no exception. An analysis of two major scientific research databases found that the proportion of papers with female authors has declined during the pandemic.
The authors of the study suggest that female scientists face more caregiving duties than their male counterparts, impairing their ability to work from home.
To be sure, a single published paper can represent years of research and analysis, so these figures don’t necessarily reflect a slowdown in experimental work done in labs. More likely, the widening gender gap reflects interruptions in the writing and application process for scientific studies.
MORE ADS, LESS SHOW
TV watchers spend more time viewing ads than ever before. Many popular US network TV shows have gotten shorter over the last decade—because advertising time has taken up a bigger part of every broadcast hour.
Thankfully, there are signs this trend will reverse. But that doesn’t mean that TV advertising is going away. Find out what’s next in this week’s field guide—and if you’re not already a member, please sign up to become one today.
Obsession interlude: How we spend
What we think of as personal style is often really the result of sophisticated commercial machinery that synthesizes authentic trends into goods suitable for mass consumption.
Perhaps no one has explained this better than Miranda Priestly, Meryl Steep’s character in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, based on Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Let’s revisit Priestly’s infamous upbraiding of her assistant for dismissing the import of the fashion industry:
You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select… I don’t know… that lumpy blue sweater, for instance because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise. It’s not lapis. It’s actually cerulean. And you’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room.
Stay in style yourself with our How We Spend obsession.
You asked about temperature checks
Do temperature checks for Covid-19 work?
In many countries, no-contact thermometers have become a common sighting outside restaurants and other businesses—but several studies have shown that many patients hospitalized for coronavirus do not show a fever. Temperatures can also vary during your daily life, and there’s some confusion about which readings even constitute a fever.
Ultimately, most experts agree that temperature checks are a form of theater, a performance intended to put our minds at ease. But the theater is partially the point. When someone steps into a restaurant or hotel, they’re still taking a risk. These thermometers help to remind all of us to continue taking the pandemic seriously.
Surprising discoveries
Modi lovers and haters both found ways to celebrate his 70th birthday. One of the Indian prime minister’s supporters chanted his name for 24 hours, while detractors got #NationalUnemploymentDay trending on social media.
Most freezers aren’t cold enough for science. Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine must be stored at -70°C (-94°F), so ultra-cold freezer production is ramping up.
A German football team’s social distancing plan backfired. SG Ripdorf/Molzen only fielded seven players—and lost 37-0.
Barack Obama’s new book comes with a navy. The former US president’s memoir is expected to sell so well that 112 shipping containers full of the book will be imported from Germany.
The ISS is about to get crowded. NASA is going to film ads for Estée Lauder and Adidas, and a new reality show’s prize is a visit to the space station.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, ultra-cold freezers, and ads filmed in space to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our iOS app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Katherine Foley, Oliver Staley, Walter Frick, Annabelle Timsit, Liz Webber, and Max Lockie.