Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
TikTok could still end up US-owned. Oracle and Walmart are hoping to take a majority stake in a new company that oversees the video app’s global business, based on an ownership structure that is under discussion. It could also go public in the US next year. Meanwhile, will anyone buy TikTok’s business in India?
Google banned India’s biggest digital payment service. The Play Store took down Paytm and its gaming app Paytm First Games for allegedly violating its gambling policies. The apps will be restored if Paytm, which is competing in a crowded market in India, can demonstrate compliance with Google policies.
Europe’s coronavirus situation is “very serious.” That’s according to the World Health Organization, whose spokesman talked about “alarming rates of transmission across the region.” In the UK, with local restrictions already in place and hospital admissions doubling every eight days, a second national lockdown is on the table.
Barack Obama’s latest memoir is released after the US presidential election. The former US president, who signed a reported $65 million publishing deal with his wife Michelle, wants to support Joe Biden’s campaign without any distractions, according to a spokeswoman. The US doesn’t have the printing capacity to meet demand.
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 Streep’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
Van Morrison is releasing anti-lockdown protest songs. “Pretending it’s for our safety when it’s really to enslave,” he sings on No More Lockdown.
Puppy prices doubled in the UK lockdown. Dogs now cost an average of £1,900 ($2,400) as demand for companions grows.
Queen Elizabeth might have to sell the corgis. The value of the Crown Estate, her vast property portfolio (paywall), is expected to fall substantially.
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 soccer team’s social distancing plan backfired. SG Ripdorf/Molzen only fielded seven players—and lost 37-0.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, a spare room in Buckingham Palace, and a rescue dog 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 Hasit Shah, Annabelle Timsit, Liz Webber, and Max Lockie.