Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
A US judge pushed back on the looming TikTok ban. The judge ruled the Trump administration must delay the ban, scheduled to take effect Sunday, or file a response to TikTok’s request to temporarily block the ban by Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, TikTok faces a grilling in the Australian Senate today over privacy and security concerns.
Amazon showed off its latest hardware. A Ring home security drone and Ring car security cameras were among the new products announced, alongside upgraded Echo smart speakers, Fire TV Sticks, and Eero wifi routers. Amazon also revealed its cloud gaming service, Luna, and an accompanying controller.
India’s new agriculture and labor laws prompt large-scale protests. Farmer organizations and trade unions have planned country-wide demonstrations for Friday over a series of bills that supporters say are much-needed reforms to agricultural policy and labor laws but detractors fear will make it easier to exploit farmers and workers.
Joshua Wong was arrested again. The Hong Kong activist’s latest charges include participating in an illegal assembly in October 2019 and violating the city’s anti-mask law, which is at odds with the current face mask mandate due to Covid-19.
Harley-Davidson hit the brakes in India. The motorcycle manufacturer is closing its factory and decreasing the size of its sales team as it adjusts its business model in the country. Harley may seek a partner to run its India business.
Big moves in gig news
🚙 Colleagues in cars drinking coffee. Uber is reviving shared rides, but only for people who work together (assuming anyone’s getting on the road at all).
⚖️ Spend money to make money. Uber, Lyft, and Doordash have spent a collective $170 million to avoid the costs of putting their workers on their payrolls.
⭐️ The rating system, rated. Want to fight racial bias in the gig economy? Fix the star rating system.
Charting China’s coal plant emissions
China dropped a climate bombshell Tuesday, when president Xi Jinping announced at the United Nations the country will aim to cut its net carbon footprint to zero by 2060. Single-handedly responsible for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, a carbon-neutral China would have huge ramifications for global warming.
One significant problem: the country’s coal plants skew young. Tim McDonnell explains why this will present a tricky obstacle on the journey to carbon neutrality.
Dress for joy
Odds are, you’re dressing differently these days. Sales of the sartorial trappings like high heels, men’s suits, and underwire bras are suffering, while comfort—in the form of sweatpants, athleisure, and Crocs—is king. The shift in work environments has provided us the opportunity to ask ourselves what clothes actually feel good, but why not take it a step further, and use this as an opportunity to discover how our clothes can be a source of joy, too?
“I think a lot about things that we can do in our space so we can experience that moment of joy,” says Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. According to Lee, happiness isn’t a singular feeling, but rather a state that results from feeling content and secure. Joy, meanwhile, “is much simpler and more immediate. It’s defined as an intense momentary experience of positive emotion.”
Picking out the right outfit can be like planting a bulb of joy for yourself that blossoms as the day goes on. Read more in our latest field guide, The Home Office Handbook.
✦ Not yet a member? Be prepared to plant yourself a joy bulb. To celebrate Quartz’s birthday, we’re offering 50% off a year of membership with code BIRTHDAY. Keep digging, because underneath all that tissue paper is another surprise—two free Quartz presentations on the future of sleep and cash (both pdfs).
Obsession interlude: Future of work
Forget about preparing yourself for the future of work—think about the children. As they grow up and enter the workforce, today’s kids will inevitably contend with the forces of automation, shifting job prospects, and the gig economy.
Fortunately, data editor Dan Kopf and art director Bárbara Abbês have you and your young ones covered. In A is for Automation, they try to prepare the children for the working world of the future. Here’s an excerpt:
D is for Data,
It’s everywhere now,
It can be hard to make sense of,
You’ll be in demand if you know how
Don’t worry, grown-ups: The rest of our Future of Work obsession is for you.
You asked about mask washing
Why do we see so many articles about the importance of careful handling and washing of masks? Okay, I get it, I breathe through it, so there is no incremental risk to me for handling my own mask. Seems no more dangerous than (say) my T-shirt. The focus seems misplaced.
It’s not your hygiene we’re worried about (we’re sure you’re very clean), but what you’ve been exposed to out in the world. We know that cloth can harbor viruses for up to 12 hours. What we don’t know is if they’re still active for the entirety of that time. Considering that the purpose of masks is to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens, it’d be counterproductive to wear a mask with viruses and bacteria on it. So the guidance of washing a mask after every use comes from an abundance of caution in place of actual scientific research that provides answers.
We get that it seems like a lot, especially if you try to make your shirts last by not washing them after every use. But consider this: Unlike your T-shirt, your mask covers your nose and mouth, which are direct entryways from the outside world into your respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. You want to keep those entryways as clean as possible.
Surprising discoveries
Tech titans are out of Time. Only three made the magazine’s 2020 list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
Many travel agencies operate like Ponzi schemes. They use one customer’s deposit to pay for the previous customer’s trip, leaving travelers with little recourse when things go wrong.
There are some things that shouldn’t be recycled. Vietnamese authorities uncovered an operation that was cleaning used condoms and reselling them as new.
Horse parties must get wild. A panel investigating a racehorse’s positive cocaine test failed to determine who gave it the drug.
Now’s your chance to stock up on airplane bottles. Qantas is selling the fully loaded bar carts from its retired Boeing 747s.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, tiny cocktails, and sparkling clean masks 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 Tim McDonnell, Dan Kopf, Bárbara Abbês, Katherine Ellen Foley, Susan Howson, and Liz Webber.