Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
Donald Trump and Joe Biden debate on TV tonight. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace moderates as the US president and his Democratic challenger fight over a range of issues. The election is five weeks away.
Covid-19 has killed more than a million people. According to Johns Hopkins University, which has been been tracking infection rates and deaths since the start of the pandemic, deaths in the US, Brazil, and India make up nearly half that total. These are just officially reported deaths; the real toll is likely higher.
LVMH is taking legal action to walk away from a $16.6 billion deal to buy Tiffany. The French luxury giant describes (paywall) the US jewelry company’s recent performance as “catastrophic,” and accuses executives of forcing the deal through to line their own pockets. Tiffany says it’s acting in shareholders’ best interests.
An outage knocked out Microsoft cloud services. A recent software update made Teams and Outlook—and other parts of Microsoft 365—unavailable for millions of users yesterday, with the company eventually managing to solve the problem.
You’re Audited!
In the mid-2000s, Donald Trump was drowning financially. That’s when NBC and The Apprentice threw him a life raft. According to a New York Times report on the US president’s taxes, Trump made $427 million off his 50% stake in the show and its subsequent licensing deals. Here’s a brief timeline of how the highly-rated program saved his finances:
2004: The Apprentice debuts on NBC.
2004-2015: Trump dumps proceeds from the show into purchasing 13 golf courses.
June 2015: Trump is fired from The Apprentice over racist comments made while announcing his presidential run.
September 2015: Arnold Schwarzenegger is announced as Trump’s replacement on The New Celebrity Apprentice.
November 2016: Trump wins the electoral college vote and becomes president-elect.
January 2017: The New Celebrity Apprentice debuts on NBC with Trump as executive producer.
August 2017: The show is canceled after one season.
2018: Trump pays just $750 of federal income tax for the prior year.
Adam Epstein reports on how The Apprentice may have (temporarily) saved Trump from financial ruin.
Charting the US trade balance
You’re not the only one hooked on delivery. During the pandemic, the US economy has shrunk faster than during the Great Recession, and seen the unemployment rate more than double since this time last year. So why are American imports outpacing exports at a higher rate than 2019? Tim Fernholz and Dan Kopf unbox why the weird pandemic recession is delivering a trade surprise.
Strengthening global teams
Building trust between global teams is the final frontier. Emily Nelson has worked for more than 20 years on International Space Station operations. When on duty at Mission Control in Houston, Texas, Nelson is in constant contact with her peers in Munich, Tokyo, and Moscow.
Nelson explains that in space exploration, math is a common language, as are scientific principles. But the way those principles are interpreted is different across countries. “Just because their [design] is different from ours doesn’t mean it’s not as good,” she says. “It just means it can take us a while to understand why they want to do something because their engineering practice guides them to go in a different path than ours would.”
As we navigate the shift to remote work, what can we learn from teams that are built to overcome—and even harness—massive geographic spans and cultural differences to do their work? Read more in our latest field guide.
✦ Support our global team by becoming a Quartz member. You’ll get a paywall-free experience, plus member exclusives like our field guides, presentations, events, and more.
Obsession interlude: Borders
Coronavirus, climate change, migration: Increasingly global challenges face an increasingly isolated world as nationalistic political movements demonize international cooperation and immigration. But how will countries with weakened multilateral relations manage a disease that doesn’t respect any boundaries, or keep their neighbors’ carbon emissions at bay?
This backlash also raises urgent questions for the economy. How should the global workforce and international supply chains adapt to a less welcoming world?
We’re obsessed with these questions about Borders. Here’s how to read more:
- 💻 The next wave of globalization will be made possible by remote work
- 🛂 Covid-19 is shaking up the citizenship by investment industry
- 🏝 The climate change solutions for the world’s tiniest, most vulnerable nations
- 👋 These are the countries Americans can travel to right now without a visa
Let’s discuss company culture
How can your company maintain a good vibe? Join us on Thurs. Oct. 1 from 11am-12pm EDT for our free virtual workshop on how to build and maintain company culture remotely. In this workshop, experts will share practical advice and actions your company can take to maintain a thriving company culture in the age of distributed work.
Surprising discoveries
The bible of randomness was disproved by one man. Quarantine boredom led him to discover a critical error in the 1955 reference go-to for random numbers.
BTS members became multimillionaires overnight. The South Korean boy band’s label went public, netting their manager far more money.
Check out the sapeurs. Members of the Society of Ambience-Makers and Elegant People (Sape) in the Congolese capitals Brazzaville and Kinshasa show you how to dress up.
A new enzyme can get through plastic six times faster than previous versions. We still shouldn’t use so much though.
France’s most-tattooed man teaches kindergarten. At least he did until one child started having nightmares.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, sapeur style tips, and a random error 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, Susan Howson, and Max Lockie.