Good morning, Quartz readers!
We’re taking a break on Thursday and Friday this week, but will be back in your inbox on Saturday. Stay safe out there.
Here’s what you need to know
The UK details the pandemic’s hit to public finances. Finance minister Rishi Sunak will go over tax revenues and spending for a year, rather than three years, due to economic uncertainty. Britain’s economy is expected to be 10% smaller and a public sector pay freeze is rumored to be on the table.
Joe Biden delivers a Thanksgiving speech. The president-elect will acknowledge the “shared sacrifices” Americans are making, with many refraining from their usual family gatherings. Meanwhile, as Biden introduced more members of his cabinet yesterday, president Donald Trump faced a muted reception to the annual turkey pardon.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high. The US index of large-cap companies surpassed 30,000 points for the first time, as coronavirus vaccine progress and the beginning of the formal presidential transition buoyed sentiment.
Scotland becomes the first country to offer free menstrual products. Sparked by a campaign to reframe conversations about menstruation, a new law to address “period poverty,” will require local authorities to provide the items to anyone who needs them.
Thailand braces for a major anti-monarchy protest. Activists plan to rally today at the Crown Property Bureau, which manages the Thai royal family’s vast holdings. In a bid to curb protests, the government is reviving the use of its lèse-majesté law, which makes insulting a royal punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Who’s covered?
At this point in the Covid-19 pandemic, three vaccine research and development groups—BioNTech and Pfizer; Moderna; and AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford—have released promising preliminary data about their Covid-19 vaccine candidates. This is good news for the end of the pandemic—but particularly for those countries that have already pre-ordered millions of doses of these three vaccine candidates.
Here are the countries (or blocs of countries) that have ordered enough to cover each individual, in descending order of rate of coverage:
🇨🇦 Canada
🇯🇵 Japan
🇬🇧 UK
🇺🇸 US
🇦🇺 Australia
🇪🇺 EU
🇨🇱 Chile
But, as with everything related to Covid-19, it seems, there’s a lot more to it than that.
Charting waistlines
Well, not the size of waistlines, but the need to cinch pants around them. Belt sales have taken a hit from the pandemic. In countries such as the US and UK, consumers who are buying pants are frequently opting for stretchy, comfortable styles rather than structured and rigid ones. You don’t need a belt when your pants have an elastic waistband—if you’re wearing pants at all. Marc Bain expands on the topic.
The great pandemic bake off
In the last nine months, have you done any of the following:
🍜 Tried out an ambitious recipe
🥕 Purchased produce from a local farm or grocer
🎂 Found comfort in old episodes of cooking shows
👵 Called a family member to get a treasured recipe
🧘 Tried to find more sustainable ingredients
If any of the changes in food habits are likely to outlast the pandemic, it’s the slow shift toward mindfulness.
Not that everybody’s suddenly become a beacon of healthy, sustainable eating. But global lockdowns early in the pandemic and the return of stay-at-home orders in some regions have forced many to spend more time in the kitchen than they had in a long while. For those with the time and the income, that’s encouraged a reckoning with the quality of the ingredients that make up their meals. Read more about how the coronavirus pandemic has changed our relationship with food in our latest field guide to how we eat now.
Remember your work family
Don’t leave employees home alone. Metaphorically, that is. Here’s how to check in on mental health around the holidays, which are looking pretty bleak.
Add new people the right way. If a team is struggling, it could likely be an ailing hiring process.
Surprising discoveries
British accents are hotter than French or Italian ones. That’s according to a Time Out magazine survey of 30 countries that found Asians especially appreciative.
How to “disappear” on a Chinese street. It took more than two hours, but a group of people managed to avoid having their faces caught by one of the 89 spy cameras on a 1.1 km (0.7 miles) stretch in Beijing.
Americans want tiny turkeys for Thanksgiving this year. It’s awkward, because the industry keeps growing them bigger.
A $1 billion drug bust that wasn’t. Thai officials’ claims of a massive ketamine haul aren’t holding up to chemical testing.
A PPE maker has been hobbled by sick employees. The world’s largest latex glove manufacturer is closing more than half its factories after nearly 2,500 workers tested positive for Covid-19.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, sexy foreign accents, and creative ways to dodge spy cameras 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 Jane Li, Tripti Lahiri, Liz Webber, and Susan Howson.