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An update on the Paris Agreement goals. The UN’s environment program will issue a report that measures the gap between countries’ planned fossil fuel production and the levels necessary to limit warming. The US withdrew from the climate accord last month, but president-elect Joe Biden has promised to rejoin the pact.
The US attorney general vouched for the presidential election results. William Barr, one of president Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, stated that the justice department hadn’t uncovered any evidence of election fraud. Meanwhile, the department is investigating a possible lobbying scheme involving bribery for a presidential pardon.
Salesforce is buying Slack for $27.7 billion. It’s the company’s biggest acquisition yet, and one of the largest-ever for the industry. The deal illustrates the hazards involved when going up against Big Tech.
The future of China’s #Metoo movement. A court will hear a landmark case involving an allegation brought by a former intern against one of the country’s top TV hosts—a rare civil sexual harassment lawsuit made possible by recent legal changes. A new civil code passed this year defines sexual harassment for the first time.
A court sentences three Hong Kong democracy activists. Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam, and Joshua Wong face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to unlawful assembly charges related to a protest last year.
Singapore becomes the first country to approve lab-grown meat. US startup Eat Just could now start to sell its cultured chicken meat, which is developed in laboratories using animal cells, after it got the green light from the country’s regulators.
Vaccine profitability, by the digits
$1 trillion: Estimated global vaccine annual revenues, in the pre-Covid-19 days
$4 billion: Estimated global flu shot annual revenues
$10 billion: Projected Covid-19 vaccine annual revenues while the virus is still deemed a public health hazard
$7 billion: Annual revenues Merck makes from the cancer drug Keytruda, alone
$3: Minimum per-dose cost for AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine
$25-$37: Per-dose cost for Moderna’s
Public pressure to keep Covid-19 vaccine prices low will likely relent once enough people have been vaccinated, and the pandemic is over. But after that, it could go multiple ways.
Charting busy travel days
Despite being one of its busiest days during the pandemic, US air travel on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, was substantially lower than every single day in 2019 for which the Transportation Security Administration has released figures.
Of course, the pandemic has caused airlines to drastically modify their operations. So while there were fewer passengers, there were fewer flights, too. That means that planes were more full this year than the headline figures suggest.
Employee happiness: lessons learned
As CEO of the online shoe retailer Zappos for 21 years, Tony Hsieh, who died Nov. 26 at age 46 from injuries sustained in a house fire, was an early pioneer in espousing employee happiness as a top business priority. His quest to create an environment where workers felt enthusiastic about their jobs and, by extension, their lives, is an indelible part of his legacy—one that reveals both the promise and the pitfalls of happiness as a corporate goal. Sarah Todd explores the takeaways for employers who want to do right by their staff.
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Surprising discoveries
Australia’s prime minister turned to WeChat to counter Chinese propaganda. Around 50,000 users of the Chinese messaging app read his message criticizing a Chinese state-endorsed illustration referencing Australia’s alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
Sanmitsu is Japan’s buzzword of the year… It refers to the “three C’s” of social distancing—avoiding closed spaces, crowds, and close-contact situations.
…and queen Elizabeth will have a “three C’s” Christmas. For the first time in more than 30 years, she and prince Philip will skip celebrating with family at Sandringham, and remain at Windsor Castle.
BTS fans, rejoice! South Korea passed a bill allowing members of famous boy bands to defer their mandatory military service.
Now the Romanian monolith has disappeared. We at Quartz are very invested in this saga, but this is just getting silly.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, buzzwords of the year, and ANSWERS ABOUT THIS MONOLITH(!!) 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, Annalisa Merelli, and Liz Webber.