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Here’s what you need to know
Purdue Pharma executives denied wrongdoing. In testimony before a US House of Representatives committee, Sackler family members and the company’s CEO refused to take responsibility for the years spent illegally marketing opioids including Oxycontin.
The Moderna vaccine is most likely a go in the US. A Food and Drug Administration panel has backed the vaccine, though it has yet to receive formal FDA approval. Also, US health and human services secretary Alex Azar asked for more insight into Pfizer’s manufacturing processes as negotiations for an additional 100 million doses continue.
Mixed news for Google. While nearly 40 US attorneys general joined yet another bipartisan lawsuit alleging a search engine monopoly, the tech giant received EU approval for its FitBit acquisition after agreeing to data restrictions.
Robinhood agreed to a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The online commission-free brokerage app will pay $65 million to customers after failing to disclose the true costs of its services.
Google is working on user experience in India. A handful of just-announced features include a machine learning tool to help small businesses and search results in languages like Bengali, Marathi, and Telugu.
Walmart went deeper with TikTok. The strange bedfellows continue their relationship forged earlier this year by testing a new shoppable experience, allowing livestream viewers to shop Walmart’s fashion items without leaving TikTok.
Crypto keeps on winning. Paxos, the engine behind PayPal’s cryptocurrency endeavors, secured $142 million in Series C funding. Meanwhile, digital currency exchange Coinbase filed for an IPO and renewed investor interest pushed bitcoin to a new high.
Russia can’t be Russia at the 2022 and 2024 Olympics. The country’s athletes won’t hear their anthem or see their flag at the next two Olympics after a ruling on state-sanctioned lab tampering. In Beijing, representatives for ethnic minorities said human rights abuses have gone unchecked by the International Olympic Committee.
What to watch for
All over the world, an already strained global supply chain is creaking under the weight of the online shopping era’s first pandemic holiday season.
In other words, now is not the time to procrastinate on holiday shopping (if you’re participating, that is). Quartz climate reporter Tim McDonnell has tips for doing it responsibly. Your choices will add up, too—emissions from household consumption in just 94 of the world’s biggest cities amount to 10% of the world’s total carbon footprint, according to a 2019 study (pdf).
- Find your “gateway drug”: It helps to figure out what your household’s climate pain points are—they’ll most likely be transportation, food, and electricity.
- Sweat the right small stuff: Don’t stress about every tiny purchase, but do knock the easy climate-friendly decisions out.
- Waste less: Get high-quality things that will last for a long time.
- Think beyond carbon: Your dollars send a message that you support companies who don’t contribute to climate obstructionist politicians or have adopted climate goals you believe in.
- Cut yourself some slack: It’s a marathon of building up habits and dismantling old ones, not a sprint.
Charting China’s investment in the Arab world
From Algiers to Abu Dhabi, from Rabat to Riyadh, China has become either a top trade partner, leading source of investment, or both. The country has invested nearly $200 billion in the region in total since 2005, according to AEI’s China Global Investment Tracker.
But a closer look at the “investments” reveal that most are construction projects, which tend to employ tens of thousands of South Asians; their impact on youth Arab unemployment is modest. Afshin Molavi, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University, argues that much more is needed to stem the region’s looming jobs crisis.
Luxury watches stand the test of time
After Covid-19 paused sales in important markets like China and shut down much of Europe and the US this year, Swiss watch exports plunged. Now that sales are ticking up again, the strongest recovery has happened among watches with the highest price tags, with recent data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showing more expensive timepieces have suffered the least.
Of course, the allure of luxury watches that go for thousands of dollars is about much more than keeping track of the hours and minutes. Marc Bain explains how the industry avoided a far worse fate during the pandemic.
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You asked about mRNA
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made from mRNA. Does that mean they’ll mess with my genetic material?
Vaccines based on genetic material may give you pause. But mRNA vaccines, which have been in the works for nearly three decades, never touch our DNA, and as a result can’t interfere with human genes. Instead, they just borrow some of our cellular tools before harmlessly breaking down in a matter of hours.
Specifically, mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 take advantage of our cells’ protein-making factories, called ribosomes. Normally, our ribosomes create proteins based on recipes from our own DNA, which is locked up inside the nucleus, a protective, membrane-covered bubble within our cells.
The shot delivers a microscopic, fatty package into our cells, carrying a recipe—the mRNA sequence—for a protein that mimics the SARS-CoV-2 virus. When that mRNA meets up with our ribosomes, our ribosome chefs interpret this new mRNA as if it were a recipe generated from our own DNA, but the DNA inside the cell’s nucleus remains untouched.
Surprising discoveries
Soft-spoken tree crickets use leaves to amplify their songs. Females prefer louder mates, so the males make megaphones.
Chartreuse has a centuries-old secret recipe. Only two of its namesake monks know all 130 ingredients used to make the liqueur.
Scientists call this the “ugliest orchid in the world.” The recently discovered species is small, brown, and leafless.
Tyrannosaurus rex had nothing on gorgonopsians. The saber-toothed mammals had 5-inch serrated canines.
Catalonian nativity scenes are NSFW. They often include a figure in the back, defecating.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, content megaphones, and unloved flowers 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 Jordan Lebeau, Liz Webber, Tim McDonnell, Katie Palmer, Marc Bain, Afshin Molavi, and Susan Howson.