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Here’s what you need to know
A US advisory panel endorsed Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration, which usually heeds these recommendations, is expected to make a decision soon.
Purdue Pharma executives denied wrongdoing. Sackler family members refused to take responsibility in front of a US House committee for years of illegally marketing dangerous opioids.
Alibaba is “dismayed” its technology was used against minorities. “We have eliminated any ethnic tag in our product offering,” the company said, following reports its facial recognition system identified Uyghurs.
TikTok and Walmart are introducing livestream e-commerce to the US. This function, which has existed for a while in China, allows seamless purchase of items displayed on the video app.
Crypto keeps on winning. 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 next two Olympics. The country’s athletes won’t hear their anthem or see their flag in Tokyo or Beijing after a ruling on state-sanctioned lab tampering.
Dozens of kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys finally returned home. 350 students were abducted by gunmen last week and taken into a forest—it’s not yet clear if all have been rescued.
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.
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
Sony pulled Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation. The company took the rare step after frustrated players complained about bugs that hampered the video game’s performance.
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, disappearing video games, 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 Hasit Shah, Katie Palmer, Jordan Lebeau, Liz Webber, and Susan Howson.