🌍 Twitter is getting a new CEO

Plus: Omicron highlights vaccine inequality [Quartz]( Sponsored by Good morning, Quartz readers! Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Sign up here](. Forward to a friend [whose Peloton is collecting dust](. Here’s what you need to know Jack Dorsey stepped down as Twitter’s CEO. CTO Parag Agrawal will step up as Dorsey likely [turns his full attention to Square](. The CDC wants every adult to get a booster to guard against omicron. Until now, boosters had only [been recommended]( for those over 50. US president Joe Biden [urged Americans not to panic](. [China pledged]( to send 1 billion vaccine doses to Africa, while Japan [barred foreign nationals]( from entering the country. Elizabeth Holmes claimed her partner—and Theranos deputy—abused her. Sunny Balwani, the former COO of Theranos, sexually abused Holmes and controlled her life, [Holmes testified](. Balwani’s attorney denied these allegations. Documents show China’s leadership called for punishing the Uyghur population. The [leaked speeches]( from high-ranking officials showed concern over too many minorities in Xinjiang. Robinhood has given short sellers a windfall. Those who bet against the app—which meme-stock traders use to outsmart those same short sellers—have seen [$253 million in mark-to-market gains](. The US is beefing up some of its bases. The Pentagon plans to [improve its base infrastructure](, but not add more personnel, in Guam and Australia to counteract China, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sponsor content by JobsOhio Bring your business to Ohio and join the 7th largest economy in the nation. By Q2 of 2021, Venture Capitalists made $1.2B in investments in the Buckeye State, and over 126,000 new businesses were created in the first seven months of 2021 alone. [Ohio is better for business.]( What to watch for The merger between Grab, a southeast Asia-based ride-hailing company, and Altimeter Growth Corp., a US-based special purpose acquisition company, is expected to [go to a vote today](. If approved, Grab will be the second Asian ride-hailing giant to list in the US this year, after Didi Chuxing went public on the New York Stock Exchange [in June](. How will Grab compare to Didi and US-based rival Uber? - While Uber has veered into trying to deliver just about everything—a costly business play—Grab, which also offers delivery, has pushed into financial services such as digital wallets. - The southeast Asia market is less saturated than that of the US or China. Grab estimates the market opportunity to be above [$180 billion by 2025](, up from $52 billion. - But, like its ride-hailing counterparts, Grab isn’t profitable, and has been investing in incentives for drivers and customers. What we should learn from omicron The emergence of the omicron variant has led several nations to ban flights from countries in southern Africa. The knee-jerk response punishes places hard-hit by the pandemic and fails to address the real issue: If more people in poor countries were vaccinated, it would be more difficult for covid-19 to mutate and spread. 💉 Rich countries should stop hoarding vaccines. A small group of countries—the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Japan—have bought [60% of the world’s vaccines](, and between a third to half are stockpiled rather than used. 🛂 South Africa shouldn’t be punished for being transparent. The country’s prompt efforts to sequence and identify the new omicron variant allowed the world to react quickly—but the travel ban risks [sending the wrong message]( on sharing data. 🌍 Even African countries aren’t immune to fears. Several have [suspended flights]( from South Africa and elsewhere, or instituted other new restrictions on incoming travelers. A different kind of public health issue Despite a brief pandemic spike, tobacco consumption has been declining over the past few decades. That’s got tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI), maker of Marlboros, thinking about what comes next. How does a company that makes billions off of nicotine addicts advance beyond it? PMI’s strategy is two-step: - Smoke-free tobacco products. Heated tobacco products (HTPs) have built-in appeal for the world’s billion existing smokers. PMI currently has two types of HTPs, one that uses a heating blade and one that uses induction. - Other smoke-free products. Imagine using an IQOS product—a stick that heats, rather than burns, tobacco—to inhale aspirin, or to treat a respiratory disease. PMI calls this phase “beyond nicotine,” and already has a few such products in the works. The company hopes to generate $1 billion in revenue from these products by 2025. Big Tobacco’s big pivot was the focus of our most recent [Company email](, a weekly exclusive for members that profiles the players making waves in their industry. ✦ [Try a free membership for a week](. Quartz announcement [Tune in Tuesday, November 30, at 11 am ET]( to watch Franz Paasche, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at PayPal, in conversation with Quartz CEO Zach Seward. Live-streamed on Quartz’s YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts, they’ll discuss personal triumphs, industry-wide challenges, and how strong leadership can #makebusinessbetter. Handpicked Quartz 🚲 [Can omicron turn around Peloton, one of the year’s worst performing stocks?]( 🤔 [Why there won’t be a covid variant called xi]( 💉 [When will we know how well vaccines work against omicron?]( 🏛 [Texans are bearing the cost of keeping the working class out of the statehouse]( 😔 [How the Modi government wrecked India’s small businesses]( 🇨🇳 [Will China be as unequal as the US is by 2025?]( Sponsor content by JobsOhio Bring your business to Ohio and join the 7th largest economy in the nation. By Q2 of 2021, Venture Capitalists made $1.2B in investments in the Buckeye State, and over 126,000 new businesses were created in the first seven months of 2021 alone. [Ohio is better for business.]( Surprising discoveries Malawi wants Mike Tyson to be its cannabis ambassador. The former boxing champion has [long been an advocate]( for the stuff. Angela Merkel picked a punk song for her leaving ceremony. The [Nina Hagen tune]( will be performed by a marching band. A New Zealand MP cycled herself to the hospital. She was [in labor](, btw. Women and men react to certain emojis differently. Notably, women have [stronger negative reactions]( to ones like this: 😐. The new iPhones use 98% recycled rare earths. Find out more about these very necessary metals in [the latest episode]( of the Quartz Obsession podcast. 🎧 Listen to all this season’s episodes on [Apple Podcasts]( | [Spotify]( | [Google]( | [Stitcher]( SPREAD THE WORD Over 500k readers and counting. You already know why half a million people read the Daily Brief, so why not spread the word? [Share the Daily Brief today]( and get rewarded. Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, birth stories, and heads of state playlists 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 Michelle Cheng, Annalisa Merelli, Susan Howson, Liz Webber, and Samanth Subramanian. 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