EU Raps Britain for Superfast Vaccine Approval

Britain beat every other Western country in approving a COVID-19 vaccine, but the European Union has criticized its superfast regulatory process. That’s even as the Red Cross is worried about vaccine skepticism, and health workers in the U.S., which had its worst virus death toll yesterday, worry that giving the shot to the elderly and vulnerable first could backfire. Do you think Britain rushed the vaccine? Vote on Twitter. (Sources: Reuters, NYT, CBC, NPR)

2. Heat Is On

“There is no vaccine for the planet,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres yesterday, serving a reminder that even if the pandemic passes, carbon emissions are 60 percent higher than three decades ago, with 2020 predicted to be the second hottest year on record. Namibia is less worried about preserving the earth: It’s auctioning off 170 elephants to anyone with a place to keep them. (Sources: DW, The Guardian, Reuters)

3. Tech a Seat

Even Republicans are balking at President Donald Trump’s plan to veto a military funding bill if lawmakers don’t include unrelated provisions to punish social media companies for flagging his tweets. Meanwhile Trump has hinted at a 2024 run. Also running: Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, son of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who hopes to win a congressional seat in Sunday elections in Venezuela. (Sources: Reuters, Washington Post, The Guardian, Al Jazeera)

4. Where Is the Lai?

He’s in jail, of course. Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai, 73, has been charged with fraud and detained until an April hearing in what’s seen as part of China’s larger crackdown on pro-democracy voices. That treatment might make it harder to woo Wall Street’s rich and mighty, though, as China’s currently trying to do in its efforts to ease the trade war. (Sources: BBC, WSJ)

An Australian family learned how dumb koalas really are when they returned home one day to find a confused marsupial perched on their plastic Christmas tree trying to snack on it. After the family convinced the koala rescue hotline that it wasn’t a prank, rescuers untangled Daphne (that’s her name now) and put her on a real tree outside — but not before she became a TikTok sensation.

This Trinidad native who moved to the U.S. when he was eight has compared himself to the Hulk for his dual personas: theoretical physicist and president of the National Society of Black Physicists … while also maintaining a career as a jazz saxophonist that includes the well-reviewed experimental album Here Comes Now. Oh, and he’s also written a book on the secret link between music and physics.

2. Sunetra Gupta

This Oxford epidemiologist has sparked controversy this year with her opposition to Britain’s COVID-19 lockdowns, based on predictive models that other scientists have disputed. Good thing she has a fallback career: She’s published novels in English and Bengali, and translated the works of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize, into English.

3. Pardis Sabeti

When she was two, Sabeti’s family fled Iran shortly before the Iranian Revolution. Now at Harvard, she maps mutations of viruses and studies how human genes have adapted to fight off diseases like Ebola and Lassa fever. That’s when she’s not recording albums as the lead singer of indie rock band Thousand Days. Those paths intersect too — like in 2014, when she starred in this music video in honor of frontline Ebola fighters in Africa.

4. Diarra Bousso Gueye

The former Wall Street banker grew up in Senegal and started a fashion blog to indulge her passion for design. But it wasn’t enough: Now she lives a double life as a California math teacher and a West African fashion star, using equations to inform her designs.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Vietnam’s relatively virus-free 2020 means it’s poised to become the economic star of 2021. In a year when the world’s most powerful economies shriveled to nothing, Vietnam’s has grown 2.4 percent, among the best in the world, and is forecast to balloon even more in 2021.

2. Feel the Beat of the Tambourine

In the post-war 1980s, Communist-controlled Vietnam was one of the world’s poorest countries, with an almost total ban on Western music. But good diplomatic relations with Sweden meant that ABBA’s joyful pop slipped through and became a massive hit, and is still loved across the country. Read more on OZY.

3. Mighty Kick

At 11, Nguyen Cong Phuong wasn’t welcome on his local youth soccer team because he was too shrimpy. Now he’s a national hero, known as Vietnam’s Lionel Messi for his idiosyncratic playing style and scoring prowess. Though his country’s never qualified for the World Cup, 2022 could be his year. Read more on OZY. 

Vietnamese coffee is famous around the world, but its secrets are just as special. What particular production process gives Vietnam’s most prized — and the world’s most expensive — coffee variety its distinctive taste? Tell us.

The first feature-length film from Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis is an extraordinary 75 silent minutes, in which a parachuting explorer lands on a beautiful island and must explore. After being stuck inside for weeks, this movie is even more of a trip.

2. Over the Garden Wall

This autumnal cult classic consists of 10 short episodes, so consider this a star-studded mini-binge. It’s a game of spot the voice (yes, that is Elijah Wood) that takes you on a melancholy journey through a fantastical forest to find the secrets of the Unknown.

3. Maya and the Three

Emmy-winning Mexican animator Jorge Gutiérrez is the brains behind this upcoming Netflix series about a warrior princess in mythical Mesoamerica, which is being marketed as a Mexican Lord of the Rings. While you’re waiting, watch his movie The Book of Life, which was nominated for a Golden Globe for its gleeful Day of the Dead vibe.  

Meet the boss mom. Fashion designer, entrepreneur and mom of five Kimora Lee Simmons joins Carlos to talk about rebuilding her fashion brand Baby Phat for the next generation with the help of her daughters, and why ‘Blasians’ are having a moment. Watch later today.

1. DoNothingFor2Minutes.com

That’s it. Don’t touch your keyboard, just listen to calming waves and watch the timer tick down.

2. TheNicestPlace.net

Come here to get hugged by a stranger, without any of the sweatiness of COVID-19 germs that might entail in real life. You can also contribute your own hug if you want to pay it forward.

3. Brain Pickings

Bulgarian writer Maria Popova’s collection of poetry, art and interesting tidbits is both calming and intellectually stimulating. If you want her to come to you, she’s got newsletter options galore.