In China, you can be put in prison if you’re heard criticizing President Xi Jinping.

But after suffering through nearly three years of “zero Covid” policies that have upended people’s lives and confined them to their houses for months, some are starting to risk it. During a series of protests in Shanghai, Beijing, and other cities against Covid restrictions this weekend, Chinese demonstrators were reportedly chanting “Xi Jinping, step down” and “Communist party, step down.” They also held up sheets of blank white paper to symbolize the Chinese government’s censorship of content it doesn’t want spreading around the internet.

China analysts say this kind of public defiance is unprecedented for Xi Jinping’s presidency, and could spiral into the worst political crisis for Beijing since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

What sparked the Covid protests?

They were instigated by a fire that killed 10 people in an apartment block in the city of Urumqi. Many people have claimed that Covid lockdown measures hampered rescue efforts, contributing to the tragedy (officials have denied this).

Also fueling some frustration is the contrast between the bleak situation in China and the festive World Cup in Qatar. Seeing jubilant, maskless crowds and a ~normal~ global event take place has led some Chinese people to question if they are living on a different planet than the rest of the world, as one person put it on social media.

Meanwhile, China’s Covid policies and the increasingly bold public reaction to them are threatening companies halfway across the world. Employees who work at the world’s biggest iPhone plant violently tussled with security staff last week after officials clamped down on an outbreak at the facility. The clashes could lead to major shortages of the new iPhone 14, analysts say—just when everyone is trying to snag one for the holidays.

Looking ahead…all eyes are on the Chinese government’s next moves to quell the dissent that appears to only be intensifying. Oh, and this seems important: Covid cases in China hit a record for a fourth straight day on Saturday.

US Soccer showed solidarity with Iranian protesters. Ahead of the team’s Tuesday match against Iran, the US Soccer Federation briefly displayed the Iranian flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic. It was intentional: The post aimed to show the organization’s “support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights,” per US Soccer Media Officer Michael Kammarman. An angry Iranian soccer federation urged FIFA to expel the US from the World Cup since it had “disrespected” the country’s flag.

Don’t call Frontier’s customer service line. No one will pick up. In a bid to cut costs, the budget airline has nixed its call center that allowed customers to speak with a real-life person. To get in touch with Frontier, you can start a live chat on its website, hit the company up on social media, or even message it on WhatsApp. Frontier’s definitely been doing things its own way recently: This month it released a $799 all-you-can-fly annual subscription plan (with caveats galore).

Disney’s animated movies keep bombing. Strange World registered one of the worst opening weekends for Disney in the modern era, and it’s on track to lose $100 million overall, according to Variety. Coming after Lightyear’s flop, the box-office bomb will draw the attention of newly installed CEO Bob Iger, who needs to figure out how to revive Disney’s once-vaunted animation lineup. (Fun fact: Strange World had the worst three-day opening for a Disney animated film since The Emperor’s New Groove in 2000, which is now understood to be a cinematic masterpiece.)

Like your birthday and the Oscars, Black Friday is an event people are less hyped about every year that passes. Still, the shopping extravaganza can reveal important insights about consumer behavior, especially in this era of soaring inflation. So what did we learn?

E-commerce spending stayed strong. Americans spent $9.12 billion shopping online on Black Friday, a 2.3% increase from last year and a new record high, per Adobe Analytics. However, take that number with a grain of salt, since inflation is running at nearly 8% and helped drive overall spending totals higher.

Everyone needs (or at least wants) new gadgets. Retailers offered some of their heaviest discounts on electronics, and you all pounced. Electronics purchases jumped 221% on Black Friday compared to an average October day, per Adobe. Gaming, toys, and exercise equipment purchases were also very popular.

Buy now, pay later usage surged. Orders taking advantage of interest-free installment plans, aka “buy now, pay later,” jumped 78% on Black Friday over a week before—perhaps a sign that Americans are stretching their budgets to shell out for bigger purchases.

Who needs a desktop? Phones accounted for a record 48% of all Black Friday online purchases, per Adobe.

Looking ahead…today is Cyber Monday, which is expected to be an even bigger online shopping day than Black Friday. Americans are projected to spend $11.2 billion buying gifts today.

If you want more retail news, we have a newsletter for that: Retail Brew.

The World Cup rolls on. In a tournament full of surprising upsets, the group stage will wrap up this week with teams playing their third and final round robin matches. After the US drew England on Friday, their path forward is simple: If they beat Iran on Tuesday, they’ll advance to the knockout round.

Jobs report incoming: The November jobs report will drop on Friday, and it’s expected to show the second straight monthly deceleration in US employment growth. Still, the economy is projected to have added 200,000 jobs last month, which would indicate a still-healthy labor market and keep the Fed on its rate-hiking path.

Twitter verification also incoming: Elon Musk says this will be the week Twitter finally rolls out its new verification system. The Twitter CEO announced that, after numerous delays and tweaks, the platform’s verification program will go live on Friday. Individuals will get blue checks, companies will get gold checks, and government accounts gray checks.

Everything else:

• Sam Bankman-Fried is going to make his lawyers wince during his much-hyped interview at the NYT DealBook Conference on Wednesday. (I’m going to be there! Will report back.)
• Congress returns from the Thanksgiving holiday today. The period after an election and before a new Congress gets sworn in is known as a “lame duck” session.
• The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be lit on Wednesday. It has 50,000 lights and is crowned with a star decked out with 3 million Swarovski crystals.

Stat: It might be time to start talking about Amazon’s Alexa as a massive flop. The unit that houses the AI assistant posted an operating loss of more than $3 billion in the first quarter, according to internal docs seen by Insider. And the company is on pace to lose ~$10 billion this year on Alexa and its devices, which have been difficult to monetize. Given lack of direction and recent layoffs in the devices unit, employees say Alexa is in crisis mode, per Insider.

Quote: “When you leave, you have to leave a place cleaner than it was before. That’s the education we have been taught.”

Hajime Moriyasu, the coach of Japan’s men’s soccer team, addressed the peculiar sight of Japanese fans cleaning up stadiums after watching their side compete in the World Cup. Well, it’s peculiar to us slobs, but being extremely neat is just part of the culture in Japan, which has few public trash cans and where elementary school students tidy up their classrooms in the absence of janitors.

Read: You might’ve used a slow cooker over Thanksgiving. Here’s how one-pot cookery changed the world. (Longreads)

Dive back into the week.

• Shallow dive: Images that could be album covers.
• Medium dive: Why you’re seeing so much stoppage time in the World Cup.
• Deep dive: The 100 best TV show theme songs of all time.
• Cannonball: Underrated reasons to be thankful.

Really terrible cooking is having a moment: Here’s a recipe that should get someone banned from cooking. And here’s an explainer on why horrible recipes like that are going viral right now.

The holidays are right around the corner. And that means a whole lot of spending. Don’t worry, Money with Katie has plenty of tips to help keep your budget in check this season. Check it out.

Turntable: Shake off the post-Thanksgiving hangover by playing today’s Turntable.

Famous feasts trivia

With heaps of food still top of mind, I’ll ask you this question: The menu for what famous meal featured the following dishes?

Soup du jour
Hot hors d'oeuvres
Tea
Beef ragout
Cheese souffle
Pie and pudding “en flambe”

Does the phrase “performance review” make your heart stop? Our newest sprint, How to Handle Feedback, just opened. Walk away with the ability to leverage one of the most powerful tools of leadership: actionable feedback. Reserve your spot today.

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Crafting a corporate social media policy? Protect your brand’s image and promote a free and inclusive workplace with our guide.

Hear from top retail leaders at Athletic Greens, Zappos, Kroger, TikTok, and more for their predictions on the future of commerce.