Kabir Chibber

Between 2000 and 2001, about 3,000 mainly white farmers were evicted from their properties in Zimbabwe as the autocratic president Robert Mugabe sought re-election and implemented a populist land reform that gave the land to black farmers. That led to 18 people dying in the farm invasions that followed, which led to the country’s export-based economy collapsing. Hyperinflation kicked in, and reached 231,000,000% in the summer of 2008. The nation became a political pariah. Now, those farmers may finally get compensated through a process backed by the World Bank.

Good morning, Quartz readers!

Rory McIlroy has won the British Open for the first time at the age of 25. Not that his father ever doubted it: Ten years ago, Gerry McIlroy and three friends placed £100 on young Rory winning the British Open before his 26th birthday. The odds were 500-to-1. That means the four of them have now won £200,000 ($342,000).

A court in Florida has awarded $23.6 billion in punitive damages to the widow of a smoker who died of lung cancer 18 years ago. The judgement is against RJ Reynolds Tobacco, the maker of Camel, Kool, and Winston.

“I began to talk about Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience, but quickly felt like a ridiculous pedant. What’s the point of talking about the virtues of civil disobedience in a Beijing police station?”

Last night, the German artist Oliver Bienkowski and Anonymous, the anarchist hacking group, projected an image of Barack Obama with a backwards baseball cap and the words “NSA in da house” onto the US embassy in Berlin. Not the cleverest piece of protest art ever executed.

Following the destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight 17, which is believed to have been blown out of the sky over eastern Ukraine, shares in the airline’s stock closed down 11% at the end of Friday. The airline has now said that it will offer anyone with a ticket to fly this year a refund—regardless of when it was purchased—if they call before July 24. A kind gesture for their customers, but perhaps not so good for the bottom line. Over the past five years, the airline has lost 92% of its value.

Tesco, by far the biggest supermarket chain in the UK, already sells groceries, clothes, and tablets while offering banking and mobile services. Now, it is looking to turn itself into a landlord for Britain’s resurgent class of first-time home buyers.

What to watch for today

The first commercial space flights from anywhere outside of the United States could be taking off from Scotland. The British government is planning to launch a port for commercial space flights by 2018, and six out of the eight potential sites in the UK are in Scotland. “Spaceports will be key to us opening up the final frontier of commercial space travel,” said UK treasury minister Danny Alexander.

After one glorious month, the World Cup in Brazil ends today. On the field, it is either Germany or Argentina that’ll be lifting the trophy. But one constant truth of the tournament is being told definitively who the “real winners” of the World Cup are—no matter how tenuous the impact or connection may be.

The World Cup ends this weekend, and watching could be bad for your health, maybe more so if you’re supporting Germany this Sunday. This chart shows heart attacks among Germans during their team’s games in the 2006 World Cup, which was held in Germany:

The last few years have been musical chairs for elite designers in the world of luxury fashion. In 2012, Raf Simons took over as head designer of the venerable house Christian Dior after John Galliano was fired in disgrace, while the former head of Dior’s men collection, Hedi Slimane, went to Yves Saint Laurent.

Mexico is overhauling its telecom sector—and challenging the business dominance of its richest man, Carlos Slim. The Senate this weekend approved a bill (paywall) that would strengthen the regulator, help new players, and potentially keep Slim out of the TV market. The lower house of Congress is expected to pass the bill in the next few days.

Buses in London no longer accepted cash fares as of early this morning. To buy a ticket to take one of London’s beautiful new Routemaster buses, you’ll have to use a variety of methods that some public transport commuters outside the UK have never seen before.

In the 12-year battle over paying back holders of its defaulted debt, Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez has put up a strong front. But with a final deadline expiring on July 31, Argentina is sending a team to New York on July 7 to set the terms for talks through a court-appointed mediator to end the dispute.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has made his first major move since formally becoming Egypt’s president in early June. He is starting to eliminate fuel and food subsidies that have crippled the country’s budget. On July 4, prices on 80-octane petrol rose by 78% to 1.60 Egyptian pounds ($0.22) a liter, and 92-octane petrol is up 40%.  Natural gas for vehicles rises by 175%, The Guardian reported. Electricity subsidies will be eliminated within five years, with prices rising this month.

The sheer verve and entertainment of this year’s World Cup has wowed even the most cynical. Even Brazilians, who greeted the tournament with street protests and for whom its economic benefits look dubious, have been putting their doubts to one side as their country marches towards the semi-final next week. Opinion polls show their pride in the World Cup has been rising—as has president Dilma Rousseff’s popularity ahead of an October election. And in terms of sport at least, there are signs this could be the best World Cup ever.

The Queen has named Britain’s largest warship after herself in an opening ceremony—by breaking a bottle of Islay malt whisky* over the ship’s hull. The 88-year-old monarch didn’t quite do it herself; she pushed a button on an automated contraption that smashed the bottle on her behalf against the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier.

France is upping the rhetoric in the fight over plans to issue “.wine” and “.vin” web domains. The web-naming governing body, ICANN, decided to issue the two new suffixes earlier this year but France is worried is that the domains are to be issued without any geographical protections.

The US national team takes on Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal at the World Cup today. Victory would guarantee the Americans a spot in the sweet 16.

Rian Johnson, the director of Brick and Looper, is going to write and direct the next two Star Wars movies. Johnson all but confirmed the news in a tweet that summed-up the hopes and fears of fans who watched all three prequels and still cannot figure out why Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side.

Nest, which makes internet-connected smart devices for the home, has bought Dropcam, which makes cameras that monitor the home, for $555 million. Nest was itself acquired by Google back in January for $3.2 billion.

Gap will soon be making clothes in Myanmar, the Wall Street Journal reported, becoming the first major US retailer to set up shop in the former pariah state.