Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Trump delivers his 2019 budget. The president will call for dramatic cuts in domestic spending. Like last year, it will probably just be for show—Congress hasn’t been willing to cut spending and curtail the deficit, which is soaring under the Trump administration.
Jacob Zuma’s fate is decided. The South African president’s party, the African National Congress, will meet today to discuss his future, and may ask him to step down. Zuma’s nine-year rule has been mired in corruption, but he has stubbornly clung to power.
Oxfam is hauled before the government. Bosses from the charity meet international development secretary Penny Mordaunt over the allegations that its aid workers used prostitutes in Haiti in 2011. Oxfam denies it tried to cover up the allegations, and now risks losing millions in UK government funding.
Rex Tillerson visits the Middle East. The secretary of state will visit Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey this week. He won’t stop in Israel, but the country looms over the visit after it attacked Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria and lost one of its F-16s in the process.
News from over the weekend
New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company. Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit claims that the studio did not protect staff from Harvey Weinstein, who allegedly abused female employees and verbally threatened to kill workers. The lawsuit appears to have scuppered the deal (paywall) to sell the Weinstein Co. for around $500 million.
The Olympics were hit by a cyber attack. Suspicion immediately fell on Russia, which is banned from this year’s games because of doping, but officials wouldn’t reveal any details. Meanwhile, vice president Mike Pence said (paywall) that the US was ready to engage in talks with North Korea.
Harvard named a new president. The university named Lawrence Bacow, an economist and lawyer who was formerly president of Tufts and chancellor of MIT, as its new head. Bacow was serving on the Harvard committee in charge of finding its next leader until he started interviewing for the role himself.
A WW2 bomb closed down London City Airport. The bomb was discovered in the River Thames near the airport, which services mainly business travelers, early Sunday morning. The airport will be closed all day Monday, while the Royal Navy works to remove the bomb. Around 16,000 passengers will be affected.
A Russian jet crashed killing all 71 people on board. The Saratov Airlines flight fell out of the sky minutes after taking off from Moscow on Sunday. The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately clear. Russia has a dire airline-safety record; Saratov was briefly banned from making international flights a few years ago.
Quartz obsession interlude
Heather Timmons and Eshe Nelson on deciphering the Trump administration’s views on trade. ”Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda will shrink the US trade deficit and overturn ‘decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies,’ the president promised… But translating that rhetoric into concrete trade policy is a thorny task for Trump’s top advisors.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Should a self-driving car swerve and kill one person to save five others? The “Trolley Problem” forms the basis of a series of algorithms created to see how autonomous vehicles would react in morally precarious situations.
Behaving like you’re single is good for your marriage. Finding the right mate is no substitute (paywall) for having friends and other interests.
Glamorizing Kim Jong-un’s sister is wrong. She’s a powerful member of a brutal authoritarian regime.
Surprising discoveries
Your robot babysitter will know when your child has a fever. Researchers created the first self-healing and fully recyclable electronic skin, which mimics the functions and properties of human skin.
Male dogs have won the Westminster dog show more than twice as often as females. Breeding takes females out of the game.
Poor punctuation cost $5 million. In Maine, a group of delivery truck drivers settled with their employers over unpaid wages originating from the lack of an Oxford comma.
Scientists created a Match.com profile for a frog nearing extinction. They’re raising money through the dating site to fund their search for a female to mate with Romeo, a Sehuencas water frog.
Teens are running for governor in Kansas. There’s no minimum age to run for office in the US state, a loophole that six high-school students are currently exploiting.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, robot babysitters, and mates for Romeo to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Jill Petzinger and edited by Lianna Brinded.