Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Chinese electric-car startup NIO announces first-quarter results. NIO’s stock, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, fell to an all-time low of $3.83 last week, as ongoing US-China trade tensions triggered a Chinese stock sell-off among investors.
Papua New Guinea’s parliament reconvenes amid chaos. Prime minister Peter O’Neill resigned on Sunday, saying he was handing the government to former prime minister Julius Chan. On Monday, Chan said it had been a “huge misunderstanding.”
The World Health Organization wraps up its assembly in Geneva. Among other things, the WHO recognized burnout and video-game addiction as medical conditions, and removed transgenderism from its list of mental disorders.
While you were sleeping
South Korea launched a four-day military exercise. Some 480,000 civilians, officials, and armed service members are taking part in drills and training to increase the country’s preparedness for national-security threats. Earlier plans to co-host with the US were canceled after Donald Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump met with families of the Japanese abducted by North Korea in the ’70s and ’80s. As part of a four-day visit to Japan, the US president also said he supports a meeting between North Korea’s Kim and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to resolve the dispute.
Another climber died on Mount Everest. American attorney Christopher John Kulish, 62, became the 11th person to perish on Everest this season. Concerns about overcrowding in the summit’s “death zone” have led Nepalese officials to consider reviewing how they award access.
Huawei said it was reviewing its relationship with FedEx. The Chinese telecoms giant told Reuters that FedEx rerouted at least four packages sent from Japan and Vietnam to Huawei offices in Asia, sending them first through the US. The packages, at least one of which contained urgent documents, were diverted due to an undisclosed “delivery exception.”
Mexico’s minister for the environment resigned. Josefa González Blanco stepped down after grounding a commercial plane for 38 minutes because she was running late. Mexico’s new president has pledged to govern for regular people, including by forcing politicians to fly commercial.
Quartz Obsession
Nothing tastes better than food on a stick. According to one long-time vendor at the Iowa State Fair, simply sliding a spear into a culinary concoction is practically guaranteed to increase sales by at least 30%. That must be why everything from bananas to poutine to veal cubes has been properly skewered.
Matters of debate
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Burnout is making us worse at our jobs. Two of burnout’s three symptoms, according to the WHO, impact our effectiveness at work.
Long live the mommy blog. So many companies build their business model on women; why shouldn’t mothers build businesses on themselves?
Cars should be assembled like iPhones. Inspired by Apple’s relationship with Foxconn, EV startup NIO is outsourcing its manufacturing.
Surprising discoveries
You can now pay to get into the Scripps spelling bee. Losing the regional competition doesn’t have to mean the end of a spelling-bee dream.
Toe wrestling has a world champion. Legend holds that the game was invented to help the UK produce a world champion in something, anything.
The US Navy has spotted unidentified flying objects. The Department of Defense insists there’s no reason to believe the objects, seen in 2014, were extraterrestrial.
Leonardo da Vinci may have had ADHD. Researchers are undecided on whether the condition helped or harmed his art.
Florida banned the dumping of blood to attract sharks. The process of “chumming” is used to lure the ocean’s top predators to baited hooks.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, food on a stick, and shark-bait blood to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written and edited by Akshat Rathi, Natasha Frost, and Kira Bindrim.