Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
A nail-biter of a primary. The latest polls in Wisconsin show party frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lagging. If Trump loses, a contested Republican convention starts to look much more likely. Polls close at 9pm ET (9am HK).
A Vietnam leader switcharoo. The country’s National Assembly will vote whether to dismiss prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung after he failed in his bid to become the leader of the country’s Communist party. Deputy prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, his likely successor, will need to tackle tensions with China, a severe drought and declining oil revenues.
Earnings, earnings: Monsanto, Hennes & Mauritz, Constellation Brands, and Bed Bath & Beyond all report their quarterly results.
While you were sleeping
Iceland’s prime minister resigned over the Panama Papers. Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson had little choice after the leak revealed his secret investments in Icelandic banks, prompting thousands of angry citizens—as many as 10% of the tiny island’s population—to swarm the parliament buildings in protest.
A big pharmaceutical merger hit the rocks… Investors seem nearly certain that Pfizer won’t be acquiring Allergan, after all, in the wake of new US Treasury rules that will stop the combined company from moving its headquarters to Ireland for tax purposes. Allergan’s shares dropped by 15% on the news.
… And two US oil companies may not be able to shack up. Halliburton and Baker Hughes, the second- and third-largest American oilfield service companies, have been working on a merger deal since 2014. Now the US Justice Department is reportedly filing a lawsuit to block the deal on antitrust grounds.
South Africa’s president survived an impeachment vote. The country’s parliament voted to keep Jacob Zuma in power, despite a rowdy debate between opposition parties and the country’s ruling party over his reported involvement in several high-profile scandals.
WhatsApp turned on encryption for its one billion users. The new end-to-end system theoretically means no one—not even WhatsApp engineers or the NSA—can read users’ messages on the wildly popular app. The Facebook-owned messaging service began encrypting some messages in 2014, but now it has locked down voice, video, and group chats on both iOS and Android.
Quartz markets haiku
New rules were announced
To halt tax inversion deals
Then stocks inverted
Quartz obsession interlude
Mike Murphy on the 122-year-old company that tests the safety of the world’s electronics. ”The level of detail testers require can seem whimsical at times. They use a certain thickness of cheesecloths to simulate drapes that might come into contact with something electric and set a house on fire, and a certain shade of black paint to test appliances.” Read more.
Matters of debate
Economists aren’t all-knowing truth-sayers. An over-reliance on mathematical models makes their work difficult to check.
Robots make it easier to sexually objectify women. Bots modeled after beautiful women like Scarlett Johansson make it easier for men to avoid dealing with rejection.
If you want to get into an elite college, move to Wyoming. Being from an underrepresented state makes you more attractive to private US colleges.
Surprising discoveries
The TSA spent $47,000 on an app that a developer built in just ten minutes. All the app does is randomly point people left or right through security lanes.
Scientists found evidence of a new state of matter. Quantum spin liquid occurs when an electron splits into two or three fermions.
Smart luggage can tell you the best way to get to the airport. The Raden line of app-connected suitcases can also tell you how long the security line takes.
Plants have memories. Mimosa pudica, which recoils when touched, stopped flinching after learning that it wasn’t harmful.
An invasive beetle is threatening baseball. They’re devastating the supply of ash trees used to make Louisville Slugger bats.
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