Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
US presidential candidates culminate their campaign. It is the last day of campaigning for the May 3 primary in Indiana, which could prove the inflection point for both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. If Trump wins decisively—as seems likely, according to polls—he will effectively win the Republican nomination.
The election for mayor of London is also winding to a crescendo. Boris Johnson, the London mayor whose outbursts often make him sound like Donald Trump, is on his way out. According to polls, Sadiq Khan, a Muslim from the Labor Party, extremely likely to replace him in voting May 5.
Oil will try to continue its rally. After their biggest price surge in seven years, oil traders will wrestle with the question of whether to keep bidding it toward $50 a barrel. Oil prices surged by 21.5% in April, and are up about 75% from under $30 a barrel in February.
Coal continues to be in deep trouble. In another sign of the malaise facing the global coal industry, the board of east Europe’s largest private coal company—the Czech Republic’s New World Resources—is getting ready to meet May 3 and, some analysts say, perhaps declare bankruptcy (paywall).
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Over the weekend
Live tweeting Osama Bin Laden. To mark the 5th anniversary of the Osama Bin Laden operation, the CIA started ‘live’ tweeting the raid as if it were happening on Sunday. With the spelling ‘Usama Bin Ladin’ it used the hashtag #UBLraid.
Syria hit a hospital in Aleppo, killing 50 people. The Syrian government launched fresh attacks on the city of Aleppo against local rebels, just 48 hours after hitting the Medecins sans Frontieres-supported hospital.
Vodafone gets set for Indian unit IPO. UK telecoms operator Vodafone picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA), Kotak Investment Banking and UBS to handle its Indian unit’s $2 billion to $2.5 billion IPO, said Reuters citing sources. Vodafone is expected to launch the IPO early next year.
Protestors storm Baghdad Green Zone. Hundreds of protestors broke through the heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday to challenge what they described as the corrupt and incompetent regime of prime minister Haider al-Abadi. The protests were sparked by the outspoken comments of a Shiite cleric over the weekend.
Quartz obsession interlude
Thu-Huong Ha on how the US took a gamble on Vietnamese refugees 41 years ago. “It was March 1975, and my father had been in the US for 10 months. He had a scholarship to get his master’s in applied math at then University of Missouri-Rolla, but he found it impossible to focus. The war at home in Vietnam was getting worse, and his wife and 10-month-old daughter—my older sister—risked being stranded in Saigon. My father knew that, barring some miracle, he would be separated from them, maybe for years, possibly forever.” Read more here.
Matters of Debate
The White House Correspondents’ Association doesn’t practice the transparency it preaches. The charity behind the annual dinner fails to adhere to standard nonprofit practices, and its focus is clouded by glitz and glamor.
Saying “I feel like” is nothing more than linguistic hedging. It presents opinions as vague emotions and, in so doing, stops debate dead.
Marijuana does not count as medicine. Dispensary marijuana has no prescribing information, exact dosage levels for specific medicines, and not enough safety studies or widely available scientific evidence.
Surprising Discoveries
The ginger gene contains the key to youthful looks. People judged to look younger than they really often have the MC1R gene—which affects skin pigmentation and can cause red hair.
Scientology wouldn’t be what it is today without asthma. The father of the church’s current leader says he first took his son, David Miscavige, to a Scientology session age 9 in a bid to help his asthma attacks. When Miscavige’s asthma subsided, he became devoted to the religion.
A British soccer team flies in Buddhist monks from Thailand to bless the players. The team receives their blessing before each home game, and the monks can then spend the match meditating in a designated room at the stadium.
Physics can be used to explain human behavior. Humans face the same design problems that confront the natural world, and it seems we come up with solutions that can be explained by the same physics laws.
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