Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
North Korea convenes its first congress in 36 years. Delegates at the Workers’ Party convention in Pyongyang will choose the Politburo and the party’s top boss. Spoiler alert: It will be supreme leader Kim Jong-un, who will promote his byungjin policy of rebuilding the economy while expanding his nuclear arsenal.
Vladimir Putin hosts Shinzo Abe. The two leaders will meet in Sochi to revive negotiations on a long-standing territorial dispute. If all goes well, the countries may eventually sign a treaty ending World War II.
The first black superhero makes his big screen debut. The Black Panther, created in 1966, is featured in this weekend’s “Captain America: Civil War,” ahead of his own standalone Marvel film in 2018. The character predates the US Black Panther party by several weeks.
While you were sleeping
The US cracked down on vaping. New Food and Drug Administration regulations restrict vaping to people 18 and older, and require e-cig and cartridge makers to undergo a long and costly approval process. Maybe that will stop them from exploding so often.
Investors turned on Tesla. The company’s shares initially surged when CEO Elon Musk announced an ambitious new electric car production schedule. Then they plummeted after he revealed the cost: $750 million over two years, which may require the company to raise additional funding.
Wildfires intensified in Canada. A devastating inferno forced the evacuation of 88,000 people in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in the heart of the country’s oil sands region. The blaze is already the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, and fire experts have deemed it “out of control.”
Alibaba couldn’t shake the skeptics. Shares popped after the e-commerce giant reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue, thanks to growth in rural areas. But some investors worry the company’s rate of growth is slowing, and that the lackluster Chinese economy might deter consumer spending.
Quartz markets haiku
The market went down
Though oil prices did rally
Jobs day tomorrow
Quartz obsession interlude
Jenny Anderson on the key to understanding teenage girls. “[T]hey stop listening when grown-ups lecture, use a suspicious tone, level moral judgements, and overstate risks. In other words, they have great bullshit detectors.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The painkiller Oxycontin is “the perfect recipe for addiction.” And the drug company that invented it ignored worrying clinical data.
Consumer satisfaction surveys are less than satisfactory. The questionnaires are exhausting and annoying for consumers.
Zika is in the United States to stay. The virus will become a perennial risk that will wax and wane.
Surprising discoveries
The New York Times wants to sell you dinner. It’s going to sell ready-to-cook ingredients to readers of its popular food section.
The United Arab Emirates imports huge amounts of sand. Its own wind-formed desert sand is too smooth to use for construction.
Zimbabwe is printing its own version of US dollars. $200 million in “bond notes” may ease the country’s cash crunch.
Scientists set a new record growing human embryos in the lab. The two-week-old cells were then destroyed due to ethics concerns.
Chilean brewers are harvesting fog for beer. Capturing the morning mist is crucial in the driest region on Earth.
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