Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Barack Obama hosts Nordic leaders. Leaders from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden will visit Washington. Russia is the elephant (or is it bear?) in the room: Moscow has been increasingly aggressive toward its Nordic neighbors and performed a provocative fly-by of US ships in the Baltic last month.
The latest data on industrial production and retail sales in China. The economy’s state-driven manufacturing spree is expected to have slowed a bit in April. Retail sales and investments likely increased a bit—good signs that the government’s stimulus measures are working, at least if you trust the official figures.
Nigeria hosts a regional security summit. The leaders of Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria will be joined by French president Francois Hollande on Saturday in Abuja. They’ll discuss ongoing threats posed by the militant group Boko Haram.
While you were sleeping
Brazil got a new government after Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. Acting president Michel Temer took over, appointing a former central bank chief as his finance minister and promising to turn around Brazil’s struggling economy. Rousseff called Temer’s government illegitimate, and vowed to fight accusations that she illegally manipulated government finances.
Bayer is considering a bid for Monsanto. A combination of the German drug and chemical giant and the world’s largest seed company would help Monsanto withstand the commodities slump and add bulk in the rapidly consolidating agricultural chemical sector. China National Chemical is acquiring Syngenta, and Dow Chemical and DuPont are also merging.
Paul Ryan and Donald Trump tried to end the Republican schism. The House Speaker did not endorse the GOP’s de facto nominee, but they issued a joint statement promising to work together to defeat Hillary Clinton. A few hours later, Ryan tweeted a picture of himself with some schoolchildren, calling it his “most important meeting of the day.”
The pope said he may allow female deacons. Pope Francis told a group of nuns in Rome that he would create a commission to study the issue—a potential step toward ending the Catholic church’s all-male clergy.
The US is planning a month of immigrant deportation raids. Reuters broke the news: The 30-day sweep will target undocumented mothers and children to deter more immigrants from illegally crossing the border. It will likely be the largest series of raids ever by the Department of Homeland Security; a two-day raid in January resulted in 121 detentions.
Market haiku
Barely a ripple
No breeze, becalmed sailboats bob
Dead flat day for stocks
Quartz obsession interlude
Alice Truong on the most common startup killers. “A surprising takeaway is that startups with large amounts of funding were outcompeted. This was not a problem cited by bootstrapped startups or companies that raised less than $1 million, but it was prevalent among those that raised $10 million or more.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The word “strategy” doesn’t belong in job titles. The gap between strategy and execution is unfathomably wide for most executives.
Globalization means every cuisine is open to interpretation. Italians don’t get to dictate how the world eats pasta, for example.
Fossil fuel corporations are the arsonists behind Canada’s wildfires. Climate change enables mega-fires, so oil giants should foot the bill.
Surprising discoveries
Cellists are the rowdy rock stars of classical music. They have always been rebels compared with their string and woodwind peers.
Donald Trump’s long-time butler wants to assassinate Obama. The Secret Service is investigating online threats by Anthony Senecal.
Facebook is having middle schoolers perform essential hacking tasks. The company is having a hard time adults as security engineers.
A party drug might be a great antidepressant. Ketamine, the animal tranquilizer better known as Special-K, can relieve symptoms in as little as two hours.
Drones drive elephants crazy. Researchers think it’s because they sound like bees.
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