Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and this weekend
SpaceX attempts another complicated rocket landing. Elon Musk’s company will deliver a communications satellite to geosynchronous orbit and then try to land the rocket “fast and hot” on a barge in the ocean. The launch was postponed from Thursday to today, because of a technical glitch.
Iran’s new parliament is sworn in on Saturday. Reform-minded legislators will dominate, and women will outnumber clerics for the first time. The body, known as the Islamic Consultative Assembly, is expected to support president Hassan Rouhani and the nuclear deal that ended Western sanctions.
The US has its Memorial Day weekend. This year’s holiday weekend is expected to be one of the most dangerous in years, according to the National Safety Council. The UK also has a public holiday on Monday.
While you were sleeping
Barack Obama visited Hiroshima. “We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in the not so distant past, we come to mourn the death of over 100,000 Japanese men women and children,” the US president said after laying a wreath at the peace memorial in the city where the US dropped an atomic bomb in 1945.
G7 leaders warned against a Brexit. The UK leaving the European Union would “pose a serious threat to global growth,” they said in a joint declaration. This week’s summit focused primarily on driving global growth, tackling terrorism, the refugee crisis, and geopolitical conflicts.
Microsoft and Facebook announced plans for a massive subsea cable to Europe. Spanish telecoms company Telefonica will manage the 4,000-mile cable, which will run across the Atlantic Ocean from Virginia in the US to Bilbao, Spain. It will be capable of moving 160 terabits of data per second, and give the tech companies a cheaper, faster way to move data between their US and European hubs.
China reported slowing profit growth in its industrial sector. Year-on-year growth was 4.2% in April compared to 11.1% in March, among large firms. That was in line with other April data suggesting the economy might be losing steam again, after picking up earlier in the year.
Axa sold its UK Life & Savings businesses. The French insurance company said the sale will generate a loss of over $400 million dollars. This is the latest in a series of Axa divestments this year—most recently it sold off Elevate, an investment platform that handles around $14 billion worth of UK investments, to Standard Life.
Quartz obsession interlude
Steve LeVine on Elon Musk’s battery challenges. “Musk has made Tesla the nascent electric car industry’s pacemaker, striking terror in the hearts of his rivals through styling and technology, all while ignoring one of the biggest questions in the business: How do you invent a relatively cheap super-battery to propel an electric vehicle?” Read more here.
Matters of debate
It’s OK to let babies cry themselves to sleep. Stop chastising moms who use the technique; it can actually reduce infant stress.
Want employees to be more productive? Steal their chairs.
The US has a moral obligation to give Puerto Ricans the vote. Residents of Washington, DC are also disenfranchised.
Surprising discoveries
The US National Spelling Bee ended in a tie for third year in a row. One of the co-winners is 11, the youngest on record.
Chinese children in Sichuan have to climb a rock face to get to school. Kids as young as six have to scale a 2,600-ft cliff using rickety ladders.
Golden jackals are invading Europe. But researchers say they are performing a valuable service: eating the trash.
Women are banned from Mount Athos in Greece. The peninsula is the site of a 1000-year-old Orthodox monastery—even female domestic animals aren’t allowed.
That banana you get in Somali restaurants? Definitely part of the meal.
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