Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Oslo Forum convenes. US secretary of state John Kerry, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Zarif, and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will meet to discuss the Iran nuclear deal. The Oslo Forum is an annual meeting of leaders focused on mediating and resolving global conflicts.
France braces for street protests. Demonstrators will take to the streets of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille to rally against president Francois Hollande’s plans to ease labor protection. Today’s protests won’t be the first such rallies, but organizers have promised today’s will be the biggest so far.
Valeant holds its annual meeting in Quebec. Last week the pharmaceutical giant saw its stock tank to its lowest level in nearly six years after it slashed its outlook for the year and reported poor results. Today it faces its shareholders in a live-streamed meeting.
Southeast Asian leaders discuss their territorial disputes with Beijing. Foreign ministers from 10 countries are meeting in China for talks over the South China Sea. China claims most of the sea as its own, but countries including Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, and Taiwan have competing claims.
While you were sleeping
Apple took on just about every competitor with its new software upgrades. The company’s annual event for developers included a slew of new features aimed at rivals such as Spotify, Snapchat, and Google Photos. Apple also announced performance upgrades for the Apple Watch that could actually make it useful, and eliminated a long-standing iPhone annoyance.
The Feds said FedEx is a drug courier. US prosecutors cited dozens of internal emails as proof that the shipping company was knowingly shipping painkillers and other prescription pills from “shady” online vendors. The company could be forced to pay up to $1.6 billion in penalties.
Donald Trump attacked the Washington Post. The media outlet will no longer be given press credentials to his presidential campaign, he announced, because of its unfair coverage of him. He accused the newspaper of being a mouthpiece for its owner Amazon.
Japan’s industrial production did surprisingly well. Manufacturers delivered a much better performance (paywall) than expected in April, despite that month’s earthquake. Industrial production rose 0.5% month-on-month, up from an originally stated 0.3%. Expectations had been that it would shrink by 1.3%.
Quartz markets haiku
Next, it’s Brexit with
“Leave” vote’s effects, complex-it
May be a regret-xit
Quartz obsession interlude
Kevin Delaney on a Silicon Valley plan to create a new “long-term” stock exchange: “US tech startups have long wanted to overhaul the process for firms to list their shares and to find ways to minimize pressures on public companies from high-frequency trading, cynical activism, and any distorting incentives of quarterly results.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Inequality isn’t making us sick. A study of Swedish lottery winners shows they don’t get any healthier.
Want more entrepreneurs in the US? Fix the student debt crisis. Bill Clinton thinks the current system is “insane.”
We’re near the end of the fossil fuel era. We’re not running out—the alternatives are just getting cheaper.
Surprising discoveries
Germans are no longer the world champions of nude sunbathing. Landlocked Austria has nabbed the crown.
Qatar convicted a rape victim of having extramarital sex. She received a one-year suspended sentence and an $824 fine.
Facebook accidentally declared war in the Philippines. It has apologized for not using the country’s peacetime flag.
Job-stealing robots are a very old story. The hype goes back to the 1920s.
Mongolia is changing its addresses to three-word phrases. The vast country is using a proprietary system that maps out GPS coordinates.
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