Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The big buyout goes to DC. Myriad regulators and committees will gear up to examine the proposed $85 billion acquisition of entertainment giant Time Warner by telecom company AT&T. Authorities should minimize regulatory oversight, argues AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, because it’s a “vertical merger.”
The fight to reclaim Iraq pushes deeper into Mosul. Kurdish fighters aim take the city back from ISIL. Along the way, they’ve recaptured the town of Bashiqa. The closest points of Kurdish lines to Mosul are now as little as three miles away from the city limits.
Visa reports its earnings. Analysts expect a strong performance, but with the credit card behemoth announcing both the resignation of CEO Charles Scharf a new offering based on blockchain technology last week, it’s the 2017 guidance investors will be keen to hear.
Over the weekend
Spain will get a government. Conservative leader Mariano Rajoy has been hamstrung by his party’s inability to win an outright majority in two elections. But rather than trigger a third, his socialist opponents have agreed to stand aside and let him form Spain’s first minority government.
Hanjin Shipping announced it’s closing its European operations. It’s the latest sign that the South Korean shipping giant is heading toward liquidation (paywall). The move would involve shutting down 10 business operations in Europe, including the regional headquarters in Germany.
US banks announced their Venmo competitor. Set to compete against PayPal-owned Venmo, their money-transfer app will be called Zelle. It will launch next year and be built atop the payments networks of the nation’s biggest banks, including Chase, Citi, and Bank of America.
Rockwell Collins confirmed it will buy B/E Aerospace in a $6.4 billion deal. They’re two of the biggest suppliers in the aerospace industry, which is seeing more mergers (paywall) in response to cost-cutting pressure from plane makers Airbus and Boeing.
The iPod turned 15. Take a gander at the astonishingly wide variety of forms that a product renowned for its simplicity and ease of use has inhabited over the years.
Quartz obsession interlude
Ephrat Livni on a study explaining the surprising effect happiness has on creativity. “Workers who were rated most creative reported experiencing both strong negative and positive moods and felt they had supportive managers. Happier workers with good bosses, however, were rated significantly less creative than those with mixed emotions.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Actually, many Evangelicals oppose Trump. Polls showing strong support for the Republican candidate among members of that religious group are not factoring in minorities.
You are partly to blame for a cyber attack that paralyzed Twitter and Amazon on Friday. Consumers who don’t secure their internet-connected devices are putting themselves and the internet in danger.
Women should dress any age they want. Society should stop telling women over 50 to upturn their neck collars to hide wrinkles or abandon high heels.
Surprising discoveries
A scientist has launched a worldwide search for a suitable companion for a pet snail. The University of Nottingham professor is trying to find a mate for a snail with a rare genetic variation.
Bill Murray crashed the White House briefing room. The noted party crasher gave a spur-of-the-moment press conference on his beloved Chicago Cubs after visiting president Barack Obama.
Pretty soon you’ll need reading glasses to go online. An award-winning blogger worried about his straining eyesight found a “widespread movement” toward fonts that blur the contrast between words and background, including at Apple, Google, and Twitter.
Most men misread whether women are sexually interested in them. They are thrown off by the clothes women wear and their attractiveness, but ignore their body language and facial expressions.
Mating with Neanderthals made Europeans’ immune systems weaker. Two studies found that people of African descent are better at fighting off certain kinds of infections.
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