Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
ISIS’s capital could flood. Late Sunday night local time, a US-led coalition of forces announced they’d taken the Tabqa military airbase from ISIS fighters in northern Syria. Nearby the airport is the Tabqa dam on the Euphrates River, which ISIS still controls and currently says is at risk of collapse because of US-led airstrikes on the region. (The UN has said some of the damage was due to deliberate sabotage by ISIS.) Raqqa, ISIS’s self-styled capital city, is 40 km downriver from the dam; civilian residents of the city have been ordered to evacuate.
Rex Tillerson goes to Turkey. The US Secretary of State’s meetings with senior officials in Ankara could impact what comes next in Raqqa. Turkey wants the US to drop its military alliance with a Syrian Kurdish militia, but the US sees the Kurds as essential to the efforts to drive ISIS out of its de-facto capital in Syria.
In Germany we trust? The Ifo Institute for Economic Research will release the latest update to its Business Climate Index for Germany. With the deadline for Brexit negotiations looming later this week, current confidence in the business climate of the EU’s economic powerhouse could represent industry’s feelings about prospectives for a Europe san the UK.
Over the weekend
Beijing won Hong Kong’s election. Carrie Lam, viewed as Beijing’s favorite, became Hong Kong’s first female chief executive. Before the election, her opponent John Tsang had a strong lead in public polls. So how’d he lose? Only 1,194 electors of nearly 3.8 million registered voters get to cast their lot in leadership elections.
Anti-Putin rallies erupted across Russia. Tens of thousands reportedly gathered in central Moscow on Sunday to protest corruption in the Vladimir Putin government, and smaller rallies took place all over the country. Police responded by arresting hundreds of protesters—including Alexei Navalny, who had planned to run for president in 2018, but has been banned from doing so after being found guilty in a case he says was rigged.
Congolese rebels beheaded 42 police officers. The insurgency of a militia known as Kamuina Nsapu has led to over 400 deaths and the displacement of 200,000 in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Over the weekend, reports surfaced that 42 policemen tasked with fighting the rebels were killed, suggesting the violence is escalating.
The cracks in the US republican party started showing. In the immediate aftermath of Friday’s decision to pull the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare in the face of certain failure, US president Donald Trump blamed Democrats. But over the weekend, he lashed out at other leaders of his own Republican party. Even the factions within the party are starting to develop factions.
Quartz obsession interlude
Echo Huang on China’s epidemic of fake food news: “Fears about the safety of food products made in China have been deep-seated in the wake of major cases of food contamination, and constant exposés of fake food. But now, some of the exposés too are turning out to be fake, creating an ever more uncertain climate for consumers, and the manufacturers who cater to them.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Video games can be valuable teaching tools. They engage students with history in a way books alone can’t.
Beauty and the Beast is not feminist. It’s a film about kidnap, Stockholm Syndrome, and the value of looks.
There’s no such thing as an offensive joke. The only real taboo in comedy is not being funny.
US shops are awful. They’re boring, expensive, and out of touch with customer preferences.
Surprising discoveries
A Dutch town put traffic lights on the pavement. They’re for pedestrians staring at their phones.
Dishonest governments produce dishonest citizens. People from corrupt countries were more likely to cheat in an experiment.
A Canadian province revoked a man’s offensive-looking license plate. Lorne Grabher registered a personalized plate with his last name 26 years ago.
Former communists are embracing capitalism. Management guru Peter Drucker has fans among ex-Khmer Rouge soldiers (paywall).
Scientists turned a spinach leaf into beating heart tissue. They grew human cells on the plant’s vascular system.
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