Good morning, Quartz readers!
Our apologies for the delay due to a production glitch.
What to watch for today
G7 foreign ministers have questions for the US. US secretary of state Rex Tillerson can expect to field questions on Washington’s plans regarding Syria and North Korea at the two-day summit of seven major industrialized nations in Italy.
Janet Yellen’s speech. The US Federal Reserve chair will speak at the Gerald Ford School Of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, taking questions from the audience and from Twitter.
Neil Gorsuch is sworn in as US Supreme Court justice. Gorsuch, who was confirmed by the Senate on Friday, is the first US Supreme Court justice to sit on the bench with his former high-court boss, Judge Anthony Kennedy.
Over the weekend
The US Navy sent a strike group to the Korean Peninsula. The USS Carl Vinson strike group includes an aircraft carrier and is meant as a show of force to North Korea, which has ramped up missile testing and sharply criticized (paywall) last week’s US airstrike in Syria. The rising tension has some wondering what a war with North Korea might actually look like.
Barclays docked its CEO’s pay for misconduct. UK regulators are probing Jes Staley over his attempt to unmask a whistleblower who criticized one of the bank’s senior hires. As well as getting a formal reprimand, the bank says it will make a “significant” cut to his bonus—because Staley “honestly” thought it was okay to find out who was behind the complaint.
Another one bit the dust in Donald Trump’s cabinet. After strategist Steve Bannon’s departure from the National Security Council last week, the White House reportedly removed deputy adviser K.T. McFarland from the council after just three months. McFarland was offered an ambassadorship in Singapore instead.
Deadly bombings hit Coptic churches in Egypt. Over 40 people were killed in two separate suicide-bomber attacks on Christian worshippers gathered for Palm Sunday. ISIL claimed responsibility for the blasts; in response, president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has declared a three-month state of emergency in Egypt.
China dug for dirt on its chief insurance regulator. Xiang Junbo is being investigated by the country’s anti-graft commission for “severe discipline violations.” As a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, Xiang would be one of the highest-ranking financial regulators to be caught in Beijing’s massive anti-corruption drive.
Quartz obsession interlude
Jill Petzinger on why Germans don’t want electric cars: “Germany, the land of diligent recyclers, is often lauded for its eco-credentials, and its ambitious “Energiewende,” the government’s plan to wean the country off coal and nuclear power. However, as far as mobility goes, it’s a country still stubbornly attached to its gas-guzzling autos. Last year, the nation’s drivers were partially responsible for sabotaging its overall greenhouse gas emissions.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The obsession with visionary entrepreneurs has gone too far. Unquestioning faith in founders created the conditions for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest scandals.
Cash is still king thanks largely to crime and tax evasion. It cloaks transactions in privacy (paywall) even as consumers increasingly favor digital alternatives.
Job interviews are pointless. Unwarranted first impressions influence hiring more than candidates’ credentials (paywall).
Surprising discoveries
The UK is considering paying wind farms to stop working. Excess energy flowing into the national grid could damage it.
Classical music can exercise our atrophied attention spans. Sitting still for a live performance can force you to rediscover focused listening.
Chinese millennials are twice as likely to be homeowners as their US counterparts. 70% of them already have a foot on the property ladder.
The intoxicating scent of old books has been decrypted. Researchers created the Historic Book Odor Wheel, similar to fragrance guides for wine and coffee.
Beijing will give citizens a $72,000 reward if they catch a foreign spy. It’s part of president Xi Jinping’s war against “foreign forces.”
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