Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Donald Trump practices diplomacy, Italian style. Prime minister Paolo Gentiloni visits the White House to discuss the upcoming G7 summit in Sicily, which will be the US president’s first overseas trip.
China’s launching its first cargo spacecraft. The unmanned Tianzhou-1 takes off Thursday night from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. It’s designed to resupply China’s space station, which is scheduled to be permanently manned by 2022.
Pakistan’s supreme court rules on the Panama Papers leak. Prime minister Nawaz Sharif could be deemed ineligible to hold office due to leaked documents that revealed his children’s ownership of offshore companies involved in an alleged money laundering scheme.
While you were sleeping
Interpol issued a wanted notice for a renegade Chinese billionaire. Guo Wengui has threatened to disclose evidence of corruption at the upper levels of the Communist Party. Guo is also a member of Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida—though he reportedly wasn’t there during Xi Jinping’s recent visit.
Fox News fired its top host amid a sexual harassment scandal. Rupert Murdoch and his sons said Bill O’Reilly—off-air since April 11—would not return to the network after an internal investigation of sexual harassment allegations against him. The move was precipitated by dozens of advertisers boycotting Fox News.
A 2,000 ft (600 m) asteroid passed within a million miles of Earth. The barbell-shaped 2014 JO25 was the biggest space rock to get that close in more than a decade. If an asteroid ever does head straight for Earth, NASA doesn’t have much of a plan.
Trump’s travel restrictions forced Emirates to slash its US flights. The carrier reduced the frequency of its US flights by about 20%, citing lower demand in the wake of strict US rules on carry-on electronics for some inbound flights.
Exxon applied for an exemption to work in Russia. The oil giant is seeking a waiver from the US treasury department that would allow it to drill for oil in the Black Sea and continue its relationship with state-run Rosneft. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson, a former Exxon CEO who helped create the partnership, has recused himself from the decision.
Quartz obsession interlude
Marc Bain on Amazon’s patent for an automated on-demand clothing factory: “Standard operating procedure in the apparel industry goes like this: Make clothes, and then sell them. … But Amazon, the ecommerce giant steadily growing into the largest apparel seller in the US, has another idea.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
IBM shares droop / So can Watson calculate / Warren Buffett’s loss?
Matters of debate
Live crime is the beast Facebook can’t control. Relying on user reports has its limits.
The big winner in the French election will be Vladimir Putin. Three of four leading candidates are pro-Putin populists.
Three countries are about to control the world’s farms. The ChemChina-Syngenta will concentrate agricultural power in the US, Germany, and China.
Surprising discoveries
Skiing may have originated in China. Cave paintings in the Altai Mountains show people using skis some 10,000 years ago.
Silicon Valley’s favorite juicer is entirely unnecessary. Juice packs for the Juicero can just as easily be squeezed by hand.
Amazon is using peer pressure to keep workers from calling in sick. German warehouse employees only get a bonus if their coworkers show up.
A massive traveling iceberg is photobombing a Canadian village. Newfoundland’s “iceberg alley” is hosting a record crop this year due to rising temperatures.
Cash-strapped Venezuela gave half a million dollars to Donald Trump. The cash was donated to the president’s inauguration fund by state-run Citgo Petroleum.
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