Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Barack Obama holds his first public event since leaving the White House. The former president will lead a conversation with young people on civic engagement and community organizing at the University of Chicago.
ISS commander beats the 534-day record for time spent in space by an American. Peggy Whitson, 57, is in the midst of her third long-duration mission. She will receive a congratulatory phone call from president Trump, and will remain on the International Space Station until September.
Protests by Russian truckers resume—and spread. Despite the Kremlin downplaying the situation, thousands of long-haul truckers are demanding the repeal of a tax hike on the use of federal highways. An opaque company with ties to Putin is behind the electronic toll scheme.
Over the weekend
France’s next president will be a former banker or a far-right populist. The first round of voting has winnowed the field to Emmanuel Macron, who has never run for office, and Marine Le Pen, who wants a Frexit. The runoff vote is on May 7.
The US government could shut down over Trump’s plans to build a border wall. The president is hammering Congress to fund the wall in a must-pass government spending bill, backed by assertions that Mexico will pay “at a later date.” Senate Republicans need some Democratic support to pass legislation—which has not been forthcoming.
Angela Merkel’s party saw a turnaround in German polls. Support for the German chancellor has risen to 34% in the country’s most populous state, the highest since 2015. That figure draws her CDU party even with its main opposition, the Social Democrats.
American Airlines dodged a scandal by quickly apologizing for an on-board incident. Reacting to footage of a flight attendant supposedly grabbing a stroller from a woman, hitting her, and just missing her baby, American swiftly launched an investigation and denounced the employee’s lack of empathy and patience.
There were a lot of funny signs at the March for Science. A baby holding a sign reading, “Remember polio? Neither do I. Thanks, science!”; a blow-up dinosaur saying “Ask how climate change went for me”; and countless scientists who “aren’t mad—they’re furious!”
Quartz obsession interlude
Paul Smalera on Fox’s business incentive for dropping O’Reily—his age: “Nothing about the way Rupert Murdoch has ever operated suggests he is interested in overpaying celebrities of his own creation to work through their declining years, while putting his business interests at risk. He has shown us who he is over and over, and we should, as the saying goes, believe him.”
Matters of debate
It’s time to break up Google. Tech monopolies like Google and Facebook are stymying innovation, costing millions, and must be regulated—either by limiting acquisitions, treating them like public utilities, or removing the “safe harbor clause.”
Trump is right, the US should end foreign aid. An 50-year veteran of the “aid-industrial complex” explains why development aid ought to be less about money and more about collegial discourse, with those holding the pocketbook admitting that their track record is spotty at best.
Relationships work best when partners don’t have too much in common. Different personalities, interests, and religious views can broaden perspectives and deepen love in a way similarities can’t.
Surprising discoveries
Scientists figured out how naked mole rats survive without oxygen for so long. Enzymes in the rodents’ hearts and brains convert fructose into energy, a stunt humans can’t pull off.
James Comey shaped the 2016 election by plunging the FBI into politics. “We’re not considering whose ox will be gored by this action or that action, whose fortune will be helped,” said Comey recently. “We just don’t care. We can’t care.” That changed when he perceived the reputation of his own bureau to be at stake.
The farthest you can get on earth from a Trump property is an island off the coast of Angola. A Voronoi diagram identified Baia dos Tigres, which became an island in the 1960s after a storm disconnected it from the African coast. Its largely-abandoned town, however, isn’t the safest getaway.
The modern US environmental movement began thanks to a 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara. This oral history recounts how the idyllic California enclave confronted the disaster of polluted waters and beaches, and thousands of dead birds and poisoned marine life. Residents then faced the reality that few state or federal laws existed to help them in their quest to clean up the spill and secure the environment from future disasters.
Larger-sized clothes fit badly because fashion designers are cheap. Instead of fitting clothes on larger models, most brands ineffectively “scale up” the dimensions of each piece. This creates a perpetual cycle by which brands lose revenue and larger-size customers miss out on trends.
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