Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Euro zone finance ministers debate debt relief and fresh aid for Greece. The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany in the run-up to general elections in September. German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble opposes debt relief. But he also refuses to unlock more loans without the partnership of the International Monetary Fund—which insists on more debt relief.
BMW workers go on strike in the UK. They’re angry about potential losses to their retirement benefits. The Unite union expects 3,500 will participate in the round-the-clock strikes, which will run until Wednesday at factories across the nation.
Trump lands in Israel. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu told all cabinet ministers their attendance at Ben-Gurion International Airport was required for the US president’s arrival, even though they won’t have the opportunity to shake his hand.
While you were sleeping
Ford is replacing its CEO. Taking the place of Mark Fields will be Jim Hackett, who currently heads the carmaker’s autonomous-driving subsidiary. Shares in Ford have dropped 40% in Fields’s three-year tenure. Ford has suffered a number of recalls this year, and it’s been unable to keep pace in self-driving cars.
Bitcoin reached new heights. The digital currency passed $2,100, putting gold to shame. Some argue the driving force is economic uncertainty in the US, others contend it’s trading from South Korea and Japan. Many are simply puzzled.
North Korea conducted another test missile launch. The missile flew about 500 km (310 miles) off the east coast and appeared to be an upgraded version of the country’s solid-fuel submarine-launched missile. South Korea condemned the test, calling it “reckless and irresponsible” and casting doubt on “denuclearization and peace on the Korean peninsula.”
Incumbent president Hassan Rouhani was re-elected in Iran. Rouhani’s victory was announced on state television on Saturday. He picked up about 57% of the vote compared to 38% for judge Ebrahim Raisi, a protégé of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who strongly opposed Iran’s nuclear deal in 2015.
Donald Trump addressed the Muslim world from Saudi Arabia. The US president delivered a speech about Islam and terrorism on Sunday without referring to “radical Islamic terrorism.” Instead, he described a battle between good and evil.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a power grab. A month after a referendum granted the Turkish president even more power by allowing him to become a leader of a political party, Erdoğan was elected head of the Justice and Development (AK) Party on Sunday at a special congress in Ankara, taking back control of the ruling party he founded.
Quartz obsession interlude
Keith Collins on the WannaCry ransomware attack that terrorized the world. “A group calling itself the Shadow Brokers dumped a large cache of hacking tools to the public, which included software that exploited various security holes. The group claimed it had stolen the cache from the US National Security Agency (NSA). One of the tools it included was DoublePulsar. Another was EternalBlue, an exploit that targeted the Windows vulnerability Microsoft had patched in its MS17-010 release a month earlier.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
We’re not in Watergate territory yet. The Trump-Russia probe is not akin to Watergate (paywall) because there isn’t evidence of “obstruction on a monumental scale.”
Patriotism is the result of having your values tested. It isn’t about nationalism or “us vs. them,” but rather a never-ending struggle to defend a nation’s founding beliefs.
Hungary is the most authoritarian country in Europe. A law aimed at shutting down the Central European University is part of a larger war (paywall) on liberal culture.
Surprising discoveries
Australia gave email addresses to over 75,000 individual trees. People around the world have been writing digital love notes to them.
Avo-lattes are a thing. You can buy a latte served in an avocado peel at coffee shops in Turkey and Australia.
Twin Peaks was first resurrected in Japan. Before David Lynch revived the series for Showtime, it had a brief second life in Japanese coffee commercials.
A court in Israel ruled that emoji prove intent. They are, it said, an integral part of modern communication and open to legal interpretation.
Reading in bed used to be considered immoral. It was a fire hazard when candlelight was the norm.
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