Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
NASA conducts an emergency spacewalk to repair the International Space Station. Two astronauts will spend an estimated two hours replacing a faulty computer that runs crucial systems such as solar power, heating, and cooling.
Park Geun-hye’s corruption trial begins. The impeached former South Korean president is accused of colluding with an advisor to accept $26 million in bribes from major corporations including Samsung. A judge is expected to decide whether Park and her close female confidante, Choi Soon-sil, should be tried separately.
China hosts the 40th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. Delegates from 42 countries and 10 major organizations will discuss climate change’s alarming effects on a teetering ice shelf. China has four Antarctic research stations and is expanding fishing operations in the Southern Ocean.
While you were sleeping
A bomb attack killed at least 19 and injured 50 at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. British police are treating the assault as a “terrorist incident,” and US officials described it as a suspected suicide bombing. No group has yet claimed responsibility, though ISIL supporters took to Twitter to celebrate. The US singer was not hurt in the blast, but she said she was “broken” by news of the casualties.
Symantec said it was “highly likely” a North Korea hacking group was behind WannaCry. The security firm reported there are now hard links (paywall) connecting the Lazarus Group to the ransomware attack, which still holds hundreds of thousands of computers hostage. The US government has said the hacking group works at the behest of the North Korean government.
Apple revealed it received a national security letter from the US government. The company disclosed the information as part of its latest transparency report (pdf), saying the letter demanded a customer’s personal information. It didn’t publish the order, or say when it was received. Apple and other firms face strict reporting restrictions on national security requests.
The former US national security advisor refused a congressional subpoena. Michael Flynn declined to hand over documents related to a Senate probe of Russia’s interference in the US election, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination. Two other former advisors to Donald Trump—Paul Manafort and Roger Stone—complied with related subpoenas.
Vivendi is considering an IPO for Universal Music Group. The French media conglomerate said the rise of music-streaming services like Spotify may result in the sale of a minority stake in the world’s biggest music company. The industry’s music-streaming revenue rose 60% to $3.9 billion last year.
Quartz obsession interlude
Marc Bain on the history of America’s sexual coming-of-age costume: “A strange ritual takes place across the United States each spring… young people gather for a dance sanctioned by local elders, where they dress in fancy costumes that embody traditional gender tropes and old-fashioned notions of sexuality, to celebrate their transition from childhood to adulthood. The Americans call it prom.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Touted trip tames tongue / Travel’s torpor tamps tweeting. / ‘Til tomorrow, tops.
Matters of debate
The inevitable future of Slack is your boss spying on you. Its Orwellian acronym: Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge.
HTTPS is taking the sting out of online censorship. During Thailand’s recent crackdown on Facebook, users were notified when the government was watching.
K-Pop is not a musical genre. Despite the adoration of the world, it’s a generic term that only signifies popular music from Korea.
Surprising discoveries
The market gods have smiled upon the Church of England. Its £7.9 billion ($10.3 billion) investment fund returned 17% last year, second only to Yale’s endowment fund.
A South Carolina woman dressed up as a dinosaur to spook carriage horses. She was arrested for disorderly conduct after the carriage’s driver was injured.
Instagram is the most harmful social network for your mental health. Users are more prone to anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation, and body-image issues.
The world’s most popular index fund is ruled by a stock picker. Economist David Blitzer runs a committee that decides which companies go into the S&P 500 (paywall).
Freeze-dried mouse sperm can survive a trip to space. Researchers fertilized eggs with sperm that made a nine-month trip (paywall) to the International Space Station.
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