Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Cyclones threaten to flood three South Asian countries. India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar could all be hit by cyclonic storm Mora as it tears toward the Bay of Bengal, a region that has seen eight of the 10 deadliest cyclones in history.
China’s Li Keqiang arrives in Europe. The prime minister’s visit to Germany and Belgium to meet with EU officials is part of a broader attempt by China to position itself as a stable political and economic partner to the union.
The founder of Android unveils his new smartphone. Andy Rubin sold Android to Google in 2005, but his new company Essential says “something big is coming” on May 30th. Little is known about the new smartphone, which Rubin teased in March.
RyanAir should see tidy gains in its yearly results. Analysts expect the budget airline’s annual net profit to be 6% higher (paywall) than a year earlier. While some major airlines have struggled in the wake of Brexit and terror attacks, RyanAir has pushed on with expansion.
While you were sleeping
Emmanuel Macron hosted Vladimir Putin in Versailles. While the meeting started with a private “frank exchange” about Syria and Ukraine, it ended with an extraordinary press conference in which the newly elected French president attacked Russian state media’s intervention in his election campaign.
While Narendra Modi visited Angela Merkel. The Indian president kicked off his trip to Europe with a visit to the German chancellor’s countryside retreat to talk investments, bilateral cooperation, and a stalled free-trade deal between the EU and India, which Modi remains “optimistic” about.
Philippine forces retook part of Marawi from ISIL-linked militants. More than 100 people have died in violent clashes and martial law has been declared in the region as government forces fought to regain control (paywall) of the southern city.
British Airways faced the fallout from a systemwide IT outage. The airline launched an investigation into the incident that grounded flights from Heathrow and Gatwick, and stranded 75,000 passengers over the weekend. The airline is working to return luggage left at the airports and, per EU law, must pay a total of €61 million ($68 million) in compensation.
The European Central Bank decided against buying Greek debt—for now. ECB president Mario Draghi said no action would be taken until a bailout review had been concluded and creditors had decided on a plan forward. Greek debt is currently rated below investment grade.
Quartz obsession interlude
Lila MacLellan on a time-management system that explodes the myth of multitasking. “‘Personal Kanban’ was named for the Japanese concept that inspired it, a just-in-time manufacturing process developed at Toyota in the late 1940s. James Benson, a former urban planner based in Seattle, has adapted the system to reduce overhead of the emotional sort—the ‘too many tasks on my mind’ feeling that’s the biggest downside of our mostly doomed attempts to multitask.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative will need Africa’s support to work. Without a secure investment environment, China’s vision will likely fail on the continent.
GDP is not a helpful measure of development. Wellbeing, not economic growth, should be the true measure of society’s progress.
Movie stars are becoming too muscular. The overly buff bods filling our screens are emblematic of how far we’ve taken our push for perfection.
Surprising discoveries
More than half of US employees didn’t use up their time off last year. Americans’ reluctance to take a break meant they worked 662 million more days last year than required.
There’s a dark side to meditation. The unpleasant emotions and disturbances that can occur while staring at one’s “third eye” are well known to long-time practitioners.
There’s a frog that literally bares its heart. The newly discovered Hyalinobatrachium yaku from Ecuador belongs to a species of frogs with transparent skin.
The US and Italy’s caffeine wars stretch back nearly a century. Italy’s first Starbucks is only the latest chapter in an ongoing tussle over what constitutes the perfect cup of coffee.
Bangladesh is one of the world’s happiest economic stories right now. The country of 160 million has just experienced its fastest expansion in 30 years.
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