Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Exxon Mobil’s high-stakes shareholder meeting. In the first shareholder meeting since former CEO Rex Tillerson left to become the secretary of state, the oil giant hopes to persuade investors to vote against a proposal demanding it report on how climate change policies affect its business.
An update on India’s GDP. India is expected to have held onto its position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy in the first quarter. Analysts are keen to see how demonetization affected the economy but expect an uptick to 7.2%, compared to 7% in the previous quarter.
The US and Vietnam sign trade deals in Washington. Donald Trump and Vietnam’s prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc are set to unveil $17 billion worth of deals for US goods and services. Phuc is the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House since Trump took office.
While you were sleeping
A massive blast ripped through Kabul’s embassy quarter. A public health official said at least 80 have been killed and more than 350 wounded after a vehicle bomb exploded near the German embassy during morning rush hour in the Afghan capital. The casualties are mostly civilians; some Germany embassy staff were injured. Both the German and French embassy were damaged by the blast.
The British pound suffered ahead of the UK general election. A YouGov poll suggesting the Conservative party’s lead in next week’s general election (paywall) has weakened, boosting the chances of a hung parliament. This drove down the sterling’s value as much as 0.6% against the US dollar on Wednesday morning.
The euro zone went to work. Unemployment dropped to 9.3% in April from 9.5% in March, its lowest level since 2009. Germany set a new record of 5.7%, its lowest unemployment rate since reunification, while Italy’s jobless numbers fell to a five-year low.
China arrested a labor activist investigating an Ivanka Trump shoe supplier. Authorities detained Hua Haifeng, who was working undercover for US-based China Labor Watch. Labor Watch said that Hua had witnessed examples of wage violations and forced overtime. Two other men involved in the probe have gone missing.
Europeans gave Russia’s Gazprom a boost. The world’s largest gas producer’s first quarter revenue rose more (paywall) than 4% from this time a year ago to $31 billion, thanks to exports to the EU. The Kremlin-controlled giant is mired in an anti-trust probe and EU resistance to a planned pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
Correction: In Monday’s Daily Brief we said that BMW’s production halts were due to a failure to deliver parts by an Indian supplier. The delay was caused by an Italian supplier.
Quartz obsession interlude
Lila MacLellan on the antidote to multitasking. “Starting but not finishing too many projects puts a person at risk of the so-called Zeigarnik effect, named for Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychiatrist who, in the 1920s, discovered that people are better at remembering unfinished tasks than completed ones. Unfinished items that we’ve left hanging are like cognitive itches.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
A US exit from the Paris Accord will lead directly to catastrophe. If Trump follows through on his threat, the world can expect extinctions, crop damage, and irreversible sea level increases.
Passive investing is like antibiotics. Valuable in moderation, index-tracking products will do more harm than good if they are used widely.
Trump’s right about Germany’s trade surplus being too big. But his diagnosis is off. The problem isn’t that the country is exporting too much—it’s that its government and citizens are spending too little.
Surprising discoveries
Italy has more bank heists than the rest of Europe combined. One in 10 branches are robbed each year.
Earth’s earliest primates dwelled in treetops. So suggests analysis of a 62-million-year-old partial skeleton discovered in New Mexico, countering previous theories that Torrejonia were ground-dwellers.
Robots are coming for priests’ jobs, too. The BlessU-2 offers blessings in five languages and recites bible verses.
Marcel Proust liked to play the markets. Letters to his banker show he was “a master at turning financial indulgence into narrative craftsmanship.”
Japan has an invasive raccoon problem. A 1970s anime series is to blame.
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