| |  | U.S. players celebrate winning the women's soccer World Cup Sunday in Lyon, France. Source: Getty |
| | IMPORTANT | | 01 | The U.S. team dominated the Netherlands to take home its second straight and record fourth global soccer title in France yesterday. Megan Rapinoe, who earned the Golden Ball as the tournament’s top player and the Golden Boot as its top scorer, made a penalty kick in the 61st minute. Eight minutes later Rose Lavelle drove up the center to score again. “It’s so surreal,” Lavelle, 24, said after the game, “to be part of this group and to play with these players.” What now? Fans chanted “equal pay” after the victory, supporting the women — who are more successful than their male counterparts but are paid far less — in their lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. | |
| | 02 | “Greeks deserve better, and the time has come for us to prove it.” With those words, conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who becomes prime minister today, announced the end of a tumultuous chapter in Greek history. His New Democracy party won nearly 40 percent of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, trouncing the ruling leftist Syriza party and Alexis Tsipras, who led Greece through painful financial troubles. What else did voters do? Bucking the far-right trend seen elsewhere in Europe, they denied Golden Dawn — founded by neo-Nazi supporters and once the third-strongest party — any seats in Parliament. Read OZY’s look at how Greek oligarchs are gaining power through soccer. | |
| | 03 | Despite a secret 2008 plea deal precluding such action, the 66-year-old financier, arrested Saturday on sex trafficking charges, is set to appear in federal court today. The earlier agreement ended a serial sexual abuse probe with potential for life imprisonment. Instead, Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges, served a 13-month sentence and reached financial agreements with dozens of underage victims, some as young as 13. Could political ties protect him? While that’s unclear, Epstein was friends with former President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump, and the U.S. attorney who approved his widely criticized settlement, Alexander Acosta, now serves as Trump’s labor secretary. | |
| | 04 | After two decades as one of Wall Street’s major players in bonds and other investments, Germany’s largest bank is laying off 18,000 employees, primarily in New York and London, and retreating to its core banking functions. Sunday’s move is aimed at reversing years of disappointing performance while its rivals prospered. Is the bank alone in its troubles? Beset by low interest rates and a Brexit-clouded future, other European banks are struggling with similar weaknesses that date back to the 2008 financial crisis — something regulators forced U.S. banks to deal with more quickly. Check out OZY’s look at cities vying to replace London as Europe’s financial hub. | |
| | 05 | A bus — whose driver is suspected to have fallen asleep — fell from an overpass, killing 29 passengers near Agra in northern India early today. After Iran’s weekend announcement that it would enrich uranium to a purity beyond what’s permitted by 2015’s six-nation nuclear agreement, President Trump warned that Tehran had “better be careful.” And six people have been injured, three of them gored, during Pamplona, Spain’s annual running of the bulls. #OZYfact: Four of the five nations with the least-stressed inhabitants are in Central Asia. Read more on OZY. Want a trip for two to New York? Enter here for a chance to win two VIP OZY Fest tickets, airfare, hotel stay and more. |
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| | | INTRIGUING | | 01 | Northern U.S. states are exporting huge amounts of refuse, and the South is shouldering much of that burden, an OZY investigation has found. Thanks to low landfill fees, Dixie is home to five of the 10 states receiving the highest proportion of imported waste — from toxic coal ash to human “fertilizer.” And when locals win one trash fight, another sprouts in its wake, stoking economic, environmental and even spiritual tensions. What’s the solution? Besides embracing new technology that turns coal ash into concrete, policymakers would do well to distribute the waste more evenly while regulators could standardize how waste data is collected. | |
| | 02 | Records show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI have been secretly scanning millions of Americans’ photos in state driver’s license databases without their consent. The documents — thousands of emails and facial recognition requests made over the last five years — were first acquired by Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology through public-records requests. Is this surveillance unusual? Authorities routinely scour criminal databases, but mining photos of residents, even those with clean records, is something that hasn’t been approved by lawmakers, some of whom argue that licensees are unaware of the potentially error-prone practice. Read about surveillance in China’s smart cities on OZY. | |
| | 03 | Citing droughts in India and cyclones in Mozambique, Mami Mizutori, the U.N.’s special representative on disaster risk reduction, warns that developing nations are experiencing lower-level climate-related disasters every week. To cope with such events, she urges the global community to focus on adapting to such impacts in addition to cutting carbon emissions. Is that economically feasible? Mizutori estimates that while destructive climate events will cost $520 billion per year, building disaster-resistant infrastructure, such as planting mangroves to mitigate flooding, would only cost an additional 3 percent. Read OZY’s feature on a carbon-consuming Peruvian billboard. | |
| | 04 | Benin and Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, joined 53 other African Union nations at the group’s summit in Niger yesterday as signatories to the African Continental Free Trade Area, with only Eritrea holding out. The pact, which has been in the works since 2002, aims to build an economic bloc worth $3.4 trillion across the continent of 1.3 billion people. By eliminating tariffs on most goods, experts say the deal could potentially boost trade by as much as 60 percent.
What are the obstacles? Critics worry that a lack of infrastructure and economic diversity could hamper trade growth. OZY looks at how currency exchange is hurting Zimbabwe. | |
| | 05 | According to a study in The American Economic Review, Italians who watched a lot of entertainment TV — including programs like a striptease quiz show — saw an adverse effect on intelligence and were more susceptible to populist electioneering. Researchers assessed the impact of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s media network, finding that younger watchers scored lower than their peers on numeracy and literacy tests. Regular viewers were also more likely to vote for Berlusconi’s populist party. Is the trend continuing? The study found that the same demographic that voted for Berlusconi also voted for the populist 5-Star Movement, which gained control of Italy’s government last year. Check out this OZY feature about why Italians are souring on the EU. | |
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| | Caught Up? Now Vault Ahead ... | | To get more fresh stories and bold ideas in your inbox, check out The Daily Dose. | | Need to Know An OZY investigation uncovers that the South bears the burden of America’s trash, from carcinogenic radioactive waste to toxic coal ash and trains of human refuse. | |
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