Greece talks, Iran negotiations, and the most wanted hacker in finance

Greece’s leftist government bent a little and made a last-minute offer on reforms. But EU leaders had already told Alexis Tsipras not to expect a deal on releasing rescue funds at today’s emergency summit.

Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s François Hollande both telephoned Mr Tsipras to remind him he needed a “staff level” agreement with the European Commission, IMF and ECB ahead of the summit. That, they said, is non-negotiable. If a deal is reached, the two leaders said, then discussions on a third bailout can start at the summit.

So it again looks increasingly likely that Athens will fail to secure bailout funds before its EU rescue programme expires next week. And Greek banks are edging closer to insolvency.

The spectre of a Grexit is stalking the globe. It has sparked fears for central and eastern Europe, economies that depend heavily on exports to the EU. Washington is fretting aboutGreece cosying up to Russia which would then gain influence over a Nato member. Affluent Greeks are tempering panic with optimism that eurozone leaders might still come to the rescue.

And what would default mean anyway? Willem Buiter argues it does not have to lead to Grexit. But if it does come to that, Grexit would mean the end of the eurozone, says Wolfgang Munchau. Lawrence Summers meanwhile prescribes how to avert Europe’s financial unravelling. (Reuters, FT)

In the news

Chinese infiltration A group of hackers from China spent nearly a year undetected inside the computer networks of the Office of Personnel Management, in one of the largest-ever cyber attacks on the US government. They gained access to SF-86 national security forms, useful for anyone seeking to identify or recruit an American intelligence agent, nuclear weapons engineer or vulnerable diplomat. (NYT)

Charleston church reopens Emanuel AME Church resumed services Sunday with a spirit of forgiveness. “Yet this is an old story ,” writes David Remnick. “The litany of [the black freedom movement’s] great leaders…is vastly outnumbered by the anonymous millions who encountered the noose, the lash, the cattle prod, the attack dog, the laws of Jim Crow, and answered it all, so often, in the spirit reflected by the survivors and the congregation at Emanuel.” (NYT, New Yorker)

Cigna rejects Anthem Health insurance company Cigna said its rival’s raised bid of $53.8bn was inadequate and not in its shareholder’s best interests. Anthem, in its race to consolidate after the introduction of “Obamacare”, had raised its offer to $184 per share. (FT)

Terra Firma breaks with convention The private equity group will charge its backers fees only on the money it has invested in deals. Fees on idle capital in funds have increasingly rankled with investors who have watched the buyout industry raise a record $1tn hoard of “dry powder”. (FT)

Apology for racist Obama tweet Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, an Israeli talk-show host and wife of interior minister Silvan Shalom, tweeted, “Do u know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak.” The tweet created a media storm just as Israeli-US relations are at their lowest ebb in recent years. (FT)

It’s a big day for

Greece The EU emergency summit gets under way in Brussels as the debt crisis roils on. (FT)

US-Russia relations Ash Carter, US defence secretary, will urge Nato allies to “dispose of thecold war playbook” during a trip to Europe this week, even as a senior aide to Putin tells the FT that he is sceptical of ties with Washington improving anytime soon. (Reuters, FT)

Iran negotiations Talks enter their final phase as diplomats from six world powers and Iran meet in Vienna to seek a nuclear agreement by a June 30 deadline. (Reuters)

Food for thought

Dear Apple, Love Taylor Swift The singer will withhold her blockbuster album, 1989, fromApple’s new streaming service , which offers a three-month free trial to users – during which artists will not be paid. She explained why in an open letter: “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” (FT)

Locked and loaded Charleston reveals just how much of an outlier the US is when it comes to guns and mass killings. Hillary Clinton has vowed to keep fighting for gun control reforms, but a sombre Jon Stewart lamented the grim regularity of it all: “I have nothing to offer other than just sadness, once again, that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other in the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal – yet we pretend doesn’t exist.” (Vox, Economist, FT, Daily Show)

Take down the stars and bars All of the flags on South Carolina’s capitol grounds flew at half mast after the Charleston massacre last week, except for one: the very Confederate flag that the alleged shooter embraced. Ta-Nehisi Coates says it must be removed immediately: “More than any individual actor, in recent history, [the shooter] honoured his flag in exactly the manner it always demanded – with human sacrifice.” Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush agree, putting their Republican colleagues in a tough spot. (Atlantic, FT)

Most wanted The creator of ZeuS malware, which eventually allowed hackers to insert themselves into an online banking session undetected, is the financial industry’s most wantedhacker. He has been at the cutting edge of cyber crime for nearly a decade but was eventually betrayed by a human traitor. (Bloomberg)

Shifting sands Washington is rattled. Not only is it alarmed at Beijing’s ambitious foreign policy but there is also a creeping fear that America is no longer sure how to cope with its growing influence. (FT)

Video of the day

Bally: China a short-term challenge Frederic de Narp, chief executive of the Swiss luxury shoes and accessories brand, talks to Gillian de Bono, editor of How to Spend It, about whyless is more in China. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.

Image: A Greek national flag flutters as tourists visit the Acropolis hill archaeological site. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis.