Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The US agriculture secretary travels to China. Sonny Perdue’s trip marks the return of US beef exports to China after a 13-year ban due to concerns over mad cow disease. The US will also begin importing cooked Chinese chicken as a part of a trade deal inked last month.
China’s powerful surveillance law goes into effect. The measure, passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC) after unusually brief deliberations, gives authorities new, largely unspecified powers to investigate foreign and domestic people and institutions. It also expands authorities’ ability to search premises and seize property.
The Toshiba chip saga probably, possibly comes to an end. Western Digital has re-submitted a bid for the semiconductor unit, and will go head-to-head with the Toshiba’s preferred bidder, a Japanese government-backed consortium that includes Bain Capital. The outcome will be announced at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting.
While you were sleeping
A cyber-attack in Ukraine spread to Europe and the US. Ukraine’s government agencies, banks, airports, and utilities all suffered outages, as did multinational firms around the world. “Petya,” the ransomware responsible, is said to have used the same exploit as last month’s WannaCry attack.
The EU hit Google with a monster €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) fine. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the company abused its online search dominance, denying EU customers “a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation.” Google, which has publicly disagreed with the findings, has 90 days to address the complaints or face further penalties.
The IMF slashed its outlook for the US economy. The fund discounted the effects of Donald Trump’s fiscal plan from its forecast, citing uncertainty regarding the US president’s economic agenda and calling his 3% annual growth target unrealistic.
US Republicans were forced to scrap a planned health care vote. Lacking support from his own party, majority leader Mitch McConnell said a vote will now be delayed until after the July 4th holiday. The Republican legislation, which contains heavy cuts to Medicaid, would result in 22 million more Americans not having health insurance. US stocks fell 0.5% on the news.
Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook has 2 billion users. The number of people who use the social network each month is roughly equivalent to the population of the US, Mexico, Japan, and China combined. The only other platforms above a billion are YouTube (1.5 billion) and Facebook’s own WhatsApp and Messenger apps.
Quartz obsession interlude
Alison Griswold on Uber’s unsettling alliance with shady car dealers. “The company has maintained partnerships with a small network of third parties … which operate in the underbelly of New York’s auto-financing market, without much scrutiny. Now, after being questioned by Quartz, Uber says it will pause referrals to its partners as it investigates the program.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Today’s tech spasm / When Google stubs its big toe / All the world winces
Matters of Debate
Amazon is desperately trying to beat the “wheel of retailing.” The Whole Foods deal is an attempt to disrupt the cyclical trap of incumbents toppled by low-priced competitors.
SpaceX has proved its critics wrong. It’s hard to argue against an accelerating launch tempo and diversified client list.
Wealth managers are the driving force behind global inequality. Massive tax-dodging couldn’t happen without expert advice.
Surprising discoveries
“Thing” is now a thing in the Oxford English Dictionary. The reference to a “genuine or established phenomenon or practice” was first used in “The West Wing.”
Norwegians raised $10,000 to save a phallic rock formation. Cracks suggest the phallic tourist attraction was recently vandalized.
A woman threw coins into a jet engine “for luck.” The Shanghai flight was evacuated and delayed for hours while technicians checked the engines.
Mumbai has the world’s second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings. But almost no one notices—not even the residents of the buildings themselves.
Warren Buffett has been paying income taxes since he was 14. Recently released returns how how the mega-billionaire began amassing wealth.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, lucky coins, and phallic rocks to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android.