Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
European finance ministers address bad loans and tax plans. Bad loans in the EU are plaguing bank balance sheets (paywall) and holding back economic recovery. The ministers will also discuss a proposal to force intermediaries like tax lawyers, consultants, and banks to disclose plans that help multinationals and wealthy individuals reduce tax bills.
PepsiCo releases its second-quarter earnings. After two years of declining revenue, the company has reported steady growth for the past two quarters, though its full-year target may still prove difficult to reach. Pepsi execs credit its growth to a pivot to healthy products like probiotics and organic Gatorade.
The US shares data on job openings for May. In April the number passed 6 million, the highest since 2000. For May the figure is expected to come in at just below that mark.
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump Jr. got into more hot water… Ahead of a June 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, the US president’s son was informed in an email that material being offered was damaging to Hillary Clinton and “part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy,” reported the New York Times (paywall). Yesterday, he hired a lawyer to represent him in connection with Russia-related investigations.
…And his father canceled “startup visas.” The Obama-era program set to kick off next week would have allowed non-citizen entrepreneurs who launch companies in the US to also live there. The Trump administration said it would delay the program until March and may rescind it all together.
Snap’s stock closed below its IPO price for the first time. The company behind Snapchat had a less-than-stellar first earnings report, and it’s struggling to succeed in an advertising market dominated by Google and Facebook—the latter of which has essentially copied everything Snapchat has ever built.
The embattled CEO of Mt. Gox appeared in court in Tokyo. Mark Karpeles faces embezzlement charges stemming from the stunning 2014 failure of his bitcoin exchange, which left hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for. He has pleaded not guilty.
World powers debated next moves on North Korea. As Japan and its allies push Russia to help curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, the White House is considering another route: placing sanctions on Chinese firms and banks (paywall) it suspects support North Korea.
Quartz obsession interlude
Zoë Schlanger on how a lesbian seagull discovery shook up conservatives in the 1970s. “Complaints came in from all over the country. One group out of New York (the LA Times called it an ‘unscientific citizens task force’) published a statement proclaiming that ‘100% of the sea gulls in the five boroughs of New York City were heterosexual.’” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Snapchat’s messages / Vanish. Just like the stock gains / Since its IPO
Matters of debate
Jawbone is the poster child for Silicon Valley self-sabotage. The wearable-electronics company raised massive amounts of funding—and that became its biggest problem.
Starting questions with “how might we…” is the secret to a successful brainstorm. IDEO, Facebook, and Google use the phrase to inspire open-minded, unintimidating ideation.
The real fight in TV streaming wars is over kids. Traditional networks are scrambling to keep up with the kid-friendly offerings of Netflix and HBO.
Surprising discoveries
“Robot psychologist” might be a job in the future. Applying cognitive science to neural networks can help us understand how AI thinks (paywall).
A New Jersey museum found a cache of wine almost as old as America. The 1796 Madeira was intended to toast John Adams’s presidency.
Archaeologists found a 200,000-year-old baby tooth. It belonged to a young girl from a mysterious extinct human lineage, which may have mated with the Neanderthals.
Union workers in Michigan are blaming goats—not robots—for taking away their jobs. A local university gave the animals groundskeeping positions.
Losing your sense of smell may help you lose weight. Mice that can’t smell seem to burn more of a specific kind of fat.
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