Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
NAFTA talks resume. The US, Canada, and Mexico meet in Washington to hammer out more issues on the North American Free Trade Agreement. Donald Trump’s trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, has said the deal would be “on thin ice” if it wasn’t finalized in the coming weeks.
SpaceX launches the upgraded Falcon rocket. Elon Musk’s company will send a Bangladeshi communications satellite into space via its Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, which has better thermal coating, titanium fins, and other fanciness. SpaceX has reportedly designed the Block 5 to fly again within 48 hours of a launch, as part of its goal to develop totally reusable rockets.
As Skepta would say, London is shut down.
Financial markets are closed in the UK due to a bank holiday.
Over the weekend
North Korea scolded the US. State news agency KCNA said that Washington was “misleading public opinion” by claiming its recent pledge to get rid of its nuclear weapons was the results of US sanctions. It also said the US should not “deliberately provoke” Pyongyang by deploying strategic assets in South Korea and raising human-rights issues.
Warren Buffett talked bitcoin and guns. At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, the legendary investor said he refused to pressure Berkshire subsidiaries to divest from gun-related businesses and that he and business partner Charlie Munger still hate bitcoin. Buffett said the company’s $1.14 billion net loss in the first quarter, due to an accounting change, was “really is not representative of what’s going on in the business at all.”
A Malaysian investor bought the Phnom Penh Post. The English-language daily was regarded as the last bastion of the independent press in Cambodia. The paper’s sale to the investor, who has links to the regime of Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, was described by Human Rights Watch as “a staggering blow to press freedom in Cambodia.”
NASA launched a rocket bound for Mars. The InSight mission is due to reach the Red Planet in November, and will be the first probe to examine its interior. The robotic lander will set up seismometers on the surface to test for “Marsquakes,” tremors that might reveal more about the formation of the planet.
A row blew up after the US called China’s airline rules “Orwellian nonsense.” The White House slammed Beijing’s demands that foreign airlines remove references on their websites that suggested Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were independent countries. China’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that all foreign companies operating in China must respect its sovereignty.
Quartz obsession interlude
Oliver Staley on the meaning of the US talking “great power competition.” “In 1814, towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars, five Great Powers emerged in Europe: the UK, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia (which later became Germany). Those powers jockeyed for control of Europe—and through their colonial empires, the rest of the globe—and their rivalry eventually tipped into World War I.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Society needs more troublemakers, a Berkeley professor argues. A challenge to the general consensus generates consideration and debate.
Americans are in living in a golden age of protest. More people are joining demos, but it’s time they moved on to tougher forms of dissent, like sit-ins.
Wednesday is the best day to work from home. It increases productivity and prevents employees from taking Mondays or Fridays as faux three-day weekends.
Surprising discoveries
Facebook’s users don’t care about its scandals. A Reuters/Ipsos survey found most users in the US remain loyal.
Some pandas are losing their black-eye patches. Baffled scientists have ruled out a disease that can result in hair loss or whitening in humans.
Idaho State University lost some weapons-grade plutonium. It mislaid the plutonium—enough to make a small dirty bomb—in 2004.
A Wisconsin man set the world record for gobbling Big Macs. Donald Gorske has eaten 30,000 of them over 40 years—and has all his receipts to prove it.
A woman was allowed to enter a Japanese bullfighting ring for the first time. The ban was lifted in an attempt to modernize the sport.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, Big Macs, and missing plutonium to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Jill Petzinger and edited by Kabir Chibber.