Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
China rewrites its economic ground rules. Amid a growing trade war with the US, Beijing will lay out changes to foreign ownership restrictions for strategic industries—including energy, finance, autos, natural resources, and infrastructure.
Angela Merkel tries to strike a deal on immigration. Amid infighting from her own party, the German chancellor is running out of time to strike an agreement on EU asylum rules. Italy has threatened to veto any proposal that doesn’t share the burden for migrants who land on its shores.
Indonesia’s central bank mulls another rate hike. Governor Perry Warjiyo’s “pre-emptive” policy has already prompted two other hikes in the last six weeks to counteract a drop in the rupee.
While you were sleeping
Trump and Putin set a summit date. The US and Russian presidents will meet on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland to discuss strained US-Russian relations, along with other international security issues. Donald Trump likely won’t press Vladimir Putin on US election interference, since he’s publicly downplayed the conclusions of his own intelligence agencies.
Amazon rocked the healthcare industry. The company acquired online pharmacy PillPack for about $1 billion (paywall), expanding its slow creep into the massive, dysfunctional health sector. The market reacted by wiping out $24 billion in market cap from the likes of CVS, Walgreens, and UnitedHealth.
The world’s biggest hedge fund announced big changes. Bridgewater founder and longtime chief Ray Dalio will step back from day-to-day operations (paywall) as the company becomes a partnership, opening up the $150 billion hedge fund to more input from its executive team. The new structure puts Dalio’s widely criticized philosophy of “radical transparency” to the test.
A gunman opened fire at newspaper offices in Maryland, killing five. A suspect was taken into custody by local law enforcement, but no further details have been released, including the number of injured people or the motive for the attack.
US economic growth was revised down. The Commerce Department said first-quarter GDP only rose by 2.0%, down from an earlier 2.2% estimate, due to lower consumer spending, business activity, and weaker-than-expected returns on goods and services.
Quartz Obsession interlude
Justin Sablich on the antique code that runs the financial system: “If it’s not broke, why fix it? Well, with COBOL, when something does break, there soon may not be anyone left who can. The baby boomers who know the language best are either retired or close to it, and those who would replace them just do not find COBOL very sexy.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Is Apple alive? The corporate supermind—including employees, machines, buildings, and other resources—meets all the standard definitions of a conscious organism.
Exclamation points are vulnerable to inflation. Not so long ago, just one exclamation signaled “pain, fear, astonishment, anger, disgust, or yelling.”
Saudi Arabia and Russia are unlikely allies in the oil market. The world’s two biggest exporters are teaming up to boost production in opposition to Iran, Moscow’s longtime ally.
Surprising discoveries
The Milky Way is full of space grease. Scientists measuring the galaxy’s contents calculated that interstellar dust contains 10 billion trillion trillion tons of greasy aliphatic carbon.
A psychedelic drink from the Amazon could treat depression. The first placebo-controlled clinical trial of ayahuasca suggests it’s an effective antidepressant.
America’s cheese stockpile just hit an all-time high. Lower demand for milk may force the government to buy the surplus from producers (paywall)—a practice known as “quantitative cheesing.”
Crows remember how to make tools. An experiment showed that they remember the tools that work best and construct the useful ones themselves.
Japan’s downtrodden mobsters have been reduced to stealing watermelons. A government crackdown on traditional profit centers has the yakuza looking for fruitful alternatives.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, slick space stuff, and cheddar hoards 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 and edited by Adam Pasick and Susan Howson.