Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The EU tries again. After its longest-ever summit ended with top positions still unfilled, leaders will reconvene in Brussels to try and break the deadlock. The selection process has been complicated this year by results from the May European parliament elections, which ended the centre-left and centre-right dominance of the region’s politics.
Ukraine’s president heads to Canada. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian-turned-politician, is in Toronto for talks with prime minister Justin Trudeau and foreign minister Chrystia Freeland. Zelenskiy is trying to gather international support for future NATO membership and as it looks to resume a peace process with Russia.
NASA performs a crucial safety test. The American space agency’s next crewed spaceship will do a brief uncrewed flight test of the Orion capsule’s launch-abort system, which is meant to deliver astronauts to safety in case of an emergency. The test will be streamed live on NASA’s website at 11am GMT.
The semi-final of the women’s World Cup. England will face off against USA, favored to win the tournament, at 9pm local time in Lyon, France, in a bid for a spot in the final match on Sunday (July 7).
While you were sleeping
Hong Kong’s top official condemned protest violence. After hundreds broke off from the main peaceful rally to smash through a glass wall of the city’s legislature and deface the inside, chief executive Carrie Lam addressed the press in the early hours of this morning and publicly denounced the intruders’ “extreme use of violence.”
Australia central bank cut interest rates to a historic low. The Reserve Bank of Australia further lowered the cash rate by 0.25% to 1%. It is the second rate cut in two months. Australian shares jumped in reaction to the news.
Antarctic sea ice is at a record low. New satellite analysis shows the loss of as much ice coverage in four years as the Arctic, in the north, lost in four decades. Less ice means more of the sun’s heat is absorbed by the sea, leading to a vicious cycle of heating.
The US proposed $4 billion in tariffs against EU goods. A range of products, including cheese whiskey, may be hit with duties in retaliation against EU aircraft subsidies. The dispute stretches back 14 years, with Washington and Brussels accusing each other of unfairly subsidizing Boeing and Airbus, respectively.
US lawmakers toured border patrol facilities. Democrats, including New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, visited detention camps on the Texas-Mexico border, and said conditions were abysmal and border protection officers uncooperative. They met a detained woman who said that she was told by agents to drink from the toilet if she was thirsty.
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Today we feature Occidental Petroleum’s Vicki Hollub, the only female CEO of a major international oil company. Hollub is harnessing the oil industry’s superior knowledge of geology to produce “carbon-negative oil.” In our members-only video offerings, Quartz editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney talks to IMF managing director Christine Lagarde; and we travel to Brazil, where China’s taste for meat is reshaping that country’s economy and environment.
Quartz Obsession
Armyworms have invaded China. And India, and Taiwan, and the Philippines. It’s bad news, and the name is no exaggeration: since the inch-long worm made it to Africa in 2016, it’s done billions of dollars in damage to crops. Now it’s knocking on the door of the North China Plain, the country’s top grain-producing region. Worm your way over to the Quartz Obsession for more.
Matters of debate
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Being bored at work is a good thing. It’s the contrast we need to keep excitement exciting.
US women’s soccer destroys the case for pay inequality. The team is more successful and generates more revenue than its better-paid male counterpart.
People are tired of new clothes. Secondhand goods are the new luxury.
Surprising discoveries
The UFO above the Korean DMZ has been identified. A flock of 20 birds flying during Donald Trump’s visit set security officials and the media aflutter.
San Francisco techies hate the city they transformed. The victors in the battle for the city’s soul have won, but they’re not so happy with their spoils.
Walmart is using VR to find employees who deserve promotions. The assessment looks at how workers might respond to challenging situations.
“Cable bacteria” form electric wires with their bodies. The earth is covered with chains of cells thousands-strong that band together to share electrons.
Wasp “super nests” are on the rise in Alabama. The colonies can grow to the size of a car and contain 15,000 angry stinging insects.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, electric bacteria, and VR headsets to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Mary Hui and edited by Tripti Lahiri.