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Janet Yellen is heading to Beijing... The US treasury secretary will meet with Chinese officials and US companies doing business in the country in an effort to thaw icy relations.
…and Beijing is tightening its fist around semiconductor metals. A new export ban on gallium and germanium, effective Aug. 1, probably will make that thawing more difficult.
Israeli forces attacked a Jenin refugee camp, killing at least eight Palestinians. The Israeli military operation was the largest air strike on the West Bank in the past two decades.
The biggest hospitality strike in US history kicked off in California. About 15,000 hotel workers walked off their jobs ahead of the nation’s Independence Day holiday.
Americans are crazy about fireworks
Cities in the US may be opting for drone shows amid heightened wildfire risk (and, you know, all the smoke that’s already above North America), but Americans just can’t stop buying their own fireworks.
Consumer fireworks revenue has more than tripled since 2012, and the fireworks industry projects that sales will top $3.3 billion by 2028. The recent explosion in fireworks sales had a lot to do with needing some entertainment during the pandemic, but interest has yet to fizzle.
Barbie couldn’t cross the nine-dash line
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie opens globally July 21, but not in Vietnam, because of disagreements over a line.
The nine-dash line, which on a map depicts China’s claims to disputed waters in the South China sea, will keep Vietnam’s screens decidedly silver instead of pink this summer. But Barbie is far from the only film to be banned over the nine-dash line (shown below, and often on maps pictured in movies). Read more about its cinematic history.
One big number: 50%
Share of key ingredients that Nestlé plans to source from regenerative agriculture by 2030
The world’s largest food maker recently decided to abandon carbon offsets, redirecting its sustainability initiatives at cutting greenhouse gas emissions within its own operations and supply chains. It’s just the latest company to turn away from the controversial offsetting practice.
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Surprising discoveries
A group of 70 small islands wants to leave the UK. Orkney’s inhabitants would rather be part of Norway.
It only took five hours for an AI model to design a functional computer processor. That’s 1,000 times faster than the speed of humans.
The San Francisco Art Institute is bankrupt, but it does have a $50 million Diego Rivera mural up its sleeve. The work was designed to be removed from the property, and can be sold separately or as part of the college.
Beige-fluencers are romanticizing mundanity. Boring is the new black.
Sea urchins are mysteriously dying in the coral reefs of the Red Sea. A waterborne parasite may be to blame.
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