🌎 Netflix's great expectations

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Netflix’s earnings are poised to show good news on subscriptions. As for concerns about the impact of the Hollywood strikes, that’s for another time.

Taco John’s has given up its Taco Tuesday trademark. But the fast-food chain is not going down without taking a jab at Taco Bell.

A fatal Tesla crash is being probed over the use of autopilot mode. The collision between a Tesla Model 3 and a Subaru Impreza caused the death of two people.

In-N-Out Burger has reignited the debate over covid masks. The compan is requiring employees in five states to provide a doctor’s note to mask up at work.

Charted: The rise of foreign investment in US manufacturing

Foreign investment towards the US’s manufacturing sector last year more than doubled compared to pre-pandemic levels, thanks largely to measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act. Quartz’s Mary Hui dived into the data and found that, contrary to widespread fear, those incentives have not triggered a a outflow of European investments to the US.

Where is Qin Gang?

Rumors are swirling about Chinese foreign minister and “wolf warrior” Qin Gang—appointed last December—who has not made a public appearance since June 25. Since that date, Qin has been conspicuously absent from a series of high-level diplomatic meetings.

Some of the sit-downs with foreign officials that went on without the Chinese foreign minister:

📅 July 4: Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat—canceled

📅 July 6-9: Janet Yellen, US finance chief—absent

📅 July 11: ASEAN summit in Jakarta—absent “for health reasons”

📅 July 17: Rodrigo Duterte, former Philippines president—absent

Questions about his disappearance have been widely censored on Chinese social media and elsewhere, and if he’s really sick, critics ask, why all the censorship?

Don’t expect AI to be free forever

After unveiling the new AI-beefed up Bing search engine and making a slew of announcements about integrating OpenAI’s tech into its Office products, Microsoft now plans to start charging businesses to use its AI tools.

Pricing plans for AI bots were always on the horizon; free lunches, after all, famously don’t exist. But let’s put it this way: Microsoft has invested $10 billion into OpenAI, and it’s going to want to recoup that money. And, as Quartz’s Michelle Cheng explains, it won’t be the only company to do so.

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Surprising discoveries

The Toronto Zoo asked people to stop showing gorillas videos because they were getting distracted and not doing gorilla things. Monkey see, monkey… don’t.

A Palestinian has never refereed a World Cup match before. Heba Saadieh will be the first at the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Benjamins have always had a counterfeit issue. Back when Franklin himself was in charge of printing money, he used a reflective material to spot fakes.

The ChatGPT for hackers is here. It’s called WormGPT, and it responds to malicious prompts.

The world’s largest office is now a diamond trading hub in Surat, India. For the past 80 years, the Pentagon in the US has held that title.

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