Quartz Daily Brief—Europe edition—Apple’s new products, NSA whistleblower in hiding, Nazi diary, invisibility cloaks
What to watch for today
What will happen to Edward Snowden? The newly revealed NSA contractor /whistleblower is holing up in Hong Kong. It’s a risky choice because China’s special administrative region has an extradition treaty with the US, but the 28-year-old American may be ok if Beijing decides to offer him protection.
Her Majesty’s spies. The UK foreign secretary will make a statement to Parliament about reports that British intelligence services accessed NSA’s PRISM program to spy on British citizens.
What will Apple cook up? Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco. The company is expected to unveil iOS 7, a redesigned version of its mobile operating system, and perhaps a new music streaming service, dubbed “iRadio” by Apple watchers.
Google goes map shopping in Israel. The tech giant is on the cusp of a $1 billion-plus deal to buy the socially-driven mapping service Waze. It would be Google’s fourth largest purchase, and could involve the integration of Waze’s technology into Google Maps.
A peek at Lulu’s bottom line. Lululemon Athletica announces quarterly earnings and investors will get to find out just how much the sheer yoga pants recall sheared off its profits.
More takers for burgers? McDonalds releases its May sales report. Falling sales over the last couple of months forced the company to start courting late night diners with an expanded breakfast menu.
Over the weekend
China’s growth engines sputtered. Industrial production rose 9.2% year-over-year in May, down marginally from the 9.3% increase in April, and the slowest rate since last September. Exports grew just 1% versus 14.7% in April, after a crackdown on fake trade invoices. That showed China’s GDP growth iseven worse than initially thought—but at least inflation wasn’t too high.
Cyber-espionage deal remained elusive. The US and China are no closer to an agreement on cybersecurity after two days of informal talks between presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping. The “shirt-sleeves” summit did deliver a few results: The two countries pledged to work together to fight climate change and rein in North Korea.
Hollande in la-la land? Much of Europe is suffering from recession and high unemployment, but French President François Hollande has declared that the “crisis in Europe is over.” Is he still jet-lagged? Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked European nations to follow Germany’s lead in tightening budgets and improving competitiveness to return to growth.
“We will choke you.” Turkey’s prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, threatened stock market speculators and rallied his supporters with a series of weekend speeches, while tens of thousands of anti-government protesters occupied Taksim Square.
Japan’s Marubeni changed its mind on Gavilon. It decided not to buy the US commodities merchant’s energy business, cutting the value of the planned deal by $3 billion, down to to $2.6 billion.
Quartz obsession interlude
Tim Fernholz on why fixing the world’s busiest border crossing could save the US billions. ”When the US economy is stronger than Mexico’s, unauthorized immigration goes up as more immigrants seek work across the border. A logical way to keep Mexicans from illegally crossing the border for American jobs, then, would be to boost job creation in Mexico. And a good way to do that is to speed up cross-border trade between Mexico and the US.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
IT geeks like Edward Snowden are the biggest security threat. They can do more than you think.
Gazprom’s demise could topple Putin. The boss-behind-the-scenes can’t let go.
Robots will steal the jobs of the future. It’s time to future-proof the middle class.
Spain and Italy are struggling. But the CEOs have it good.
Why do most US-based internet giants fail in China? It’s not that complicated.
Anonymous feedback is a powerful management tool. Use it wisely.
Surprising discoveries
Found: A long lost Nazi diary from a Hitler confidant. Smuggled to the US by a Nuremberg prosecutor.
Troubled by NSA surveillance?Scientists invent an invisibility cloak for data.
Guess who banned Google Glass from its shareholder meeting. Google!
Still living with your parents? You are in good company.
The price of a Chinese bride: up to $24,000. And don’t forget the jewellery, livestock and “luck cakes.”
Your Wi-Fi is watching you. Soon it will let you control household devices by waving your hands.
The immortality business. Death may soon be temporary.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, Apple product suggestions and invisibility cloak prototypes to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates during the day.
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