đ Turning up the heat

Good morning, Quartz readers!
Hereâs what you need to know
Red, white, and blew it? President Trumpâs economic approval ratings keep falling amid tariff and trade war turmoil, with almost half of the public expecting the economy to get worse in the next year.
When the chips are down⌠Huawei cashes in. Nvidia stock fell Monday morning amid the Trump administrationâs efforts to curb chip sales to China, while its tech champ is ramping up production at home.
Remote control. Netflix is looking rather recession-proof. With analysts maintaining an âoutperformâ rating and stock holding steady while others slide, the couch economy is alive and well.
Watt now? Chinese battery giant CATL just unveiled technology that could make EVs more competitive in price and performance â and could upend the auto industry.
Boxed out. DHL has said it wonât deliver certain packages â those with a declared value of over $800 â to the U.S. because tariffs are sparking a customs backlog and creating a logistical mess.
Banking on neutrality. Swiss banks are trendy again under President Trump as Americans look to diversify their portfolios abroad.
No cap, just capture. Instagram will start using AI to spot teens sneaking onto adult accounts and will automatically switch them to the more restrictive settings designed for their age group.
Chairman of the Feud
Donald Trumpâs feud with Jerome Powell has headed to the playground, with the president calling the Federal Reserve chair a âmajor loserâ and âMr. Too Late.â Trumpâs comments come amid his continuing attacks on Powell for not lowering interest rates fast enough.
In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote that ââpreemptive cutsâ in interest rates are being called for by manyâ and said the economy will slow unless Powell slashes the rates. Trumpâs post comes amid tariff turmoil â by early afternoon, the Dow plunged almost 1,100 points (or 2.7%), the Nasdaq was off 3.2%, the S&P 500 dropped 2.8%, gold surged to $3,425, and the dollar dropped to multiyear lows.
Trumpâs attack adds more heat to an already tense dynamic between his administration and the Fed. Last week, Powell warned that Trumpâs tariffs were âhighly likelyâ to fuel inflation and suggested that the central bank would wait to cut rates. Trump responded on social media that the Fed chair was âalways too late and wrongâ about interest cut rates and should be fired.
The Fed operates independently of the government, but a White House official has said the administration was continuing to study whether it could fire Powell. (Ironically, Trump appointed Powell to lead the central bank during his first term.) Powell has reiterated that he doesnât plan to resign and will serve in his role until his term is up in 2026. Quartzâs Catherine Arnst has more on Powell v. POTUS.
Search and Seize
Google is back in court this week as a federal judge decides what penalties to impose on the Silicon Valley giant for its illegal search monopoly.
The Justice Department said Monday in its opening statement that the best way forward was to break up the $1.9 trillion company and asked Judge Amit P. Mehta to force the company to sell Chrome, among other measures (including handing rivals some of Googleâs data about what terms people search for and what websites they click on).
Googleâs lawyers, meanwhile, said Mehta should narrow his focus to deals that the company makes with companies such as Apple, Mozilla, and Samsung that automatically make Googleâs search engine the default.
Monday was the first day in the three-week trial; Mehta is expected to issue his final ruling by the end of this summer. But the stakes for Google are rising fast: the company was just found guilty of another monopoly in its ad business and is facing monopoly claims by the FTC in Japan. Quartzâs Shannon Carroll has more on Googleâs Chrome â and punishment.
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