Ronaldo Leaves Real Madrid.
Cristiano Ronaldo will leave his current team Real Madrid to join the Italian squad Juventus, according to news reports confirmed by Real Madrid yesterday. Ronaldo, an international soccer superstar routinely voted as one of the world's most famous athletes, had reportedly felt his relationship with club president Florentino Perez had soured. The Turin-based Juventus will pay Real Madrid $110M for his rights - European soccer has a somewhat complicated transfer market where clubs can pay for players prior to their contract expiring (read more here). In nine seasons with Madrid, the 33-year-old scored 450 goals and won the equivalent of international soccer's MVP (the Ballon d'Or) four times, while guiding Madrid to four Champions League titles.
In the World Cup semifinals, France beat Belgium 1-0 to advance to the finals while England plays Croatia today (Fox, 2pm ET) for the second spot.
China Tariffs Round Two.
The Trump administration proposed a second round of tariffs on Chinese goods entering the country yesterday. The proposal would effectively level a 10% tax on over 6,000 items totaling roughly $200B in cumulative value. The proposed tariffs represent the next step in an escalating trade war between the two countries, which the US says is needed to address intellectual property theft and other unfair business practices by China. A first round of $34B in tariffs on Chinese imports went into effect last Friday - they were immediately met with $34B in retaliatory tariffs by China on US goods. The US imports about $480B in goods from China each year, so a second round of tariffs would mean roughly 48% of all Chinese goods entering the US have some amount of tax levied on them.
Trump Visits NATO.
President Trump joins the annual summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization today, where he is expected to focus on defense spending levels of NATO's European countries. Members of the organization - which is meant to provide collective defense among the partners - are expected to spend 2% of their GDP on defense, but only 4 of 29 countries do (see numbers here). During a morning breakfast Trump criticized Germany, who spends only 1.24% on defense, over an energy deal with Russia which the US opposes. The agenda also includes discussion on a readiness initiative to respond to major threats within 30 days. Trump's seven-day European trip includes meetings with UK Prime Minister Theresa May and England's Queen Elizabeth II, and a Sunday sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kind of know what NATO is, but not really? Here's an explainer.
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