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Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin in New York, and Jamie Condliffe and Amie Tsang in London.

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Apple sweats its way to $1 trillion

The iPhone maker’s profits increased to $11.52 billion in its most recent quarter, it reported yesterday — up nearly a third year on year. But the number of iPhones sold grew less than 1 percent.

Where was the cash from? Pricier devices: Customers paid nearly 20 percent more on average (thank the $1,000 iPhone X). Services, too: Revenue from apps, data storage, music and the like grew 31 percent.

The earnings exceeded Wall Street estimates, and shares rose nearly 4 percent after-hours. That will ease concerns speculation about Apple’s slowing growth, as it edges toward becoming the first $1 trillion public company.

Some Trump advisers want higher China tariffs

Parts of the Trump administration are reportedly considering increases to its planned tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports, from 10 percent to 25 percent, anonymous sources tell Bloomberg and the Washington Post. One also told Bloomberg that the shift wasn’t definite yet.

The Wall Street Journal says that the aim would be to counter a fall in China’s currency. China said it would retaliate.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg says that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are trying to rekindle trade talks.

More trade: China may be on the back foot, but that doesn’t mean it’s a pushover. And Bloomberg Opinion’s Ramesh Ponnuru argues that Mr. Trump doesn’t want free trade.

Google may offer censored searches in China

The internet giant is said to be building a search tool for Chinese internet users, according to documents seen by The Intercept. It would be the first search service the company has operated there in almost 10 years, this time reportedly with censored results on human rights, democracy and religion.

Why do that? More from The Intercept:

China now has more than 750 million internet users, equivalent to the entire population of Europe. It therefore represents a potentially massive revenue stream for the internet giant, which is likely a factor in its decision to relaunch the search platform in the country.

Downloadable guns stay offline

A judge in Seattle granted a temporary nationwide injunction to block Cody Wilson, a champion of gun rights and anarchy, from posting 3-D printer blueprints for plastic guns.

The judge acknowledged that “serious First Amendment issues” were in play. The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.

The firearms industry wants to maintain “brand identity and product quality.” Lawrence Keane, who handles government affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, is worried about the reliability of home-printed guns. “As an industry, we certainly don’t advocate that hobbyists try to do this in their basement, any more than General Motors would encourage someone to go out and build a car at home,” he said.

Stock buybacks could be hurting the economy

Over the past few years, companies have spent a lot on their own shares. Buybacks now make up 4 percent of annual economic output — it was zero in the 1990s — and public companies spent three-fifths of their profits on them between 2015 and 2017.

And while buybacks benefit shareholders and chief executives, they might hurt everyone else, the Atlantic argues:

Both by increasing inequality and reducing corporate investment, and thus productivity gains, buybacks might be bad for the overall economy, too. A high-inequality economy is one with less consumer spending and demand across the board, thus one with a lower G.D.P. A low-investment economy is a more sclerotic and less innovative one, and thus one with a lower G.D.P.

Matt Levine of Bloomberg Opinion wonders: If giving money to shareholders is bad, why not ban dividends?

Elsewhere in economics: U.S. workers received their biggest pay increases in nearly a decade. And many jobs feel meaningless because they are.

Trump vs. the Koch brothers

Over the weekend, the billionaire industrialist Charles G. Koch — one of the Republican Party’s biggest donors — denounced policies that President Trump favors. He said that a “rise in protectionism” in which countries, organizations and individuals do “whatever they can to close themselves off from the new, hold on to the past, and prevent change” was “a natural tendency,” but “a destructive one.”

Yesterday, Mr. Trump shot back. He said the Koch brothers had “become a total joke in real Republican circles,” arguing that they were “against strong borders and powerful trade.” He added: “I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas,”

Jeremy W. Peters of the NYT takes a closer look at the scrap. And the WSJ editorial board says that the fight could be a boon for Republicans who disagree with Mr. Trump.

Revolving door

Ziyad Al Ashaikh, the head of Deutsche Bank in Saudi Arabia, will joint SoftBank to help it set up operations in the country. (WSJ)

Dick Weil is now the sole chief executive of Janus Henderson, after it scrapped its dual C.E.O. structure. (FT)

Joanna Van Vleck, the C.E.O. of OneTaste, which sells classes on so-called orgasmic meditation, stepped down amid accusations of predatory sales and recruitment tactics. (Bloomberg)

Zhuang Rongwen is the new chief of the Cyberspace Administration of China — a key gatekeeper for any tech firm there. (South China Morning Post)

The speed read

Deals

■ Third Point reportedly has a stake of over $300 million in Campbell Soup, and has filed for clearance to increase it. (WSJ)

■ Brookfield Asset Management will buy Forest City Realty Trust for $11.4 billion, including debt. (Reuters)

■ Amadeus IT Group is reportedly talking to Thoma Bravo about buying TravelClick, which makes hotel software, for as much as $3 billion. (Bloomberg)

■ Arconic is being pursued by private equity funds, while also trying to sell the unit that made cladding for the ill-fated Grenfell Tower in London. (FT)

Politics and policy

■ The Justice Dept. wants to investigate potential conflicts of interest in McKinsey’s work for the mining company Alpha Natural Resources. (WSJ)

■ Online lenders and payment companies will soon get to compete more directly with traditional banks. (NYT)

Tech

■ Waymo is working out how much to charge for autonomous taxi rides. (Bloomberg)

■ Electric scooters are going global. (Verge)

■ The technician Tesla called a saboteur is suing for defamation. (Ars Technica)

Best of the rest

■ CBS accused Shari Redstone of trying to remove a board member after he recorded a meeting with her father, Sumner Redstone, to document his medical condition. (WSJ)

■ A series of accounting scandals raised concerns about auditing. (FT)

■ America’s big supermarkets are struggling. Small ones are innovating. (NYT)

■ How Billboard is grappling with its internal culture. (NYT)

You can find live updates throughout the day at nytimes.com/dealbook.

We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to bizday@nytimes.com.

(Original source)