Why it matters: A citizenship question could have made immigrants afraid to participate in the census. Government experts predicted that about 6.5 million people might have gone uncounted as a result. That would have skewed representation when congressional districts are allocated in 2021, and affected federal funding.

The background: The lineage of citizenship questions in America highlights more than a century of partisan fights over the country’s racial makeup .

A new battle over tax and the tech giants

For years, governments cut taxes to lure businesses across borders — a particular boon for tech giants like Amazon, Facebook and Google, which could provide digital services in wealthy, high-tax countries through offices in places where the taxes were lower. But the game is changing, and fast.

On Thursday, France became the first country to impose a “digital tax” on the revenues large tech firms earn from its citizens, and Britain has plans to do the same.