ITK Daily | November 9
Happy Wednesday.
Here’s today’s ITK Daily.
To be ITK, know this:
Ross Rant: Can we call this the first "beerwashing" campaign?
Yesterday, BrewDog unveiled a World Cup anti-sponsor initiative.
BrewDog's goal with the campaign is to shine a light on the negative issues of FIFA's decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Ukraine’s Zelensky sets conditions for ‘genuine’ peace talks with Russia: President says he is open to negotiations that guarantee his country’s territorial integrity. WSJ
+ Zelensky said Ukrainian conditions for talks included returning Ukrainian control over its territories, compensating Kyiv for Moscow’s invasion, and bringing to justice perpetrators of war crimes.
+ Buoyed by recent battlefield successes, Ukraine has demanded that all occupied areas are returned to its control as a condition for any peace deal—including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas area that Russia seized in 2014.
Bloomberg: Jokowi says Joe Biden, Xi Jinping to attend G20 Summit in Bali
+ Putin and Zelenskiy remain unconfirmed about attendance
With power secure at home, China’s Xi Jinping looks to project strength abroad: Chinese leader hosts a parade of foreign heads of state as he braces for heightened competition with the US. WSJ
+ Xi Jinping emerged from a Communist Party congress with more power than any Chinese leader in a generation. Now, he’s turning his focus to shoring up foreign ties as he steels the country for heightened competition with the US.
+ Leaders from Vietnam, Pakistan, Tanzania and Germany all traveled to Beijing last week.
+ The diplomacy gives Xi an opportunity to counter Washington’s efforts to enlist allies to isolate Beijing and prepare China for the “dangerous storms” he warned of during a key speech at the party congress.
+ “Modernization does not mean Westernization,” Xi told President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania during their talks last week.
+ Xi is expected to attend the meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 major economies in Bali later this month.
+ Xi will also attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok on Nov. 18 and 19.
China’s Xi Jinping plans visit to Saudi Arabia amid global reshuffling: WSJ reports that Riyadh’s expanded ties with Washington’s rivals have helped deepen Chinese influence in the Middle East, where the US once reigned supreme.
+ Xi Jinping is planning to visit Saudi Arabia before the end of the year.
+ Officials are completing the details for a summit between Xi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that would underline Beijing’s growing influence in the Middle East.
China slashes number of foreign movies shown as industry lies 'moribund': RFA reports Chinese movie-goers were able to see just 38 foreign films in the first 10 months of this year, a sharp fall from 73 for the whole of 2021 and 136 in 2019.
+ The last foreign film to be released in China was the 2022 re-release of "Jaws," on Aug. 26.
Apple built its empire with China. Now its foundation is showing cracks. Lawmakers’ objections to an obscure Chinese semiconductor company and tough COVID-19 restrictions are hurting Apple ’s ability to make new iPhones in China. NYT
+ For much of this year, Apple has also been the focus of a bipartisan intervention in Washington, where alarm over Beijing’s military provocations and technology ambitions has upended orthodoxy about free trade.
+ It is no coincidence that Apple’s rise from near bankruptcy in the 1990s to the world’s most valuable company has closely followed China’s economic ascent.
+ It pioneered a best-of-both-worlds business model: Products designed in California were assembled inexpensively in China and sold to the country’s growing middle class.
Why Japan is gearing up for possible war with China: The threat of Chinese aggression is producing a quiet revolution in Tokyo’s statecraft — and officials are pushing the nation to get ready for a fight. Hal Brands
+ If China were to attack Taiwan, it wouldn’t just have to face a hostile superpower. It would also likely have to confront its longstanding regional rival, Japan.
+ For the US, China is a dangerous but distant challenge. For Japan, China is the existential danger next door.
+ Some officials told me that Xi’s recent personnel reforms — which included placing a veteran of China’s last foreign conflict, against Vietnam in 1979, and a former commander of Chinese military forces opposite Taiwan in the two top spots on the Central Military Commission — amount to a creation of a “war council.”
+ Tokyo even coined the idea of preserving a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” a phrase Washington has now appropriated.
With Europe set to need 35 times more lithium by 2050, it is no wonder that Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission , has said the precious white powder “will soon be even more important than oil and gas.”
Bloomberg: ‘No evidence’ yet of a Brexit dividend, British Chambers’ Haviland says
+ British Chamber of Commerce boss Shevaun Haviland calls for better UK-EU trade deal
+ Says Sunak should seek improved terms on VAT, food exports
King Charles III wants to look ahead. ‘The Crown’ drags him back. The timing of Wednesday’s season premiere is fortuitous for Netflix , as interest in the British monarchy is high. But it is super awkward for King Charles III, who is trying to set the tone for his reign just as the TV show revisits some of the most painful chapters of his life. WP
+ For an American audience, “The Crown” is entertainment. In Britain, there’s a sense there’s more at stake. Netflix has added a “fictional dramatization” label.
+ Whereas Queen Elizabeth II was widely adored, Charles is merely liked — by 44 percent of the British public.
Crypto world is rocked as world’s largest exchange rescues rival: NYT reports Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it reached a deal to buy one of its biggest rivals, FTX, amid fears the crypto industry could enter another meltdown.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s $16 billion fortune is eviscerated in days: The FTX co-founder is on the brink of a 94% wealth wipeout at the hands of his billionaire rival, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao. Bloomberg
+ It’s unclear exactly what the implosion of its international affiliate will have on the US-based exchange, but it shows “how fragile this world is,” said Paul Gulberg, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. It’s “very surprising, scary to some extent.”
Cryptoland’s Game of Thrones just saw a major coup Kevin T. Dugan
+ From a broader perspective, it’s hard to overstate how big of a reversal this is. It was not long ago that Bankman-Fried was the “Next Warren Buffett.”
FTX over the last 18 months:
July '21: Raises $900M at $18B
Oct '21: Raises $420.69M at $25B
Jan '22: Raises $400M at $32B
Jul '22: Bails out BlockFi for $250M
Sep '22: Buys Voyager for $1.4B
Nov '22: Acquired by Binance
@GZuckerman: 10 months ago FTX was valued at $32b. VCs aren’t always the smart money.
I thought Sam Bankman-Fried knew what he was doing.
When does Binance buy El Salvador?
+ @yassineARK: How was your day at the office?
- FTX secretly insolvent
- BTC testing new lows
- Alameda toast
Recommended by LinkedIn
- Binance planning to acquire FTX
- FTT down 80% headed to 0
- CZ announces proof of reserves
- Su Zhu re-emerges
- Do Kwon and Martin Shkreli on UpOnly
- Coinbase temporarily down
Good pod this: Sami Issa and Maggie Love of W3BCloud on powering Web3 with compute infrastructure on Panic with Friends with Howard Lindzon.
Meta ’s Mark Zuckerberg says he is accountable as company preps for mass layoffs: WSJ reports layoffs are to begin Wednesday morning, CEO Zuckerberg told hundreds of executives on Tuesday
What is Mastodon and why are people leaving Twitter for it? Since Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter , some of its users have migrated to Mastodon, an alternative social platform. NYT
+ Launched in 2016 by the software developer Eugen Rochko, Mastodon describes itself as a “free, open-source decentralized social media platform” that aims to be “a viable alternative to Twitter.”
+ Mastodon is what is known as a federated platform, meaning it is a collection of social networks — or servers — that link together but are owned by different people or groups.
+ Unlike Twitter, Mastodon presents posts in chronological order, rather than based on an algorithm. It also has no ads; Mastodon is largely crowdfunded.
+ Although Mastodon visually resembles Twitter, its user experience is more akin to that of Discord.
Lack of female executives in UK boardrooms ‘appalling’, survey finds: EY-Cranfield report raises new concerns that not enough is being done to bring through women in management roles. FT
+ The annual survey of the UK’s FTSE 350 raises new concerns that companies are not doing enough to bring through women in management positions despite hitting targets for women directors in the boardroom.
+ The survey showed there are only nine female chief executives in the FTSE 100. While the number of women in non-executive roles in the FTSE 100 has increased by 15 percent over the past year, the number of women in executive directorships increased by just 3 percent to 36.
+ Women account for almost 40 percent of directors on FTSE 100 boards and 39 percent among the smaller companies on the FTSE 250, in line with the new government-backed Women Leaders Review targets.
Hiut Denim Co : @hiutdenim: 20 years ago today, Dewhirst closed the jeans factory. 400 world class makers lost their job. We have much work to do. #makers
The only team that can save America: Macron - Sunak 2024.
Worldly.
Experienced.
Knowledgeable.
2022 US Elections: Results here.
+ Thursday's ITK Daily will have more articles and analysis, but know this, democracy never rests.
Why the US counts ballots so slowly: The country has far more elections for far more positions than most other democracies. Jonathan Bernstein
+ Much of the slow count is a function of the basic structure of US elections. American voters typically encounter long ballots featuring elections from school boards to the US Senate.
+ That makes tabulating the ballots a fairly complex operation. Machines can do it quickly, but machines are expensive, so in some cases the ballots have to be transferred from the polling place to the machines.
+ The US also has an unusually decentralized election administration. Decentralization means that each state and even each county (or whichever authority is responsible) has to choose how much to spend on rapidly counting ballots.
+ So prepare to be patient. And prepare to ignore those who use delays to attempt to undermine confidence in elections.
Democrats’ long goodbye to the working class: The party’s biggest challenge heading into the midterm elections is the erosion of its traditional base of support. Ruy Teixeira
+ This year, Democrats have chosen to run a campaign focused on three things: abortion rights, gun control, and safeguarding democracy—issues with strong appeal to socially liberal, college-educated voters. But these issues have much less appeal to working-class voters.
+ Democrats are losing voters without college degrees while running up the score among college-educated voters. In the latest national New York Times/Siena poll, Democrats have a 15-point deficit among working-class voters but a 14-point advantage among college-educated voters.
What will the midterms mean for Big Business? The GOP and corporate America, longtime allies, are showing signs of a breakup — which recent polls suggest will likely play out with a Republican House. NYT
+ The GOP and big business, happily married for so long, are in the midst of an ugly divorce — which recent polls indicate is likely to play out in a Republican-led House.
+ Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to be the new speaker of the House if the Republicans are in the majority, has been openly dismissive of the US Chamber of Commerce ever since the chamber backed 23 House Democrats in the 2020 election.
Biden’s and Trump’s performances on the 2022 trail sow doubts about 2024: Politico reports that members of both parties are notably lukewarm about their presidential frontrunners.
+ Should the former president formally announce his candidacy this month, top Biden officials believe it’s virtually certain the current president will at least begin to pursue a re-election bid.
+ James Carville, the Democratic strategist, said he has but one guaranteed applause line when speaking to any audience, no matter their politics: “We got to find somebody under 75 who can run this country.”
Politico: Staff changes are coming to the White House. Will Klain be part of them?
I am guessing that Pete Buttigieg departs the Biden administration and the Department of Transportation by December 2.
His Roman holiday lasted a lifetime: “Just Passing Through” collects the diaries and photographs of Milton Gendel, who lived large, bought plenty, and schmoozed with the glamorous. NYT
+ If Paris is a moveable feast, as Hemingway would tell every college junior on a gap year, then Rome is a stately banquet at which guests linger perhaps longer than they intended.
$16 billion worth of major sports franchises are on the market right now:
Phoenix Suns - $1.92 billion
Los Angeles Angels - $2.5 billion
Liverpool FC - $4.14 billion
Washington Commanders - $4.78 billion
Netflix explores investing in sports leagues, bidding on streaming rights: WSJ reports the streaming giant eyes sports like tennis and surfing; Co-CEO Reed Hastings has been wary of rising costs for rights.
March Madness is perfect, so of course they’re trying to ruin it Will Leitch
+ But the fact that you (probably) weren’t aware that one of the most popular sports in the United States had started up again speaks to a fundamental truth: Nobody pays attention to college basketball until March Madness starts.
+ All sorts of pieces are being put in motion that could change the tournament format as early as 2024. College basketball today is sustained solely by its tournament.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Caracal produces ITK Daily.
Caracal is a geopolitical business communications firm specializing in global business issues at the intersection of globalization, disruption, and politics.
Caracal believes that to be a world-class geopolitical business communicator, you need global street smarts coupled with holistic, high-frequency, and high-low communications.
To receive Caracal ITK Daily by email, subscribe here.