ITK Daily | March 11
Pope Francis, Kellyanne Conway, American Jeans, Zone of Interest, Taylor Tomlinson, plus 1,000 more actionable insights.
ITK Daily is geopolitical business news + intelligence for comms pros.
Always Be Communicating.
Happy Monday.
Here’s today’s ITK Daily:
*** Globalization + Geopolitics ***
Nuclear war: The rising risk, and how we stop it WJ Hennigan
Friday: Russia's presidential election begins, with voting continuing until Sunday.
Pope says Ukraine should have the ‘courage of the white flag’: NYT reports his words have raised questions about whether Francis was suggesting that Ukraine surrender, but a Vatican spokesman said the pope meant “cease-fire and negotiation.”
NATO needs a bland, non-ideological leader. Mark Rutte will be perfect: Why the Dutch prime minister is front-runner to hold together the various conflicting interests in the Nato coalition. FT
Today: China's National People’s Congress annual session for the top legislature concludes in Beijing.
Xi sticks to his vision for China’s rise even as growth slows: China’s leader, Xi Jinping, believes his vision for technological dominance will keep powering the country’s ascent while the West recedes. NYT
Inside Taiwan’s China crisis that could start World War Three: China sees invading Taiwan as its destiny. Could this be the year Xi Jinping unleashes geopolitical catastrophe? Josh Glancy visits a high-tech nation on red alert. The Times
US passes deal to fund Pacific Islands pacts after delays: FT reports America’s Indo-Pacific allies had fretted that Biden administration was reneging on pledges to counter Chinese influence.
Tuesday: High-level US trade delegation visits the Philippines.
Is the UK really ‘the next Silicon Valley’? Britain punches above its weight in tech. But for some firms, bridging the ‘Valley of Death’ to scale up is the biggest challenge. The Times
How the SNP backed the wrong horse in the Scottish space race: SaxaVord received little attention or funding from MSPs but is set to launch its first rockets this year. The Times
Cool to be far right? Young Europeans are stirring a political youthquake. WP
Big companies heed Saudi Arabia’s demand to set up regional HQs: FT reports global groups largely comply with Riyadh’s edict but banks and professional services firms are more wary.
The precarious future facing Brazil’s new boomtowns: Agriculture is creating fast wealth and boosting the nation’s economy. But can ‘green gold’ survive an increasingly extreme climate? FT
Tuesday: Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia arrive for a three-day state visit at the invitation of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Haiti: The US military flew in Marines to reinforce its embassy in Haiti and evacuate non-essential personnel as heavily-armed gangs continue to challenge the country’s tenuous government and turn the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, into a battlefield, the Miami Herald reports.
*** US Politics + Elections ***
That one last phone call Joe Biden always needs to make: When he has to decide a high-stakes issue, the president hears out his top aides — then picks up the phone and calls a politician. WP
SOTU viewership: Approximately 32 million people watched the State of the Union address live across 14 TV networks — 18% higher than last year’s 27 million, Nielsen reports.
Biden team brings in $10 million in the 24 hours after the State of the Union: NBC News reports the financial haul dwarfs some of the president’s biggest fundraising days in 2023, before his rematch with Donald Trump was set.
Dueling Georgia rallies cap defining week for Biden, Trump campaigns: Politico reports the flurry of activity offers a glimpse into the nature of the fight voters can expect to see play out over the next eight months.
Biden's State of the Union included a battle cry against AI mimicry: Lots of pats on the back for the CHIPS Act too. The Register
What an American approach to AI regulation should look like Paul Scharre + Vivek Chilukuri
One of the top donors to a pro-Biden dark-money group is a non-profit run by an early AI investor CNN
Kellyanne Conway advocating for TikTok on Capitol Hill: Politico reports the former Trump adviser is working for the Club for Growth as Congress considers forcing the sale of the app.
How TikTok became a US-China national security issue Bloomberg
*** Disruption + Innovation ***
Our faith in technology officially died this week: The 2010s bubbly optimism about technology is now mixed with mistrust and resentments. Shira Ovide
To surge or not to surge, the algorithm is the question: From rides to burgers, consumers may balk when differential pricing comes to their favorite real-world businesses. Rana Foroohar
Confused about AI? A guide to which flavor will boost productivity for business: The technology is evolving at a blistering pace, and figuring out which to use, for what task, can be tricky. Christopher Mims
AI is learning what it means to be alive: Given troves of data about genes and cells, AI models have made some surprising discoveries. What could they teach us someday? Carl Zimmer
The AI data scraping challenge: How can we proceed responsibly? Lee Tiedrich
Fortune: Marc Andreessen and Vinod Khosla are tussling over a future bigger than either of them
Fortune: VC firm Andreessen Horowitz plans to raise billions for AI, with portions devoted to two funds
Tech fanboys have a new hero: The head of Nvidia is becoming a legend in real time. Ross Andersen
Electrical transformers could be a giant bottleneck waiting for the AI industry—unless AI itself solves the problem first Fortune
Silicon Valley is pricing academics out of AI research: With eye-popping salaries and access to costly computing power, AI companies are draining academia of talent. WP
CNBC: Why Walmart’s quick success in generative AI search should have Google worried
+ Walmart CEO Doug McMillon has talked up the retail company’s generative AI search capabilities, one more threat to Alphabet’s internet dominance.
+ Alphabet has been among the big tech losers in the stock market this year, alongside Apple, both struggling to tell investors winning AI stories.
+ Google founder Sergey Brin recently conceded missteps in gen AI but said the company will figure out the right business models; analysts say online retailers will be more competitive in search within their ecosystems.
Bloomberg: Palantir adds General Mills, CBS, and Aramark as new AI customers
Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli on plans for €1bn retail investment: FT reports the Italian luxury group is doubling down on its retail spaces as higher-spending consumers seek immersive experiences.
A $400 million bet says this is the mall of the future: Pickleball, luxury apartments, a hotel, and more are breathing new life into America’s oldest mall. WSJ
First commercial moon mission will try to revive lander as lunar night ends: FT reports Intuitive Machines aims to extend Odysseus’s pioneering commercial space exploration mission.
BMW is a surprise winner in electric vehicles: NYT reports once considered a laggard, the German luxury carmaker is one of only a few established automakers that has been able to compete effectively against Tesla.
The remaking of the American jean: Here’s what the jeans of the future look like. WP
He made millions betting against economic recovery. Now he wants to fix things: Gary Stevenson’s road from troubled trader to ‘people’s economist.’ FT
‘We’re all maggots’: An audience with Jim Riswold, the copywriter behind some of Nike’s greatest adverts: Jim Riswold powered Honda’s sales and ‘wrote like a god’ for Nike. After living with leukaemia for over 20 years and turning his focus to art, he contemplates one ‘hell of a round’ in the advertising world. FT
*** Culture ***
Jeremy Strong isn’t sure he knows who he is NYT
What the ‘Rust’ Jury Heard About How Live Rounds Got on a Film Set: NYT reports the prosecution pointed to a photo of the film’s armorer, arguing she had brought the live rounds. Her lawyers tried to focus attention on the movie’s primary ammunition supplier.
The Zone of Interest is much more than a Holocaust film: Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-nominated movie never takes us behind the walls of Auschwitz – and this is what makes it so effective. Natalie Wall
Taylor Tomlinson drops the mic: Get to know the host of After Midnight, who got her start touring megachurches and counts Stephen Colbert as a mentor. Vanity Fair
*** Sport ***
Friday: UK's Cheltenham Gold Cup, the highlight of the four-day Cheltenham Festival horse race meeting.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
ITK Daily | March 11
