Happy Monday.
Here’s today’s ITK Daily.
To be ITK, know this:
Insight | 4 Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) communications must-dos
1) Have ready communications that will be sent to all staff and relevant stakeholders - investors, partners, contractors, and vendors - first thing Monday morning.
2) Contact the staff working for state and national elected officials that represent you.
3) Contact local media to cover your industry and business news.
4) Being in the pros who know crisis communications and government relations.
Full post here.
How Beijing boxed America out of the South China Sea: China incrementally built up military outposts, with little pushback from the US, and has emerged as a power in the strategic waters through which trillions of dollars in trade passes. WSJ
+ The US missed the moment to hold back China’s buildup in part because it was focused on collaborating with Beijing on global issues such as North Korea and Iran, and was preoccupied by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. China also stated outright in 2015 that it didn’t intend to militarize the South China Sea.
+ China’s broader challenge to America’s long pre-eminence across the Indo-Pacific region threatens US allies such as Japan, and puts the vast majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors, which are produced in Taiwan, at risk. China’s buildup in the South China Sea especially threatens the Philippines, a US ally.
+ Along its disputed Himalayan border with India, China has gradually widened its troop presence and built new infrastructure to press its territorial claims. In the Arctic, White House officials have said China is seeking to increase its influence with economic and military activities, as warming temperatures melt sea ice and potentially widen trade routes.
Beijing: A new political player in the Middle East: The rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a success for China, which remains able to talk to all players in the region. It also affirms the role it wishes to play as a leading world power in the future. Le Monde
+ In the midst of the war in Ukraine, Macron and Sunak are especially concerned about closing ranks. Both leaders argued that France and the UK, as the only two European nuclear powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council, must live up to their responsibilities to confront the Russian invasion.
+ Paris and London have agreed to train Ukrainian marines together. They could also cooperate on ammunition deliveries, even if France does not wish to join the partnership initiated by the UK to ship 152 mm shells, desperately needed in Ukraine.
Analysis: China role in Saudi, Iran deal a tricky test for US Reuters
US, EU try to defuse subsidies dispute to focus on Russia and China: Biden and top EU official meet to boost cooperation and maintain alignment on countries seen as a threat to the West. WSJ
Why European defense still depends on America: Don’t believe the hype—the war in Ukraine has led to little change. Max Bergmann + Sophia Besch
France's Sénat passes controversial pension reform: AFP reports French senators passed the deeply unpopular plan by 195 votes to 112 late Saturday, bringing the package another step toward becoming law.
Macron and Sunak showcase the 'entente renewed' between France and the UK: Meeting in Paris for a French-British summit, the two leaders displayed their willingness to put an end to the differences that have pitted their countries against each other since Brexit. Le Monde
Approachable and opaque: 10 years of Pope Francis: When the papal conclave elected a clergyman from Argentina as pope on March 13, 2013, the world immediately started asking questions. Ten years later, historians and theologians assess what he has achieved. DW
+ Ten years later, no one is asking "Jorge who?" But many people all over the world still wonder what exactly this pope stands for. He is at once approachable and familiar, yet in some ways stubbornly opaque.
+ But there is one thing that all Catholic experts can agree on: Pope Francis is different.
+ The choice of name was immediately taken as a sign of the new pope's approach to church policy.
+ Despite the Catholic Church's attempts to be above politics, it is nevertheless a geopolitical force. And Francis' tenure has shaken up centuries of Church eurocentrism.
+ "It is clear that Pope Francis is the first truly global pope… who has liberated Catholicism from the ideas of a moralistic middle-class bourgeois," that long defined it, church historian Massimo Faggioli told DW.
What the neocons got wrong: And how the Iraq war taught me about the limits of American power. Max Boot
The real Wakanda: How an East African kingdom changed Theodore Roosevelt and the course of American democracy: The fictional kingdom portrayed in the Marvel cinematic universe has a real-life antecedent — and its legacy reverberates throughout American and European history. Politico
How Silicon Valley turned on the bank: The fallout threatens to engulf the startup world—and has exposed a new set of vulnerabilities for the banking system. WSJ
Silicon Valley Bank: The spectacular unraveling of the tech industry’s banker: While its collapse happened quickly, problems had been festering for years. FT
+ Searching for yield in an era of ultra-low interest rates, it ramped up investment in a $120bn portfolio of highly rated government-backed securities, $91bn of these in fixed-rate mortgage bonds carrying an average interest rate of just 1.64 percent.
+ Suddenly, the risk that had been building on SVB’s balance sheet for more than a year became a reality. If deposits fell further, SVB would be forced to sell its held-to-maturity bond portfolio and recognise a $15bn loss, moving closer to insolvency.
+ One hedge fund short seller who detailed the bank’s risks last year warned that SVB had almost unwittingly built the foundation for what could become “the first large US bank collapse in 15 years.”
WSJ: Saudi Aramco posts record $161 billion profit for 2022
Tim Cook bets on Apple’s mixed-reality headset to secure his legacy: New launch will be first steered entirely by the CEO and under the direction of the operations team. FT
Apple’s new challenge: A wave of key executives leaving the company Bloomberg
Three global cities are pulling ahead since the peak of the pandemic: Miami, Dubai, and Singapore boom by welcoming those chased out of rival international hubs. Ruchir Sharma
+ Millionaire populations dropped by 12 per cent last year in New York, 14 per cent in Hong Kong, and 15 per cent in Moscow. Dubai, Singapore and Miami are deliberately exploiting this migration by opening their doors to capitalists.
+ Singapore is the most established of the three: the millionaire population of 250,000 is much larger than those of Dubai or Miami and therefore naturally grows more slowly.
+ New York is not Boston circa 1950, but the exodus is a bad sign.
+ For years, the state has been bleeding migrants to Florida, where the population is now slightly larger but the state government spends half as much — and the economy grows twice as fast.
+ In 2022, for the first time, Florida had more non-farm jobs than New York.
+ The migration of jobs and capital are leading indicators of development and of decline. Global cities hostile to wealth will end up sabotaging their own economic prospects to the benefit of more welcoming rivals such as Miami, Dubai and Singapore.
Inside the ‘blood sport’ of Oscars campaigns: War rooms. Oppo dumps. Eight-figure budgets. How the quest for awards-season glory got so cutthroat. NYT
+ On Tuesday, Jan. 24, Riseborough was nominated for a best-actress Oscar alongside Cate Blanchett, Michelle Williams, Ana de Armas and Michelle Yeoh. No one predicted Riseborough’s nomination.
+ She did not appear on pundits’ shortlists. There were no profiles of her in glossy magazines.
+ “To Leslie,” the film about an alcoholic West Texas lottery winner for which she was nominated, had earned just $27,322 at the box office.
+ Within 24 hours, the reaction to Riseborough’s nomination went from surprise to scrutiny to backlash. It turned out that a small army of movie stars had championed Riseborough.
+ The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscars’ governing body, opened an investigation. Oscar campaign regulations forbid direct lobbying, and it turned out that some of Riseborough’s supporters, including Mary McCormack, who is married to Michael Morris, the director of “To Leslie,” had encouraged academy members to watch the film and publicly endorse Riseborough’s performance.
+ In February, the academy announced that Riseborough’s nomination would stand, promising to clarify its regulations after the awards. But the controversy reminded everyone of the reality of the Oscars: that despite the big show of sealed envelopes being delivered via handcuffed briefcases, the votes — in Hollywood as in Washington, DC — are a result of a highly contingent, political process, handed down not from movie gods but from the very people who stand to benefit from it.
+ Oscar campaigns are often run by professional strategists, essentially a specialized breed of publicist.
+ Sometimes several strategists work on a single film, and the war room of an Oscars campaign can grow to be as many as 10 or 20 people. All the stops along the campaign trail — screenings, events, other award shows — are an opportunity to workshop talking points and gauge the competition.
+ ‘Everybody hates Harvey, and he’s in jail, and he should be. He’s a criminal and he raped people. But people liked his results, and they still want them.’
+ “Winning awards has become the guiding principle of our industry, and it’s what’s destroying it,” Amanda Lundberg, the chief executive of 42West, which is working on the “Top Gun: Maverick” campaign.
How an FBI agent’s wild Vegas weekend stained an investigation into NCAA basketball corruption LAT
Mutiny at the BBC: Lineker row causes mounting crisis at broadcaster Reuters
+ The BBC was forced to axe much of its sports coverage on Saturday as presenters refused to work in a show of solidarity with Lineker, after the BBC sought to defend its impartiality by taking him off the air due to his comments on social media.
Mikaela Shiffrin, atop the mountain, alone: The Colorado alpine ski legend surpasses Ingemar Stenmark for the most World Cup wins ever. WSJ
+ Shiffrin’s already there, spectacularly, at age 27. Eighty-seven World Cup wins is an outrageous mark, one more than the all-time record held by Ingemar Stenmark, and now five ahead of prior women’s record holder, Lindsey Vonn.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Marc A. Ross | Chief Communications Strategist @ Caracal
Caracal produces ITK Daily.
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