Happy Friday.
Here’s today’s ITK Daily.
To be ITK, know this:
Veterans Day: Today is the eleventh day of the eleventh month. At the eleventh hour, we shall remember them. Lest we forget.
Ross Rant: The geopolitics of Apple
At the close of trading last week, Apple was valued more than Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta combined.
The iPhone maker's market capitalization stood at $2.307 trillion, while its fellow tech competitors added up to $2.306 trillion.
Wow.
Today it is best to think of Big Tech as Apple as the biggest planet surrounded by smaller moons.
Apple was able to secure its place as the biggest in Big Tech by securing a grand bargain with Beijing.
Apple's grand bargain with China was twofold - access to factories and consumers.
Biden’s message on climate might not be the one the world wants: NYT reports the president is expected to hail the new US climate law on Friday at the COP27 summit in Egypt. Other countries want to talk money.
Today: Biden will speak at COP27 and then fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for the ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit.
US warns Europe a conflict over Taiwan could cause global economic shock: Sharing of research comes amid rising concern about military action in the Indo-Pacific. FT
+ The US State Department has shared research with partners and allies that estimates that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan would spark $2.5tn in economic losses, according to six people familiar with the material, which was commissioned from the research firm Rhodium Group.
+ Two officials said the US and EU had begun talks about how to prepare for a possible conflict over Taiwan. The Financial Times earlier this year reported that the US had held contingency planning talks with the UK for the first time.
+ One senior EU official compared the sharing of the report with the US move last year to distribute intelligence on Russia’s military build-up around Ukraine, when some EU capitals were dismissive of the idea that Vladimir Putin would invade. “We learned a lesson with that,” the official added.
+ The report said Taiwan would suffer the biggest hit but the economic blow to China would also be immense, and that the fallout would reverberate throughout the global economy.
+ The report warns that trade finance for Chinese companies would dry up the moment Beijing crossed the line to conflict over Taiwan, dealing a severe shock to global trade.
+ It also said that due to the importance of China as an economic partner for developing countries, such a shock could push more than a dozen emerging markets into economic crisis.
US-China: AP reports that Biden will hold the first in-person meeting of his presidency with Xi on Monday (Novemnber 14) amid trade and Taiwan tensions.
+ Biden is also expected to address Xi’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine approaches its nine-month mark.
China and El Salvador to begin free trade talks: Reuters reports China and El Salvador will begin free trade talks, the Chinese ambassador to the country and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said during an event in El Salvador on Wednesday. Both countries said a treaty would be finalized "as soon as possible.
Get to know Gabon: 88 percent of the nation’s territory consists of tropical rainforest.
Ukraine-Russia war KIAs + WIAs: The US estimates that both Russia and Ukraine have each seen 100,000 of their soldiers killed or injured.
Some US and Western officials think neither side can win and see winter as a shot at diplomacy in Ukraine-Russia war: NBC News reports Russia and Ukraine are most likely looking to the slower tempo of battle this winter as a time to reset and refit their forces to be ready for a spring offensive.
Ukraine peace talks remain distant even as Moscow signals a retreat: NYT reports President Biden and European leaders say they cannot push Ukraine and Russia into negotiations, though some US lawmakers are questioning aid for an open-ended war.
+ @TheBushCenter: NEW: President George W. Bush, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will participate in the Bush Institute’s Nov. 16 event on advancing freedom.
Reuters: Iran says it has built hypersonic ballistic missile -Tasnim
Kenya and South Africa sign visa-free travel deal: DW reports Kenyans will be able to enter South Africa without a visa as of next year. This is just one of many agreements reached between the leaders of both nations. Trade deals and border security agreements were also signed.
Household wealth by country (% of world total):
USA 31.5%
China 18.4%
Japan 5.5%
Germany 3.8%
UK 3.5%
France 3.5%
India 3.1%
Canada 2.7%
Italy 2.5%
Australia 2.3%
South Korea 2.2%
Spain 1.8%
Taiwan 1.3%
Netherlands 1.2%
Switzerland 1.1%
ROW 15.6%
+ The US and China account for half the world’s household wealth
+ Today, just 10 countries account for 75% of total household wealth.
HT Visual Capitalist
Understanding the underwhelming GOP performance: How Democrats defied expectations. Matthew Continetti
+ A cloud hangs over Republicans. The election did not go as well as they thought
+ Donald Trump was an unpopular president who polarized the national electorate. Joe Biden is an unpopular president who makes the electorate yawn.
+ Also, celebrity candidates like Herschel Walker and Mehmet Oz don’t have as much credibility on the economy as traditional GOP business types. (Trump was both a celebrity and a businessman, of course.)
+ Since Donald Trump became president, Republicans have lost the House, the White House, and the Senate. If they win these institutions back in 2022 and 2024, it will not be thanks to his influence but despite it.
Frustrated Republicans try to explain lack of midterm ‘red wave’: WSJ reports GOP lawmakers, strategists point to former President Trump’s role, candidate quality, abortion.
+ "I could not support him." -- Virginia’s Republican lieutenant-governor Winsome Sears on supporting Trump if he again ran for the White House
Trump is the Republican Party’s biggest loser: He has now flopped in 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022. WSJ - Editorial
+ What will Democrats do when Donald Trump isn’t around to lose elections? We have to wonder because on Tuesday Democrats succeeded again in making the former President a central campaign issue, and Trump helped them do it.
After the midterms, America and its democracy look stronger: The most important midterms result, for America and for the West, is that Donald Trump and his way of doing politics came out of them diminished. Economist
+ On top of his other flaws, the former president is a serial vote loser.
I'm pleased as punch NV is dominating political news: In 2008, I spent two weeks in Reno working on the McCain-Palin campaign. Lodging at the Atlantis Casino, late-night meals at the Purple Parrot, GOTV in Incline Village, and Jon Voight as a campaign surrogate, it was an unmatched political experience.
FTX tapped into customer accounts to fund risky bets, setting up its downfall: WSJ reports that FTX’s chief executive told investors this week that an affiliated trading firm owes the crypto exchange about $10 billion.
+ All in all, FTX had $16 billion in customer assets, so FTX lent more than half of its customer funds to its sister company Alameda.
From a comms perspective, I always liked the use of FTX as a corporate name.
Clear.
Short.
Simple.
Modern.
Regarding FTX, who will interview Larry David first?
BBC?
CNBC?
Cheddar?
Bloomberg?
+ @howardlindzon: If you have a blue check mark and pay $8 ...your crypto apologies go to the top of the search bar
Bloomberg: FTX hurtles toward bankruptcy with $8 Billion hole, US probe
+ “I f---ed up,” Bankman-Fried told investors on the call, according to people with knowledge of the conversation. He said he would be “incredibly, unbelievably grateful” if investors could help.
+ An FTX representative declined to comment.
+ A Miami-Dade County representative told Front Office Sports that it would explore legal remedies should FTX be unable to pay the balance on its 19-year, $175 million naming rights deal for the Miami Heat’s arena, signed in March 2021.
When do politicos start returning or donating FTX campaign funds? FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly spent almost $40 million mainly supporting Democrats during the current political cycle, according to Open Secrets.
Blame comms: Sources tell Axios that Musk has axed all but one member of the Twitter communications team and plans to deprioritize the communications function, as he's done at Tesla and SpaceX.
Emoji this: Roughly 1-in-5 tweets include an emoji. While the emoji du jour is ever-changing, ❤️ and 😂 remain consistently popular across Twitter.
The age of social media is ending: It never should have begun. Ian Bogost
+ It’s over. Facebook is in decline, Twitter in chaos. Mark Zuckerberg’s empire has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in value and laid off 11,000 people, with its ad business in peril and its metaverse fantasy in irons.
+ As the original name suggested, social networking involved connecting, not publishing.
+ By connecting your personal network of trusted contacts (or “strong ties,” as sociologists call them) to others’ such networks (via “weak ties”), you could surface a larger network of trusted contacts.
+ Twitter, which launched in 2006, was probably the first true social-media site, even if nobody called it that at the time. Instead of focusing on connecting people, the site amounted to a giant, asynchronous chat room for the world.
+ If change is possible, carrying it out will be difficult, because we have adapted our lives to conform to social media’s pleasures and torments.
+ We cannot make social media good, because it is fundamentally bad, deep in its very structure. All we can do is hope that it withers away, and play our small part in helping abandon it.
WSJ: Gap starts selling its apparel on Amazon
Forbes is near a deal to sell itself to a group of investors for less than $800 million.
NASA launched an inflatable flying saucer, then landed it in the ocean: NYT reports the LOFTID mission tested a novel approach to guiding spacecraft through the extreme heat of returning from orbit, which could be used to put people on Mars.
+ LOFTID may sound like just an amusing trick, but the $93 million project demonstrates an intriguing technology that could help NASA in its goal of getting people safely to the surface of Mars someday.
Toyota joins other Japan companies to make next-generation chips: Nikkei reports Sony, NTT, and SoftBank also investing in the government-backed project, eyeing US collaboration.
+ The Japanese government will support the project through subsidies and other means.
+ Named Rapidus, from Latin meaning "rapid," the new company aims to develop the next generation of logic semiconductors used in computing, known as "beyond 2-nanometer technology," and to build a production line by the end of this decade.
Chris Rock will be the first comedian to air a live-streaming special on Netflix. Details are scarce, but the special is expected to air globally in early 2023.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is tracking for between $170 million and $200 million.
The cold, distasteful story within the ‘unauthorized’ Anthony Bourdain biography: The book unnecessarily examines—and gawks at—Bourdain’s death. Jason Diamond - Bon Appetit
+ Next June, it will have been five years since the news broke that Anthony Bourdain had been found dead in a hotel room in France.
+ When I saw the word unauthorized describe the new Anthony Bourdain biography, Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain by Charles Leerhsen, I initially told myself that was something I had no real intention of ever reading.
+ There’s a coldness to the way the book talks about family problems, depression, or the darkness of addiction.
+ What does the late Anthony Bourdain owe us—me, you, his fans, writers who want to figure out why he did what he did? Nothing.
Fenway Sports Group owner John Henry is a possible contender for the Washington Commanders.
+ FSG is an owner of the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Roush Racing, and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
My NFL Elite 8: Week 10
1. Eagles
2. Chiefs
3. Bills
4. Cowboys
5. Ravens
6. Giants
7. Jets
8. Lions
Fußball-bundesliga in Deutschland: The Buccaneers v Seahawks on Sunday in the NFL's first-ever regular-season game in Germany.
+ The NFL says it got 3 million ticket requests for the game. Only 67,000 can attend.
LeBron James’s Lakers are sinking—and need a desperate move: A bleak 2-9 start has a franchise’s fans and observers considering all options. Jason Gay
+ These 2022-23 Lakers are a disastrously composed basketball team, sloppy, erratic, prone to mental lapses—and that’s when they are playing at their best
+ The Lakers are a joyless club, not worth staying up for on the East Coast.
+ The media, of course, believes that LeBron James and the Lakers aren’t supposed to be bad, because, well, they’re LeBron James and the Lakers.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Caracal produces ITK Daily.
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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.
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