ITK Daily | April 21

Global Street Smarts.

Happy Friday.

Here’s today’s ITK Daily.

To be ITK, know this:?

ITK Radio | Abraham Williamson

On this episode of ITK Radio, a conversation with Abraham Williamson.

Abraham is currently the Founding Attorney @ Go With Canvas, PLLC (GwC).

GwC provides legal counsel to technology and emerging growth companies at all stages of growth, and their investors.

Abraham assists early-stage startups in a wide range of legal issues from birth through maturity. His practice focuses primarily on angel and venture capital financings, and general corporate counseling (including negotiating commercial and technology agreements), with an emphasis on technology and consumer packaged goods industries.

Listen or watch?here .

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US positioning troops ahead of possible Sudan embassy evacuation: Politico reports the security situation has spiraled downward in the country’s capital.

Pentagon plans for possible evacuation of US embassy in Sudan: WSJ reports fighting in Khartoum has threatened the security of US diplomats and others, and additional forces are being deployed to the region.

BBC: Sudan conflict: Khartoum residents fear food shortages amid fighting

WP: Families stream out of Sudan’s capital amid apocalyptic scenes of fighting

The Times: Sudan conflict: Egypt and Libya arm rivals as civil war looms

Sudan violence forces up to 20,000 to flee to Chad: DW between 10,000 and 20,000 people have fled the Western Darfur region, as violence rages for a sixth day. Battles between forces loyal to the army and the paramilitary group RSF are showing no signs of abating.

Japan's defense forces to visit Kiribati on biggest-ever Indo-Pacific tour: Nikkei reports the deployment aims to check China's influence after the island nation cuts Taiwan ties.

Bloomberg: US lawmakers see ‘maximum danger’ after staging a China war game

+ Committee’s chairman calls for arming Taiwan ‘to the teeth.’

+ An earlier war game concluded that a Chinese invasion would founder.

Bloomberg: Biden aims to unveil China investment curbs with G7 backing

+ US wants key allies to endorse concept at May summit in Japan.

+ Order will focus on chips, AI, and quantum investments in China.

Biden and Macron discuss French leader's China visit by phone: Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron spoke for the first time since the French president said Europe should not be 'followers' of the United States on its policy toward Taiwan.?Le Monde

China’s bid to win the new space race: Moon bases. Satellite-killing weapons. Asteroid mining. The battle for space could define the 21st century—and China is rocketing ahead.?Tim Marshall

+ The Chinese president has long pushed the idea that China’s space program—which is entirely and directly controlled by the People’s Liberation Army—is no threat to anyone, that it seeks to work within international frameworks and for the good of humankind. But is that really true? And how will China’s stellar ambitions shape the future of global politics?

+ China's leaders see space as integral to their future plans. President Xi Jinping believes that China should have more of a leadership role in the world, and the country takes a “techno-nationalist” approach to modernization, believing it needs to be a technological leader to achieve its aims.

+ In 2007, China deliberately destroyed one of its own weather satellites in a test of a spacebound missile known as a kinetic kill vehicle (KKV). Other countries were horrified by the profusion of space debris but impressed—and alarmed—that the Chinese had pulled off the equivalent of hitting a bullet with a bullet.

+ In 2011, the United States Congress passed the Wolf Amendment, which limits NASA’s ability to cooperate with Chinese organizations and scientists. As a result, China has been frozen out of the Artemis Accords, a nonbinding treaty that seeks to govern peaceful space exploration.

+ China is currently the only country operating its own sovereign space station. It’s no moon base, but in astro-political terms, it is still quite a statement.

+ In 2021, China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding that they will jointly build a base on the moon called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).?

+ China and the USA look destined to spend the next decade mostly isolated from each other with regard to science.

Brazil’s Lula reaches out to China and Russia, stoking US unease?Ishaan Tharoor

+ “Brazil has substantively and rhetorically approached this issue by suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace or that we share responsibility for the war,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in Washington. “In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts.”

+ “Brazil will continue its traditional non-alignment, non-interventionist approach to foreign policy, seeking to maintain close diplomatic relations with strategic partners, which include both the United States and China,” wrote Valentina Sader, Brazil lead at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. “At the same time, Lula will continue to push for the rethinking of the global order to reflect current times, carving out that relevance for Brazil.”

?

'Storm is coming': New Ukraine brigade trains for counteroffensive: AFP reports a Ukrainian brigade that vows to "destroy Russian troops" simulated a skirmish in the woods near Kyiv on Thursday, as the country pushes ahead with plans for a counteroffensive.

Reuters: Ukraine appeals to NATO chief for membership and more arms

Ammunition purchases for Ukraine have revived European defense industry: The European Peace Facility, an off-budget funding mechanism, makes it possible to finance the purchase of lethal equipment by circumventing restrictions included in the Treaty on European Union.?Philippe Jacqué

Bloomberg: French pension-reform protesters storm Euronext Paris building

+ Euronext says the incident had no impact on operations or trading.

+ Previous protests targeted LVMH, BlackRock, and Natixis offices.

Banks betting on Paris say there really is life after London: Protests have shaken the city, but its new financial growth has momentum.?Bloomberg

+ For decades, London was the main nexus of European finance, melding continental money with transatlantic ideas of what to do with it. But two years after Brexit became a reality, there’s been a clear shift across the Channel.

+ The spoils are being shared by European Union cities, creating a more fragmented landscape. It’s one where banking of various stripes gets done in Paris, shares trade in the Netherlands, and corporate lawyers and accountants pore over the details in Frankfurt. Dublin, Milan, Madrid and Warsaw are playing important supporting roles.

+ But if any city can make claim to being the bloc’s new pre-eminent hub, it’s Paris.

+ “Paris is now our largest trading hub in the EU,” Marc d’Andlau, one of Goldman’s co-heads in France, said in an interview. “Back in the day, if you didn’t sit in New York, London or Hong Kong you could feel remote. That’s not the case anymore.”

+ Paris’s post-Brexit leadership is partly due to the fact that it’s the European location most like London, in the sense that it’s a true global city at the center of a populous country. Business, politics and culture are all in one place — which can’t exactly be said of Frankfurt, Milan or even Amsterdam.

+ Take Milan, for example, where Italian lenders like UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA have moved people from London, and US banks have built out their presence. Goldman Sachs has shifted some of its euro swaps trading desk to the city.

+ One attraction of Milan is a special Italian tax policy for the super rich relocating to Italy, including one that allows them to pay a €100,000 flat rate on income made abroad, or alternatively not paying taxes on up to 70% of their Italian income.

+ Still, London’s position has diminished. As businesses grapple with life after Brexit, even homegrown UK companies are putting profits over patriotism.

+ “There is a risk of a slow puncture effect on City jobs, activities and tax payments,” said Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics. “The City is still enormously important to London and UK in terms of wealth, tax revenue and the people it brought to London after the Big Bang to 2008. Whether something could replace it or become more important, we will discover.”

Biden's 'Made in America' policies offer great boost to US industry: According to the 'Financial Times,' $200 billion of investments in green technologies and microprocessors have already been planned.?Le Monde

+ Joe Biden is more diplomatic than his predecessor Donald Trump, but he is just as resolute in running a strong "America First" campaign and might as well take up the "Make America great again" slogan.?

+ The administration wants to create jobs at all costs, revitalize abandoned areas and reduce the US dependence on China for strategic products. His policies are beginning to bear fruit.?

+ In eight months, the United States has poured $204 billion (€186 billion) into semiconductors and low-carbon technologies, according to calculations by the Financial Times.

In meeting with big economies, Biden announces funds to fight climate change: Reuters reports during a virtual meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, Biden urged his counterparts to be ambitious in setting goals to reduce emissions and meet a target of limiting overall global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

House approves transgender sports ban: WSJ reports the Republican-controlled House approved a bill that effectively bars transgender girls and women from competing in female event categories in school sports.

WP: Murray makes history as first female senator to cast 10,000 votes

Tim Scott 2024 is all about Eagle Scout Trumpism?Theodore R. Johnson

+ When Sen. Tim Scott gets going with a microphone, it’s clear that politics wasn’t his first love. His cadence and intonations and wordplay — with a little call-and-response tossed in for good measure — bear the markings of the Southern Black pastor he once aspired to become.

+ To emerge from the growing number of Republican hopefuls, however, he must demonstrate a more acceptable but fundamentalist version of Trumpism. Like former vice president Mike Pence, Scott might hope to show more character and less animus than the original version — a sort of Eagle Scout Trumpism — but, so far, this is an imagined ideological space that no one has been able to locate and occupy.

+ He is the happy warrior comfortable with the culture war, wondering whether he’ll get an amen.

Signed letters, Mar-a-Lago dinners: Trump’s personal touch in fighting DeSantis: The former president has found a way to connect with Florida’s congressional delegation in a way that Gov. Ron DeSantis has not.?WP

When in the White House, Team Clinton had a public affairs and outreach team affectionately called the "candy shop" to keep Members of Congress and party activists happy, engaged, and on Team Clinton.

Need tickets to the Kennedy Center - done.

Want a photo with Buddy the Dog on the South Lawn - done.

Seeking a private tour of the White House - done.

Trump knows the deal.

WP: After high-flying start, DeSantis hits stumbling blocks on road to 2024

Only eight more weeks until the Washington Post has a headline calling DeSantis the "comeback kid."

Will Mickey Mouse decisions scupper DeSantis??The Florida governor’s plan to create distance from Donald Trump by tacking to the right is a dangerous gamble.?Gerard Baker

CNBC: Disney tells its lobbyists to step up fight against DeSantis and his allies in Florida

Florida governors come and go, but Disney is forever.

BuzzFeed News, which dragged media into the digital age, shuts down: NYT reports a quirky upstart that became a Pulitzer Prize-winning operation fell prey to the punishing economics of digital publishing.

SpaceX’s Starship explodes shortly after launching uncrewed test flight: WSJ reports Starship launched successfully but exploded a few minutes later, ending the inaugural flight of a vehicle Elon Musk wants to use for deep-space missions. Before the flight, he pointed to the technical challenges and risks the launch entailed.

Despite an explosion, Elon Musk is closer to his new space age: SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is far more advanced than its competitors.?Economist

Starship explosion shows just how far SpaceX is from the Moon?Bloomberg

+ The inability of the Starship to separate from its booster, one of the very first steps to getting the vehicle ready for prime time, highlights the challenges ahead for Musk’s grandiose plan for Starship to open up space to human travel. The ultimate goal — making the vehicle capable of carrying people and cargo to the moon and beyond — will likely take years and perhaps billions of dollars to achieve, requiring advances in engineering the world has never before seen.

+ “Refilling is for sure a challenge,” SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said at an industry conference in Washington in February. “Getting this beast to orbit has been a challenge, will continue to be a challenge until we do it reliably. But I think refueling is probably the next big — if you think about purely technology — challenge.”

+ Filling up the tanks won’t be as simple as pumping gas. Starship’s fuel is composed of two extremely cold propellants: liquid oxygen and liquid methane. They must be kept at negative 260 degrees F to negative 300 degrees F to stay liquid and function as needed. If they get too hot, they’ll turn into gas and boil off.

+ With enough money and engineering knowhow, it’s possible SpaceX can overcome the long list of challenges standing between the test launch and its biggest ambitions. Critics who have long doubted that the company could pull off what seemed like insurmountable feats have often been proved wrong. For its part, NASA still thinks it’s possible Starship will get to the moon by 2025.

Starship launch ushers in a new space economy: While the SpaceX rocket exploded in flight, it still represents a major step toward refueling ships in orbit, which will eventually enable lunar outposts and mining operations on the moon.?Adam Minter

+ SpaceX changed the math. The introduction of its reusable rockets in the 2010s dropped the cost of reaching space to as little as $1,200 per pound of payload, a 96% reduction from its former $30,000 per pound price on the Space Shuttle. And that contributed to a surge of interest and funding for space mining.

+ "There's just really not a business case to bring precious metals back to Earth," George Sowers, a professor in the Space Resources program at the Colorado School of Mines, told me in a recent conversation. Instead, Sowers, and a growing number of space agencies and companies, believe that money will be made mining water from the moon, and then processing it into hydrogen and oxygen that can fuel a rocket.

+?In 2010, SpaceX was just beginning to fly commercial payloads atop its Falcon 9 rocket; in 2022, the company averaged a launch every six days and accounted for one-third of all launches, worldwide. In the process, it lowered the cost of reaching space and spurred a new space economy.

+ For space miners, supplying water to these explorers may not be as compelling as digging diamonds out of asteroids. But unlike that more fanciful prospect, water has a business case. Once proven, the sky’s the limit.

Bloomberg: Billionaire Richard Branson’s space empire teeters as Virgin Orbit flops

+ Entrepreneur is a face of the industry alongside Bezos and Musk.

+ Launch company filed for bankruptcy following cash shortage.

Space industry: Africa is ready for liftoff: The space industry is one of the fastest-growing industries worldwide. Africa has long been considered a latecomer, but now a new space agency and a spaceport on the continent are on the horizon.?DW

+ "The chances are great that Africa will soon be able to build its own powerful space industry — a space industry that really helps people in Africa," stresses South African market analyst Rorisang Moyo.

+ The African space industry was valued at approximately $20 billion (€27 billion) in 2021. By 2026, this value is expected to rise to $23 billion.

+ The continent is currently home to more than 270 NewSpace companies that are developing space technologies and offering space-based services, including in the fields of telecommunications, defense, security, shipping, aviation, mining, agriculture, environment, development, education and health.

+ For this $1 billion spaceport — which will be built over a period of five years — Djibouti is relying on its ideal geographic location: Namely its proximity to the equator and its strategic location at the entrance to the Red Sea, which is one of the world's busiest trade routes. The agreement states that the infrastructure will be jointly managed by China and Djibouti over a 30-year period.

+ Kenya is also making waves with an ambitious space project and its own reconnaissance satellite: Taifa-1, Swahili for "Nation-1."

+ "Another country with steady growth in the space industry is Angola, a country that has long aimed to be self-sufficient in telecommunications," says Moyo.

When Apple comes calling, ‘it’s the kiss of death’: Aspiring partners accuse tech giant of copying their ideas; Apple says it plays by the rules.?WSJ

+ “When Apple takes an interest in a company, it’s the kiss of death. First, you get all excited. Then you realize that the long-term plan is to do it themselves and take it all.”

+ Joe Kiani, founder and CEO of biotechnology company Masimo, in Irvine, Calif. He said that after meeting with him about his company’s blood-oxygen measurement technology, Apple began hiring Masimo employees. Apple later launched a watch that could measure blood oxygen levels.

+ “The truth, is these companies are blatantly copying our products or stifling competition by using invalid patents,” an Apple spokeswoman said. “We will continue to fight these baseless claims in court and to advance technologies on behalf of our customers and public health.”

Google’s AI dilemma: Move fast or ‘don’t be evil’: Sundar Pichai is urging caution on AI. But the company’s search dominance may be at stake.?Will Oremus

+ On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Samsung, which makes more smartphones than any other company, has considered switching its devices’ default search engine from Google to Bing, thanks in part to the excitement around Bing’s AI features.?

Alphabet merges DeepMind and Google Brain AI research units: FT reports the shake-up will put Demis Hassabis in charge of the expanded group as the search giant seeks an edge in the AI race.

How to worry wisely about artificial intelligence: Rapid progress in AI is arousing fear as well as excitement. How worried should you be??Economist

Purdue’s new president wants to solve the semiconductor talent shortage: The new president of Purdue University shares his thoughts on the development of the semiconductor program, and how the university’s helping more first-generation and minority students access higher education.?FC

+ Fast Company editors ranked Purdue University No. 16 on our 2023 Most Innovative Companies list for solving a national problem: a shortage of semiconductor engineers.?

+?Last year, Purdue launched an undergraduate and graduate-level Semiconductor Degree Program designed to address this scarcity by training more engineers.

+ “These semiconductor products are the foundation of our national security, economic security, and job security across many digital economy industries”

+ The interdisciplinary degree—the first of its kind—is offered online and on-campus and cut across disciplines including science, engineering, and business.

How Jane Hertzmark Hudis keeps Estée Lauder fresh: As an executive group president of the Estée Lauder Companies, she wakes around 4 a.m. to read, but the last day of the weekend is her secret weapon.?WSJ

+ Sundays are the new Mondays.

+ “When I walk in on Monday, I know exactly what needs to be done.”?

+ "China is so inspiring. They’ve always been so ahead in terms of beauty and their commitment to beauty rituals, using seven or eight products at one time, versus here where sometimes we just want to do the least amount and get out the door."

+ How do you think about social media’s impact on the beauty industry? "I think it’s had an amazingly positive influence on the beauty industry. People used to have to go to a store to see products demonstrated, and the fact that all over the world you can experience skin care, makeup, hair care and even fragrance [online] has led to buoyancy across all four categories."

+ "Leonard Lauder always says, Relationships are forever. And to be kind and to say “please” and “thank you.”"

IKEA takes on the likes of Walmart and Target with its largest-ever US investment: New stores and hubs are coming. For the moment, Ikea is staying mum about the specific geographic contours of the expansion.?FC

+ “We see endless opportunities to grow there and get closer to the many Americans with affordable products and services,” Tolga ?ncü, Ikea’s head of retail at parent company Ingka Group, said in the release.

+ The expansion will add eight flagships to Ikea’s current U.S. store count (51). It will also add 900 local pickup points—spots similar to Amazon Hub Lockers, but that can accommodate whole pieces of furniture.

+ Nine new Plan & Order locations will also open nationwide, with the first arriving in the D.C. metro area. These locations function as studios of sorts; customers can see, touch, and compare products in person for a big kitchen or bathroom renovation project, then place orders for delivery.

+ Plan & Order spots don’t actually keep items in stock for purchase, which allows them to slip into smaller storefronts. “The whole intention here is to be closer to many more Americans,” Ikea US CEO Javi Qui?ones told CNBC on Thursday.

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After she traded one Patagonia for another, tragedy couldn’t keep her away: The documentary “Wild Life” tells the story of Kristine Tompkins, a former chief executive who retired at 43 and moved to South America for love and conservation.?NYT

+ “People were used to the idea of foreign corporations coming into Chile and buying land to exploit it,” said Nadine Lehner, who served as executive director of one of the Tompkinses’ organizations. “But the idea of coming in to conserve it was quite a new idea, and as such, I think, generated a lot of suspicion.”

Into the groove — why vinyl is still music to our ears: Jonathan Scott tracks the scientific ingenuity and corporate rivalry that created recorded music’s most durable format.?FT

+ Vinyl records seem to defy logic. More than 120 years after the earliest sounds were recorded on disc, lots of us still buy them — despite their demands on our shelf space, increasingly ludicrous prices, their tendency to warp and the waves of technological advancements that threaten to obliterate the format.

+ New vinyl outsold CDs in the UK last year for the first time since 1987.

5 big wine books to buy now and use forever: The reference guides our wine columnist relies on are ambitious, comprehensive, deeply researched, and enduringly relevant. These are the books, old and new, she gives her highest recommendation.?Lettie Teague

WP: A’s buy land in Las Vegas as they plan a move out of Oakland

The Oakland A’s say they’re leaving for Las Vegas: The team said it has an agreement to acquire land for a new stadium in Las Vegas and plans to leave Oakland as soon as the end of the 2024 season.?WSJ

+ The A’s ownership group, led by John Fisher, has reached a binding deal to purchase a 49-acre plot of land in Las Vegas, which would become the site of a new ballpark estimated to cost $1.5 billion built with a mixture of public and private financing.?

+ The A’s believe that a new ballpark in Las Vegas could be ready for use by the 2027 season, but their current 10-year lease with the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is set to expire after the 2024 season. The move to Vegas—which echoes a similar move by the National Football League’s Raiders—comes after an extended drama over how and where to build a new stadium in Oakland.

+ The A’s—which were founded in Philadelphia in 1901 before moving to Kansas City in 1955 and then Oakland in 1968—intend to continue to use the “Athletics” moniker if they finalize a relocation to Las Vegas.?

Bloomberg: WNBA reaches deal with Scripps as sports leagues embrace free TV

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc?

Marc A. Ross | Chief Communications Strategist @ Caracal

Caracal produces ITK Daily.

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