ITK Daily | August 17

Happy Wednesday.

To be ITK, know this:

Read this: Road to war: US struggled to convince allies, and Zelensky, of risk of invasion WP

Seriously good journalism here.

Xi Jinping’s Saudi trip seeks to exploit Riyadh-Washington tensions: Saudi’s Chinese flirtation reflects a leverage bid with the Biden administration. Politico

Xi Jinping has not left China in two years, and his first international trip is to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. ????????

Nikkie: German Air Force shows it can be in Asia in a day

SCMP: China’s Xinjiang command puts updated missile to high-altitude test

Nikkei: US and Japan step up joint drills by 50% as Taiwan tensions rise

Spot the trend?

+ Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, announced Friday that US naval units will conduct "freedom of navigation" exercises in the Strait in the coming weeks.

Read this: Confrontation to conflagration: Asia’s six likeliest wars: Nikkei

+ A shifting balance of power may reignite frozen conflicts from North Korea to Pakistan

Zut Alors.

+ In France, nearly 60% of towns with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants don't have a local bread seller.

Read this: Canada eyes cash for critical minerals in Biden's big new climate bill: Canada is keen on accessing a pot of money for critical minerals in soon-to-be-signed US law. CBC

+ Could some of that money create new battery-component projects in Canada? Canadian officials are hopeful it will.

+ The bottom line: Very few cars are expected to have enough North American components to qualify. That's where Canadian mining comes in.

COVID + Canada

+ Quebec will offer a 5th dose of COVID-19 vaccine to all adults as of Aug. 29.

Read this: Lula says Bolsonaro ‘possessed by devil’ as he launches Brazil election campaign Guardian

+ A poll released on Monday suggested Lula continued to enjoy a comfortable 12-point lead over Bolsonaro

+ Leftwing frontrunner counters far-right president’s efforts to demonize him with evangelical voters in a bitterly divided country

Read this: Italy needs me: Berlusconi stages his comeback Politico

+ Aged 85, the former Italian prime minister is likely to be the kingmaker in the election on September 25, buying him another five years of relevance.

Read this: Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico must cut water use from Colorado River, officials say: The mandatory cuts come after the Colorado River Basin states failed to meet a deadline for emergency drought reductions. LAT

+ After Colorado River Basin states failed to meet a deadline for emergency drought reductions, the US Bureau of Reclamation announced new emergency water cuts for AZ, NV, and MEX as the nation’s two largest reservoirs decline to perilously low levels.

+ Under Tier 2 shortage conditions, Arizona’s annual water apportionment will be reduced by 21%, Nevada’s by 8%, and Mexico’s by 7%. There is no required water savings contribution for California.

Read this: The most important river in the American West is drying up: The federal government is forcing states to act. Economist

+ The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the south-west, supplying 40m Americans with water + hydropower. Dams at Lake Mead and Lake Powell generate power for more than 4m. But a mixture of climate change and poor policy choices is bleeding the area dry.

Recorded in July 2022, a Brigadoon Monthly Call with Frank Washkuch. Frank Washkuch became executive editor of PRWeek US in 2019.??In this role, he oversees daily news on PRWeek and also takes on extra responsibility for features, thought leadership, weekly blogging, and other brand-development activities. Watch here.

Read this: Investing in Flow Marc Andreessen

+ For hundreds of years, ambitious young people have had to move to immediate geographic colocation with employers to have access to the best jobs for their skills and talents. That is suddenly no longer true." -- @pmarca

Guardian: Apple tells staff to come into the office for at least three days a week

Bloomberg: The rise of the one-day workweek for office commuters

Wild.

Read this: The new season of Industry and the rise of workplace TV New Yorker

+ Not since “Mad Men” has a show had so much fun exploring the shadowy chaos that can develop when too many young people spend too much time at the office.

Read this: How to embrace doing nothing: Absolute idleness is both harder and more rewarding than it seems. Arthur C. Brooks

+ This is what three University of Michigan psychologists call “soft fascination,”...walking in nature or watching the waves. In contrast, “hard fascination” (found by, say, watching TV) occupies attention and rules out mind-wandering.

+ Research has found that soft fascination is more restorative than hard fascination

Harvard to offer free MBA tuition to lowest-income students: FT reports the business school says it wants to remove ‘financial barriers’ as it looks to increase diversity among its learners.

Here we go...

Bloomberg: Glazer family open to selling a stake in Manchester United FC, sources say

+ Owners have held preliminary talks on new investment

+ Fans of the football club are calling for a change of ownership

Read this: Exploring Qatar’s eight World Cup 2022 stadiums and what fans can expect in November The Athletic

+ Qatar is exhausted at defending itself to the world, especially to the Europeans, who are seen as particularly negative and cynical about the first World Cup to be held in a Muslim country, which is clearly an exciting thing for many in the Arab world

+ It’s almost impossible to avoid political issues — specifically Middle East politics — while following football these days.

“In the Premier League, you go to a game at the Etihad or the Emirates Stadium,” says Dr. Ulrichsen. “It’s completely interwoven into the fabric.

+ “Sport, for whatever reason, is a lot more political now than it was in 2018,” he says, noting that while Qatar has faced heavy criticism over its treatment of LGBT+ people, there was not the same attention on Russia four years ago.

Read this: Spain's La Liga football aims to score big in Asia: European football leagues are eyeing Asia as a huge potential broadcasting market. La Liga is going up against Britain's Premier League, which has a longer history in the region. DW

+ To compete, selected La Liga Kick-off times in Spain have been changed to better suit Asian time zones.

+ Barcelona, one of Spain's two dominant teams, has opened sports academies in Asia, including four in Japan and two in China. Its former shirt sponsor, Rakuten, is based in Japan.

NBA = No Borders Association

@NBAPR: The NBA and Zignia today announced that the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat will play a regular-season game in Mexico City on Saturday, Dec. 17, marking the first NBA Mexico City Game since 2019 and the league’s 31st game in Mexico overall.

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