ITK Daily | August 18

Happy Thursday.

To be ITK, know this:

ConHome’s latest Tory leadership election survey: Truss 60 percent, Sunak 28 percent, and 9 percent undecided.

Read this: Bolsonaro relies on Brazil’s evangelical Christians to revive re-election bid: Far-right president seeks to reinvigorate support for his election campaign, but believers are now more divided. FT

+ Bolsonaro is on a mission to whip up enthusiasm among a group that was key to his rise: Brazil’s growing community of evangelical Christians, now estimated to make up almost one-third of the country’s 215mn population

+ Brazilian evangelicals tend to be socially conservative, and seven in 10 who voted four years ago backed Bolsonaro

+ Bolsonaro’s third wife, Michelle, a devout evangelical who led prayers at the presidential palace last week, has featured prominently in his campaign — viewed as a tactic to improve women believers’ perception of a politician with a history of sexist remarks

Nikkei: Harris, Obama among hundreds from overseas expected at Abe funeral

Biden’s approval rating: 42% approve, 56% disapprove.

Read this: US, Taiwan to begin formal talks for trade, investment pact this fall: The announcement comes amid tension between the US and China over Taiwan. WSJ

+ The bilateral negotiations will take place under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US Embassy in Taipei, and the Taipei Economic Cultural Representative Office in the US, Taiwan’s representative office in the US

Read this: China’s decline may be looming. Here’s how the US can win, if it so chooses. George F. Will

+ China is choosing to make itself stupid. The Financial Times reports that China’s youth unemployment is 18.4 percent, and university graduates are struggling to find work — “unless they have degrees in Marxism.”

+ China’s Leninism — everything is subordinated to the party’s “vanguard” function, and the party is the vanguard of ignorance — will similarly determine China’s trajectory.

Read this: As China's secretive party conclave ends, rising star vice premier in focus: Hu Chunhua, a member of a rival power bloc to Xi, is seen as a potential premier. Nikkei

+ "Xi has been wary of the Communist Youth League's power since taking office as party leader in 2012, and has kept Hu at arm's length."

Factions.

Madison.

Federalist 10.

China to send troops to Russia for joint military exercise: NBC News reports Beijing's participation in the joint exercises was “unrelated to the current international and regional situation,” the country's defense ministry said in a statement.

Watch this space…

“No Limits”

Read this: Americans are paying for slogans on bombs aimed at Russians WP

+ After a donation is collected, a Ukrainian soldier scrawls the requested message on the munition and takes a picture of it. The picture is then sent to the donor

US veterans race to train Ukrainians as Marines; ‘Time is not on their side’: WSJ reports foreign volunteers to pay their own way to help prepare civilians for the next phase of the battle with Russia; “many have never held a weapon.”

Read this: In England, Ukrainian recruits are training for frontline battles: British military trainers are teaching essential battlefield skills to recruits heading into the fight back home. WSJ

+ An ambitious British-led program to provide military training to 10,000 Ukrainian Army recruits and staff, an effort that aims to help bolster local resistance to the Russian invasion

+ The British trainers have already sent 2,000 Ukrainians to the fight back home

+ Since the start of the Russian invasion, 6,400 Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 have been arrested trying to flee the country

Read this: Humans are heading back to the moon — and Canada is playing a bigger role than you may realize: 'I just don't think Canadians … realize how awesome we are,' says a program manager at the Canadian Space Agency. CBC

+ 'I just don't think Canadians … realize how awesome we are,' says program manager at the Canadian Space Agency

+ The mission of Artemis I is to test the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule. But after that comes Artemis II, scheduled for 2024 or 2025, when four astronauts will travel in Orion and orbit the moon

+ "The global space sector was $470 billion in 2021 — and that's growing. In Canada, it generates revenues of $5 billion, and it creates 20,000 jobs," said Lisa Campbell, president of the Canadian Space Agency

UK inflation tops 10%, highest of rich nations: WSJ reports the rate was the highest in more than four decades in the UK and the fastest increase recorded in one of the Group of Seven rich countries since the current surge started in early 2021.

Read this: What makes us proud to be British? What are the best and worst characteristics of the British people? Ipsos

+ A new Ipsos poll finds the NHS remains top of the list of reasons to be proud to be British

+ A third (33%) also state British history as what makes them proud (particularly the middle-aged + older people, Conservative and Leave voters), followed by the Royal Family (28%), the armed forces (24%), followed by their culture (21%) and their system of democracy (20%).

Israel and Turkey announced on Wednesday the full normalization of relations and the return of their ambassadors to Ankara and Tel Aviv.

+ @TrungTPhan

Hulu: $6

Netflix: $15

Disney+: $8

Peacock: $8

HBO Max: $15

Losing my shirt on a sh**coin someone recommended on YouTube: $50,000

Prime Video: $10

Total streaming and video cost is $50,062 a month.?

How is this better than cable TV?

Apple is exploring manufacturing Apple Watches and MacBooks in Vietnam in an effort to diversify production away from China.

China can no longer be seen as a low-wage assembly country...

Nikkei: Apple Store in Tokyo's Ginza moves to groundbreaking wood building

+ iPhone shop will be the anchor tenant in the sustainability showpiece

WSJ: Amazon tests TikTok-like feed in app

+ The tech giant is testing a feature in its app that would show users a TikTok-style photo and video feed of products for shoppers to share with other users.

+ Amazon employees are internally testing a TikTok-style photo and video feed in the Amazon app nicknamed “Inspire.”

Seems like building an interest graph isn't too hard...

Amazon says its drones will deliver packages to backyards this year: ARS reports Amazon will first offer drone deliveries to a rural town in Northern California.

WFH

+ Just 31% of workers born after 1989 — Gen Z and younger millennials — say they're "engaged" at work

+ Rebellion against the "rise and grind" ethos

Boom says production on the Overture, an ultra-fast successor to Concorde, will start in 2024.

Caracal: Geopolitical Business Intelligence for Chief Communications Officers Video

Read this: The fabulously wealthy are fueling a booming luxury ranch market out West: Moguls are lavishing ever-larger fortunes on ranches out West, prompted in part by the pandemic. WP

+ America remains one of the last countries where so many individuals own colossal swaths of land, some controlling acreage larger than Delaware

+ In 2007, the 100 largest private landowners owned a combined 27 million acres of property. Fourteen years later, they control 42.2 million acres, according to the Land Report, the publication of private land ownership — an increase of 56 percent

Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins tribute concert to stream live on YouTube and Paramount+: The first of two tribute concerts will take place at London's Wembley Stadium on September 3rd.

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