ITK Daily | February 10

Happy Friday.

Here’s today’s ITK Daily.

To be ITK, know this:

AFP: Death toll tops 21,000 from Turkey-Syria quake as hopes fade

+ Nearly 100 countries and hundreds of NGOs have provided medical aid to Turkey, and more than 6,300 emergency personnel had arrived from 56 countries, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a news conference Thursday.

+ Another 19 countries would deploy teams within 24 hours, he said.

+ A United Nations aid convoy crossed into rebel-held northwest Syria through Turkey Thursday.

The US announces $85 million aid package for Turkey and Syria after devastating earthquake: Le Monde reports the US Agency for International Development said that the funding would go to partners on the ground 'to deliver urgently needed aid for millions of people' including through food, shelter, and emergency health services.

'We are defending you,' says Zelensky on EU visit: Le Monde reports: 'Welcome home, welcome to the EU,' said European Council President Charles Michel as he greeted Ukraine's leader, who arrived from Paris with Emmanuel Macron.

Zelensky's triumphant European trip ruffles diplomatic feathers?AFP

+ The headline images were a triumph for all concerned: British and Belgian royal visits, a tank, a Paris dinner and a family photo with 27 applauding EU leaders.

+ But behind the scenes the tour by Ukraine's war leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, of European capitals was as much improvised as stage-managed and it triggered diplomatic jealousies.

+ Ever since the Ukrainian leader visited Washington in December -- his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion -- European capitals have been jockeying to host him.

+ The trip took on the trappings of a full state visit, with a moving Zelensky speech in the historic Westminster Hall in Britain's capital, and an audience with King Charles, causing consternation in Paris.

+ After the event, French diplomats sniffed that, while Britain had made a grandiose display of its support, Macron's more discreet dinner with Scholz had been intended to demonstrate EU unity.

+ If that was the message, however, it didn't get through to Brussels -- or Rome -- in time. Brussels-based diplomats learned of the Paris leg from journalists and, arriving at Thursday's summit and Italian premier Giorgia Meloni made clear her irritation at being left out.

FT: Italy’s PM upset by ‘inappropriate’ French-German meeting with Zelenskyy

Bloomberg: Meloni, Macron spar over Zelenskiy’s Paris dinner invitation

There is the story, and there is the backstory.

For good geopolitical business communications, you need to understand both stories.

+ @joe_armitage: An absolute triumph for British diplomacy. President Zelensky arrives in Paris on a huge UK emblazoned jet.

Wild what counts for success in Britain today...

The high-fives going around Britain for giving Zelenskyy a ride to Paris in a UK jet is informative. And sophomoric, no?

The Times: Ukraine prepared to use British missiles to strike Crimea

Ukraine’s rocket campaign reliant on US precision targeting, officials say: WP reports Ukrainian officials say that they almost never launch HIMARS rounds without precise coordinates provided by US military personnel, revealing a more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war than previously known.

Duh.

WP: ‘We know they are coming’: Ukraine readies along all fronts for Russia’s next big attack

AP: Russian diplomat says ties with US in ‘unprecedented crisis’

Duh.

Deaths in Russia's top brass unnerve India and China: Military inadequacies in Ukraine raise questions for security relationships.?Nikkei

+ Intelligence analysts, however, have taken interest in one specific part of the death toll: the number of Russian generals killed in the conflict.

+ A larger number of general deaths thus signals a weak military.

+ British media reported in June that over 10 generals had been killed. Japan estimates the total at more than 20, based on intelligence gathered in cooperation with the US and Europe.

+ A popular theory holds that Ukraine was able to target these commanders by tracking cellphone signals -- a communication method that Russian troops were forced to use due to struggles on the electronic warfare front. Moscow has since banned use of the devices.

+ A senior Japanese intelligence official raised another possibility. "There may be informants in the two eastern regions giving information to Ukraine," the official said, referring to Donetsk and Luhansk, much of which are controlled by Russia.

+ Another point made clear over the past year is the inferiority of the Russian military's weaponry -- something that may well be worrying India, which gets half its weapons from Russia.

+ Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval met with American counterpart Jake Sullivan at the White House on Jan. 31 to discuss topics including broader cooperation on military technology, along with joint development and production.

+ The military inadequacies shown by the deaths of Russian generals may be rattling Beijing as well. "China appears to have quietly begun providing military support to Russia," the Japanese intelligence official said.

HNN: New US icebreaker delayed until 2027; Russia orders 6th and 7th nuclear icebreaker

Allied and Norwegian forces prepare for the largest military exercise in Norway in 2023?HNN

+ In early March, 10,000 Norwegian and allied soldiers will train to defend Norway in the winter exercise Joint Viking. Soldiers from the US, the Netherlands, and the UK are already preparing and training in Northern Norway.

+ Joint Viking is held every two years but was canceled in 2021 due to the corona pandemic. This year, the exercise is held against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

North Korea shows off largest number of ICBMs in parade: Nikkei reports the nighttime ceremony marks the 75th anniversary of the army's founding.

North Korea displays enough ICBMs to overwhelm US defense system against them: Politico reports administration after administration has failed to stop North Korea from developing such large numbers of ICBMs that could possibly reach the United States.

Philippines, Japan pledge to deepen security and economic ties: Nikkei reports the two nations edge toward a troop deployment deal in face of the Chinese threat.

Japan targets $1,500 for spending by foreign visitors: Nikkei reports the proposal includes longer stays and sustainable tourism to attract the affluent.

When a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over Canada, why didn't we shoot it down??Questions have been raised about why Canada didn’t act when the balloon was in our airspace.?CBC

Yeah, Canada? What's the deal? Why didn't you shoot it down?

+ Some Canadians — including opposition party members and CBC readers — have questioned why this country didn't act sooner, why we didn't shoot it down ourselves, and whether Canada's military was even capable of doing so.?

+ "That just completely ignores the fact that NORAD exists that we're part of it and have been part of it for almost 80 years now."

+?"the binational command of NORAD is both Canada and the United States. It's not one or the other."

+ One of the main points of NORAD is that Canadian and U.S. military aircraft need not seek permission every time they need to fly over each other's territory.?

WP: US declassifies balloon intelligence, calls out China for spying

The Times: China ‘dispatched fleet of balloons to snoop on America’

Chinese balloon carried antennas, other equipment to gather intelligence, US says: WSJ reports the US preparing to take action against entities tied to Chinese balloon surveillance program, official says.?

'Not just a silly balloon': Dismay and fear over another US-China clash: A big white orb has pushed the rival superpowers back to diplomatic distance, showing that peace may be frighteningly fragile.?NYT

Bloomberg: China balloon had Western-made parts with English writing, lawmakers told

+ A fleet of balloons operates under the direction of the People’s Liberation Army and is used specifically for spying, the US said.

+ A senior state department official said on Thursday that equipment was identified by a U2 spy plane sent up to scrutinize the balloon.

+ The Biden administration is calling it a sophisticated effort to surveil “more than 40 countries across five continents.”

In its push for an intelligence edge, China’s military turned to balloons: Chinese military scientists have been looking for ways to make them more durable, harder to detect, and even to serve as platforms that fire advanced weapons.?NYT

+ China’s surveillance airships are likely operated by the Strategic Support Force, experts say, a relatively new and often secretive arm of the Chinese military that carries out electronic surveillance and cyber operations.

+ “The balloons should be understood as one part of its electronic spying system,” he said in an interview. Even data that the balloons can gather about humidity and air currents may be militarily useful, he said. If China ever launches missiles, “this atmospheric information could improve their accuracy.”

+ “Near space has become a new battleground in modern warfare,” an article in the Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China’s military, said in 2018.?

+ The Chinese military, like other militaries, wants to “try all the options,” said Bates Gill, the author of a recent study, Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions Under Xi Jinping.

+ “My sense is the People’s Liberation Army is pretty unrestrained these days,” said Mr. Gill, the executive director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. “Not in the ‘Wild West,’ corrupt sense of the past, but in the sense of how it experiments and pushes the envelope.”

+ Poor internal communication between the Chinese military and civilian government, and even inside the People’s Liberation Army and Strategic Support Force itself, may have contributed to the problem."

+ “It’s a really good example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing in China.”?

CNN: China wants to dominate the ‘near space’ battlefield. Balloons are a key asset

FBI’s Christopher Wray wants business to help fight China, cyber threats: WSJ reports the agency promises ‘Ritz Carlton-level customer service’ in an effort to warm ties to companies.

US aims to curtail technology investment in China: NYT reports the Biden administration is preparing new rules that would restrict US dollars from flowing to China.

China battles West for raw material of the future: The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to perhaps the largest lithium deposit in the world. China is eagerly trying to get its hands on valuable resources, but the concession is controlled by an Australian company. Work-hungry locals are hoping the conflict will soon be resolved.?Der Spiegel

+ According to geologists, though, the earth beneath Manono contains what might be the largest lithium deposit in the world.

+ Lithium is a vital ingredient in the batteries that power electric cars and so much more. Without lithium, a shift from fossil fuels would hardly be possible – and the price for lithium has exploded in the last two years.

+ China is the biggest player in the lithium industry.?

+ The company CATL is the global leader in producing batteries for electric cars and just built a vast new factory in the German state of Thuringia, the first one outside of China.

+ Lithium mining is expensive and the Australians need a lot of money to exploit the deposits.

AFP: Russia’s Lavrov pledges support on lifting UN sanctions, defends Wagner on Sudan visit

Diplomatic tensions flare up again between Algeria and France: Le Monde reports Algiers has recalled its ambassador to Paris for 'consultations' after the role played by French diplomats in helping opposition figure Amira Bouraoui to avoid extradition to Algeria from Tunis.

The Times: King to address Bundestag during Germany state visit

The haunting: Rishi Sunak can’t escape the ghosts of PMs past?Katy Balls

+ Politics abhors a vacuum.

+ ‘Boris is in submarine mode,’ says one Tory MP. ‘He is appearing from time to time to remind people he is around’

+ Johnson has lost none of his ability to dominate headlines.

+ Truss poses a problem to Sunak because her ideas still speak to a decent chunk of the party.

+ The Downing Street response to all this is to keep calm and carry on.?

+ MPs are complaining that Sunak’s quieter approach has left constituents asking ‘Where’s Rishi?’

+ He does not – as one supportive MP puts it – ‘occupy space’ as Johnson did. As the PM tries to get his head down, the risk is that his predecessors will end up stealing the show.

UK general election trend: An MRP poll of 28,000 people reported by the Telegraph models Labour winning 509 seats out of 650 at a general election while the Tories are left with fewer seats than the SNP.

CCHQ, you got a problem.

BTW, this would be 78% of all seats.

Lula has high hopes for Brazil's international role: 'Brazil is back' will be one of the main messages of President Lula da Silva during his trip to the US. He has ambitious foreign policy plans; some analysts are skeptical, though.?DW

+ What is clear is that Lula sees Brazil as part of a multipolar world, as a representative of the global South refusing to get involved in the conflicts between the power blocs of the northern hemisphere, as this would not be beneficial.

+ The same applies to Brazil's relationship with its largest trading partner China, one of the US' main geopolitical rivals.

+ Brazil exports huge amounts of soy, meat and iron ore to China, which has financed major infrastructure projects in Brazil.

+ In his talks with US President Joe Biden, Lula will also probably bring up Brazil's bid for a reform of the UN Security Council and a permanent seat on it, which he says is his country's right on the basis of its size and economy

+ Brazil has sought this for several years now, alongside Germany, Japan and India.

+ He "governs a deeply divided society, and it will be difficult, except in the fight against hunger, to leave a great domestic legacy. He will seek this in foreign policy."

Justin Trudeau has a communication problem?Max Fawcett

+ Both Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland are gifted communicators, and the government they lead should be good at telling the story of its achievements and priorities.?

+ Instead, they create narrative gaps and informational vacuums that allow conspiracies to flourish and force them to play defence. + On everything from gun control to climate policies around fertilizer use, this approach is costing them valuable time and political capital.

+ Federal governments in Canada tend to die of old age, and that’s particularly true of Liberal ones.

+ They also need to stop playing defence so often.

+ Trudeau may be a counter-puncher by nature, but that strategy doesn’t work as well outside the boxing ring.?

+ It’s not all doom and gloom for Trudeau here, despite the Liberal Party’s recent poll numbers. He continues to be blessed with opponents who appear determined to keep him in office.

+ If Trudeau wants the time he needs to pour concrete on his government’s legislative achievements, he’ll have to do a much better job of telling Canadians about them.

"Blame Comms!"

Why Europeans should not get too used to Joe Biden, the last of the Atlanticists: After the traumas of the Trump presidency, Europe is mistaking his successor’s leadership for the new normal.?Jeremy Cliffe

27.3 million: The number of viewers who watched President Biden's State of the Union address on TV — the second smallest SOTU audience in at least 30 years.

+ 73% of SOTU viewers were 55+.

What does ‘lots of luck in your senior year’ actually mean??An investigation. In the daily Rorschach test that is modern politics, everyone saw what they wanted in the Bidenism du jour.?NYT

The GOP is starting to plot against Donald Trump: Republican Party donors and leaders are talking about how best to stop Trump from running away with the nomination again in 2024. But they don’t have a clear plan to stop him.?Politico

Politico: Trump brings back Jason Miller

The Hill: DeSantis edges closer to 2024 decision

Why Donald Trump may not be Nikki Haley's biggest obstacle: The former South Carolina gov has an opening in her home state. But it could become a bit trickier.?Politico

Romney: A Reckoning: To be published Oct. 24, "offers Romney's lively and at times devastating take on nearly every major political figure of the last 25 years," according to a publishing source.

+ For nearly two years, Romney secretly met with Coppins, a staff writer for The Atlantic and fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the Mormons.

Strong dollar still rattles US multinational corporate earnings: WSJ reports profits for companies that derive most of their revenue overseas drop sharply.

FT: Volvo Cars’ electric sales triple despite rising costs

America's EV ambitions need a graphite plan. Fast.?China dominates the processing and mining of what is an essential material in batteries. Even in the best of geopolitical times, its carbon-intensive grid means the US needs domestic capacity.?Liam Denning

+ America’s energy angst was easier to gauge before the energy transition: You just looked at oil imports. Now it means also fretting about where we get stuff like lithium and… graphite.

+ China accounts for more than 70% of the world’s lithium-processing capacity.?

+ A typical 60 kilowatt-hour EV battery might hold 160 pounds of graphite compared with perhaps 20 pounds of lithium.

+ Brace yourself America: China’s grip on graphite is even tighter than it is for lithium.

+ With lithium, China only dominates processing, not mining. In graphite, China is virtually inescapable.?

+ It accounts for more than two-thirds of natural graphite mining; about 60% of synthetic graphite production (an alternative made from oil by-products); and virtually 100% of coated spherical graphite, or CSG, production, the processed form suited to anodes. China also accounts for 98% of announced anode-manufacturing capacity expansions through 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

+ How much graphite was mined in the US last year? Not enough to fill a pencil.

+ In fact, the US hasn’t mined any since the 1950s.

+ Yet just one million EVs, assuming a 60 kilowatt-hour battery in each, requires almost 80,000 tons of graphite

+ Last year, US demand for natural graphite for all uses, batteries or otherwise, was just 72,000 tons.?

+ A US Geological Survey of large domestic graphite deposits has indicated a total resource — that is, the most generous estimate — of 11.9 million tonnes. Not enough to put the US in the same league as China (or Brazil), but likely enough to rebuild some production at home.?

+ Besides geopolitics, there is another reason to diversify away from Chinese supply; one tied to the entire rationale for EVs in the first place: emissions.

+ Processing graphite for anodes, either natural or synthetic, is energy intensive. Coating natural graphite involves blasting it in furnaces at more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

+ That tension between aspiration and supply-chain realities may be one reason why US tax officials are dragging their heels on defining exactly how domestic content rules for batteries in the IRA will be applied.

+ Assuming it all gets developed, this graphite chain would exemplify the interlocking demands of energy, geopolitical and climate security that now define the US critical minerals business.

Disney revamps entertainment unit, reassesses Hulu: WSJ reports under CEO Bob Iger’s new structure, content chiefs at the TV, film, and ESPN units are taking on business responsibilities. Iger also signaled the company could explore a sale of the streaming platform Hulu.

FT: Bob Iger’s second act to feature a slimmed-down Disney

Nelson Peltz calls off Disney proxy fight: FT reports the activist investor abandons battle after media group announces restructuring plan.

WP: Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown comes to North America

WSJ: Yahoo to lay off 20% of workforce

Google and Bing are a mess. Will AI solve their problems??John Herrman

+ This week’s dueling AI search presentations from Microsoft and Google marked the resumption of hostilities in the long-dormant search wars.

+ “Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in Search that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web”

+ The new Bing, according to Microsoft, will review “results from across the web to find and summarize the answer you’re looking for.”

+ Offering a preview of the future of human-computer interaction by delivering on the promise of … Ask Jeeves.

+ “From now on, the [gross margin] of search is going to drop forever,” Nadella told the Financial Times. “There is such margin in search, which for us is incremental. For Google it’s not, they have to defend it all.”

+ A tech company’s ability to make a more satisfying or appealing product doesn’t guarantee that it will actually deliver one, especially if that product might interfere with its main source of revenue.

+ What Microsoft and Google did make abundantly clear, however, is that they know search is broken — of course they do, because they broke it.

ChatGPT and Bard's incorporation into search engines worries website publishers: Media outlets are concerned that the answers provided by Google or OpenAI chatbots to internet users' searches will harm the visibility of their own links.?Le Monde

+ Since the launch of ChatGPT at the end of November 2022, many intellectual professions have been wondering about the consequences of this software.

+ Media and website publishers fear a decrease in the number of visits they receive, especially on Google, which, with 91% of the search engine market, represents a major part of their traffic.

+ They were also already concerned about the copyright of their content, which can be used by artificial intelligence.?

+ "Publishers have a lot to worry about," said Marc Feuillée, CEO of French media conglomerate Groupe Figaro.

+ "If chatbots in search engines become widespread, it will necessarily create a shockwave," said Emmanuel Parody, secretary general of Geste, a union of 140 digital service groups and media outlets, where this issue is to be discussed in February.

+ "Is SEO dead?"

+ There is a fear that the answers provided by the chatbots will make clicking a waste of time.

+ The incorporation of chatbots into search engines "is the culmination of Google's dream of providing answers to internet users itself, without publishers."

+ "With AI [artificial intelligence], it will be even more difficult to generate openings from links (...) since the chatbot will be able to give a summary," said Samuel Lauliac, SEO consultant at Eskimoz, quoted by financial daily Les Echos on Thursday, February 9.

+ The rise in Google searches which generate "zero clicks" on sites.

Fortune: ‘AI is a serious contender’: Morgan Stanley says ‘something suggests’ the ChatGPT mania isn’t another investment fad

Really? ChatGPT mania sure is giving off fad vibes...

Why the new internet search wars will be different?Richard Waters

The battle for internet search: Will the AI chatbots eat Google’s lunch??Economist

Adidas warns of losses stemming from Yeezy fallout: WSJ reports the German sneaker giant set out the financial cost of its exit from the Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West.

FT: Tainted Yeezy sneaker stocks could push Adidas to first loss in 31 years

Beyoncé’s clothing line with Adidas suffers from weak sales: WSJ reports revenue from the singer’s Ivy Park brand fell more than 50% last year, documents show.

Adidas = Day Traders

Navigating the wild west of PFAS labeling on clothing: The transition away from forever chemicals in clothing is underway, but it’s surprisingly difficult for consumers to figure out what they’re buying.?Bloomberg

NYC wealth exodus drives billionaire’s bet on South Florida boom: Related’s Ross is looking beyond Miami and West Palm Beach to meet the growing demand for offices in the region.?Bloomberg

+ Billionaire Stephen Ross, founder of the firm that developed Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, is pushing deeper into South Florida in a bet that wealth will continue migrating from the Northeast.

‘Sam? Are you there?!’ The bizarre and brutal final hours of FTX?FT

A world in which your boss spies on your brainwaves??That future is near: At Davos, a futurist spoke in glowing terms about ‘brain transparency’ – and downplayed the obvious dystopian risks.?Hamilton Nolan

+ Nita Farahany, a Duke University professor and futurist, gave a presentation at Davos about neurotechnology that is creating “brain transparency.”

+ The new technologies, which Farahany says are being deployed in workplaces around the world... include a variety of wearable sensors that read the brain’s electrical impulses and can show how fatigued you are, whether you’re focused on the task at hand or if your attention is wandering.?

+ According to Farahany, thousands of companies have hooked workers ranging from train drivers to miners up to these devices already, in the name of workplace safety. But what we are really discussing is workplace surveillance.

+ Farahany paints a picture of a near future in which every office worker could be fitted with a small wearable that would constantly record brain activity, creating an omnipotent record of your thoughts, attention and energy that the boss could study at leisure.?

+ No longer would it be enough to look like you’re working hard: your own brainwaves could reveal that you were slacking off.

+ All of this raises the question: what exactly is your employer buying when they give you a paycheck?

+ At Davos, Farahany said that neurotechnology in the workplace “has a dystopian possibility.”

+ Watch the Davos AM23 presentation - Ready for Brain Transparency? - here.

Fortune: Childcare is so expensive that educated women are dropping out of the workforce because they refuse to put more than 25% of their paycheck toward the cost

RIP: Burt Bacharach

Canadian wildlife's tender moments on display in photography contest: Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice awards include nuzzling foxes and a bear named Beans.?CBC

Coded letters by Mary Queen of Scots discovered and deciphered: Her correspondence with the French ambassador to England was left untouched in the National Library of France. Their author was unknown, but a trio of researchers broke their code: The cursed Queen Mary of Scots who wrote them.?Le Monde

+ The code used in these letters is based on 191 different symbols. It is a "homophonic" code: Each letter of the alphabet is encoded by one or two different symbols.

+ In addition, some symbols designate a specific person: the letter C for the king of France (Henry III) or the letter f for Queen Elizabeth, for example. Others stand for place names or parts of words (like the suffix "-ance").

+ To break this code, the researchers wrote an algorithm.

+ One enigma remains. Why is the code of the letters Mary Stuart sent to Anthony Babington (one of the instigators of the plot against Elizabeth) in 1586 "much simpler and much less secure," according to Lasry, than the code of her earlier letters, which have just been deciphered?

+ Once the letter dated July 17, 1586, was intercepted by Walsingham, her fate was sealed: In October, Mary would be sentenced to death for high treason. "Praise God, you will do me great good in withdrawing me from this world!" the ill-fated woman said.

AIR: From director Ben Affleck, AIR reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. Watch the trailer?here.

The collegiest college town in every state, and more?WP

+ College towns aren’t suburbs or cities. They’re provincial, they’re probably a bit isolated, and if the college closes down, they have no plan B.?

+ The collegiest town in America is (envelope, please): Alfred, N.Y., where students make up an astonishing 85 percent of the town’s population of 4,500 (depending, obviously, on huge seasonal fluctuations).

AFP: Ukraine-led 2024 boycott call is against Olympic principles: IOC chief Bach

Paris 2024 Olympics: Europe's politicians against Russia: DW reports IOC President Thomas Bach's attempt to get Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral flag at the 2024 Olympics Games in Paris has brought European politicians to the fore. Boycotts are being discussed.

The Times: At least five bidders ready to meet ￡5bn price for United

Qatari owners would take more from Manchester United than Glazers ever did: Ownership by one of the world’s most savage governments would forever tarnish the legacy of Britain’s most famous club.?Jonathan Liew

+ So what might Qatar want from United? Perhaps the same thing that it wanted from Harrods, from Heathrow airport and Sainsbury’s, all of which it either owns or owns significant portions of: immediate identification with a cherished global brand, almost a stake in British society itself.

+ Among cultural entities not even Liverpool or Arsenal can offer the same level of name recognition, the ability to print money simply by being who you are.

Why soccer fans should worry about the Premier League’s latest announcement?Duncan Mavin

+ Part of the joy of English soccer is its sheer capitalistic, survival-of-the-fittest culture. The best team wins the league title and gets richer. The worst teams get relegated — kicked down to a lower tier where money is much harder to come by.

+ There is no salary cap, no draft, no effort to level the playing field.

+ It would protect the oligopoly at the top of football’s ladder, by limiting outsiders’ ability to spend their way to success.?

+ This week, though, England’s Premier League — one of the world’s richest and most watched sports organizations — announced a move that runs contrary to its popular no-holds-barred approach.?

+ It accused Manchester City, one of the wealthiest teams in soccer and one of the most successful in recent history — of breaching, for the best part of a decade, so-called Financial Fair Play rules.

European Super League launches new proposal, eyes 80-team tournament?ESPN

+ European football body UEFA, the biggest opponent to the ESL plan, which it views as a threat to its own Champions League club competition, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

+ At issue in the ongoing court case is whether UEFA and global governing body FIFA statutes allowing them to block rival events and bar clubs and players from taking part conform with EU competition rules.

European Super League 'progressing,' says Barcelona's Laporta: AFP reports Barcelona president Joan Laporta on Thursday said plans to create a European Super League were "progressing" and expected a favorable court ruling for the breakaway competition fiercely opposed by UEFA and FIFA.

How Mina Kimes, football nerd, is shaping the future of NFL coverage?WP

+ Mina Kimes, a Yale grad turned investigative business reporter turned NFL analyst on ESPN.

+ One notable metric: The number of women watching is up nearly 10 percent this year from the last year of the show’s previous iteration. An average of 80,000 women watch “NFL Live” every day.

+ “I like learning, and if I’m going to be a fan of something, I want to understand it. I don’t think I’m unique. A lot of fans are like that. Football fans all want to be smarter, just like me.”

All hail the ‘God of Sod,’ groundskeeper for all 57 Super Bowls: On Sunday, George Toma’s perfectionism will be on display for hundreds of millions of people who will have no idea who he is or how he suffers for his work.?NYT

+ He is 94 now, but among groundskeepers he is immortal: The God of Sod, they call him, or the Sodfather, or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Man. Toma — who is planted so deeply in the NFL’s root system that he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — has never missed a Super Bowl.

Buzz for Super Bowl LVII seems muted, no?

AFP: Iconic Kobe Bryant jersey sells for $5.8 mn at auction

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

Marc A. Ross | Chief Communications Strategist @ Caracal

Caracal produces ITK Daily.

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