ITK Daily | May 5

Global Street Smarts.

Happy Friday.

Here’s today’s ITK Daily.

To be ITK, know this:?

Public invited to swear their allegiance as king is crowned: British subjects asked to form a ‘chorus of a million voices’ and make an oath of loyalty while watching service.?Guardian

+ People around the UK and abroad will be invited to say the words “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God”, in a declaration that replaces the traditional homage of peers.

+ Saturday’s service will also involve for the first time the active participation of representatives of faiths other than Christianity.?

+ Other new elements include the king voicing aloud a specially written prayer; a hymn sung in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish in an acknowledgment of the “rich heritage” of the UK; and the participation of female Anglican bishops.

+ In 1994, Charles caused controversy by suggesting he would prefer to be regarded as defending all faiths, rather than being defender of the Protestant faith.

+ The anointing of the king – “the most sacred moment” in the service, according to Lambeth Palace – will be conducted behind a screen. Charles will remove his robes of state, and will receive consecrated oil on his hands, breast and head wearing a simple linen tunic. Afterwards, he will be vested with the supertunica.

Our bronze age coronation rites seem to speak to a modern love of the sacred: Rituals dating back millennia offer a weird mix of Christianity and the supernatural.?Tom Holland

+ Countries that can boast a head of state based on criteria reaching back to such a distant age are vanishingly rare. Only Japan and the Vatican can really claim to outrank Britain in such stakes.

+ The United Kingdom is alone in Europe in marking the accession of a new monarch with a coronation.

+ Almost 40% of the population of England and Wales described themselves in the most recent census as belonging to “no religion.”

+ A British coronation stands in a line of descent from the age of Solomon or it is nothing.

+ Equally, however, the reminder that the coronation will give to people in Britain is that its roots are fabulously ancient, that its constitutional structure is suffused by notions of the supernatural, that it is altogether a much weirder country than it might on the surface appear, may serve to thrill as well as appal.?

The majestic dress sense of Charles III: Formality with fun and an eye for timeless quality makes the soon-to-be-crowned monarch a role model for the older man.?Robert Armstrong

+ For a person who, all his long life, has been a full-time target for photographers, there are remarkably few pictures of King Charles looking badly in his clothes.

The crowning of King Charles: A new start for the British monarchy??Since acceding to the throne, the King’s personal approval rating has risen while support for royalty has declined.?FT

Britain needs a Napoleon: Our local democracy is absurdly complicated.?Tom McTague

+ The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is weird.?

+ Just look at how it plays sport. It competes in the Olympics as Great Britain, while in football it plays as separate entities called England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In rugby, meanwhile, Northern Ireland doesn’t get a team, and in cricket, the Welsh play for England.'

+ While it is one sovereign state with one King, it has two established churches, three judicial systems, four home nations, and a whole host of crown dependencies and overseas territories which form part of its single, royal realm.?

+ The Holy Roman Empire was impenetrably messy but gloriously superior to many of the Germanies which followed its violent destruction.

+ As T.S. Eliot wrote, art does not “improve” with time but simply changes to reflect the new material. So, too, with constitutions.

+ The problem is not so much the complexity of Britain’s political order, but the fact that it just doesn’t hold together: partly the product of tradition and partly of supposedly modernizing reforms which have just been bolted on here and there.

+ We need more shared rituals, irrational or otherwise; more shared institutions; and more shared endeavors in order for us to keep telling a national story and not multiple little sub-national novellas that are unintelligible to the other.?

+ The old oak needs cutting back to be able to grow again.

Muslim, Scottish Asian, and only 38: Humza Yousaf's singular rise: Tasked with putting Scotland and the Scottish National Party back on track, the first minister draws strength and pride from his background.?Le Monde

+ Glasgow may not have the classical beauty of its rival Edinburgh, but it is a lively city with a strong working class and anti-establishment tradition, the most diverse of the Scottish nation.?

+ It's where successive waves of migrants settled south of the River Clyde, in the Pollokshields district, seeking refuge or work in its many factories, almost all of them now closed.?

+ They included Irish, Italians, Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, Pakistanis from the 1950s onwards, and more recently, Poles and Romanians.

Emmanuel Macron hopes to reinvent himself in 100 days: France’s president would also benefit from curbing some of his own instincts.?Economist

+?72% say they are unhappy with Macron as their president.

Poland it the indispensable NATO ally: Warsaw is doing more than others in Europe to defend itself.?WSJ - Editorial

+ Poland may be replacing Germany as the indispensable NATO ally in Europe. The US has some 10,000 service members in the country and could consider more as their presence has popular support. As a front-line NATO state, Poland deserves front-line treatment for weapons.

A visit to the soldiers who have fled Russia's war: Soldiers who escaped Putin's war and fled to Kazakhstan claim they witnessed crimes and are willing to testify in courts of law. But they are also facing an uncertain future as they look for a country willing to take them in.?Der Spiegel

+ He then fled again, this time leaving Russia. He says he sold his motorcycle, took out a loan for the equivalent of 20,000 euros and bought Bitcoin. Then he wrote to Idite Lesom, an organization in Georgia whose volunteers help Russian soldiers and conscripts make their way to former Soviet republics.

+ The organization's name is a play on words. Read one way, it can mean a "walk through the forest," in another, "go to hell." The first is addressed to deserters, the second to the Russian authorities.

+ Kazakhstan is one of the few countries that Russians may enter without a passport.?

+ The border between Russia and Kazakhstan is almost 7,600 kilometers (4,720 miles) long.

The war-weary West: How governments can keep their citizens committed to Ukraine’s defense.?Nina Jankowicz + Tom Southern

+ Thanks to Kyiv’s savvy communications and the West’s natural affinity for Ukraine, Russia has not been all that successful in this effort. Western publics by and large have managed to stave off compassion fatigue and remain committed to helping Ukraine repulse the Russian invasion.?

+ But that commitment will not last forever and, indeed, may already be beginning to waver in several countries.

+ Western governments cannot afford to be complacent lest their publics start to chafe against the war effort. Leaders must acknowledge the real costs the war has imposed on their populations but nevertheless remind their citizens of all that is at stake on the battlefields of Ukraine.

+ Understandably, people can struggle to sustain the compassion they feel for the plight of others. Populations tire of digesting heart-wrenching photos. They get weary of being overloaded with grim information.

+ Russia has long hoped for such divisions in public opinion in other countries and has on several occasions worked to widen them, seeking to amplify compassion fatigue. In 2016, for instance, during the height of the refugee crisis in Europe, the state-controlled TV network Channel One and other Russian propaganda organizations seeded an invented story about the rape of an ethnic Russian teenager in Germany by an Arab migrant.?

+ Without a concerted effort to push back against Russia’s online offensive, the West will allow the Kremlin to gain ground in an information war that supporters of Ukraine were initially winning. Russia knows the communications battlefield is as important as the kinetic one; the West would do well to remember that, too.

BBC: Sudan generals unwilling to end fighting - UN

WP: Biden authorizes new sanctions on Sudan, says violence ‘must end’

How US efforts to guide Sudan to democracy ended in war: Critics say the Biden administration and its partners were na?ve about the intentions of two rival generals and failed to empower civilian leaders.?NYT

+ The violence in Sudan is creating exactly the kind of power vacuum that Biden’s aides had hoped to avoid. Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group are among the players already trying to fill the gap, current and former US officials say.

If Turkey sacks its strongman, democrats everywhere should take heart: After 20 years of increasingly autocratic rule, Recep Tayyip Erdogan risks eviction by voters.?Economist

+ The election is on a knife-edge. Most polls show Erdogan trailing by a small margin. Were he to lose, it would be a stunning political reversal with global consequences.?

+ The Turkish people would be more free, less fearful, and—in time—more prosperous.?

Ajay Banga confirmed as World Bank leader: NYT reports Banga’s appointment to a five-year term was confirmed on Wednesday by the World Bank.

G7 to show commitment to Global South, Kishida says in Africa: Nikkei reports Ghana and Kenyan leaders affirm opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Is Japan’s military fit for purpose??Rattled by the rise of China, Tokyo has introduced a record increase in defense spending. But experts say it also needs a complete change in mindset.?FT

+ “You can buy all the weaponry you want, but you need people to run them. They are getting the right stuff, but not the people,” says Stephen Nagy, a professor of politics and international studies at the International Christian University in Tokyo.

+ “The SDF can hardly do what’s in front of them. They don’t even have their own ammunition nor do they have sufficient strength training or nutritional management. That’s why I’m saying this budget is beyond their competence and it’s utter pie in the sky.”

China takes the yuan global in bid to repel a weaponized dollar: A string of new deals promote the Chinese currency as geopolitical risk spills into international finance.?Bloomberg

+ (China) is working to demonstrate “that there’s a world outside of the US and the Western world,” said Adrian Zuercher, head of global asset allocation and co-head of global investment management for the Asia-Pacific region at UBS Global Wealth Management’s office in Hong Kong. "You're sending a very strong signal to the US by basically saying we don't need you and we don't need your US dollar."

Chinese cities begin to pay public employees in digital yuan: Nikkei reports the move in Changshu marks the next phase to encourage e-currency's adoption.

Top US Republican wants war game with Japan on China nuclear threat: House Foreign Affairs chair warns Beijing 'puppet' could win Taiwan presidency.?Nikkei

Detroit News: UAW demands Biden support ‘top wages’ for EV workers before endorsing

DeSantis made himself a conservative juggernaut. What has Trump done??Marc A. Thiessen

+ DeSantis is delivering victory after victory on issues conservatives care about. Trump is delivering name-calling. Yet a new Wall Street Journal poll finds that during this period, Trump has jumped from a 14-point deficit in a presidential matchup with DeSantis to a 13-point lead.

+ The best argument against Trump is that he can’t win. He has made himself so irreparably toxic with swing voters, who will decide the election, that even those who disapprove of Biden disapprove of Trump even more.

+ DeSantis should ask GOP primary voters: Which is more important, avenging Trump or defeating Biden? Do you care more about grievance or results??

Will Trump prove to be another Romney??Biden seeks to follow Obama’s example from the 2012 presidential election, in which he disqualified his rival.?Karl Rove

+ Team Biden seems to understand that it needs to focus the 2024 race similarly on savaging the GOP contender.?

+ They also obviously know that strategy depends in large part on how vulnerable a target Republicans nominate—hence their fixation on Trump.

Gallup: About half in US worry about their money's safety in banks

+?A total of 48% of US adults say they are concerned about their money, including 19% who are “very” and 29% who are “moderately” worried. At the same time, 30% are “not too worried,” and 20% are “not worried at all.”

US banks under fresh pressure as Nelson Peltz calls for Washington to stem crisis: FT reports the activist investor makes a case for an increase on the $250,000 deposit insurance limit.

Bloomberg: FDIC plans to hit big banks with fees to refill deposit insurance fund

+ Plan to replenish the DIF after SVB failure may come next week.

+ Lenders with less than $10 billion to avoid special payments.

Nobody trusts the banks now: The Fed’s SVB report, Goldman’s SVB dealings, PacWest, Western Alliance, First Horizon, and stock buyback rules.?Matt Levine

‘It’s got everyone’s attention': Inside Congress’s struggle to rein in AI: Suddenly, legislators are grappling with the rise of a powerful new technology. But a grab bag of proposals and a simmering split over the purpose of new rules means the response is moving far slower than the AI itself.?Politico

+ The legislative chaos threatens to leave Washington at sea as generative AI explodes onto the scene — potentially one of the most disruptive technologies to hit the workplace and society in generations.

+ “AI is one of those things that kind of moved along at ten miles an hour, and suddenly now is 100, going on 500 miles an hour,” House Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK)

Yeah, dude, it is called exponential growth.

Biden administration to unveil new strategy for international cyber, tech standards: Politico reports the first-ever national strategy is being unveiled amid increasing concerns by administration officials that China is outpacing the US.

Tech executives meet senior US officials for ‘frank discussion’ of AI risks: FT reports leaders from Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI pressed on ‘responsibility’ of ensuring ‘safety and security’ of their products.

White House pushes tech CEOs to limit risks of AI: In the White House’s first gathering of AI companies, Vice President Kamala Harris told the leaders of major tech companies they had a “moral” obligation to keep products safe.?NYT

+ “What you’re doing has enormous potential and enormous danger,” Biden told the executives.

+ “As the use of AI becomes more widespread, public officials have a responsibility to ensure this hard-learned history doesn’t repeat itself.” -- Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission

CNBC: White House announces $140 million AI hub investment ahead of meeting with Google, OpenAI

Biden meets Microsoft, Google CEOs on AI dangers: Nikkei reports the administration also says it will invest $140 million to launch seven AI institutes.

+ Funding for the proposed research hubs will come from the National Science Foundation and will bring the total number of AI research institutes to 25 across the country.

Andreessen Horowitz saw the future — but did the future leave it behind??The venture capital firm was known for hyping its portfolio. But in the era of tech skepticism and rising interest rates, is it still ahead of the curve??The Verge

+ In venture capital, there are a few ways to make money. One is traditional and difficult: find and invest in promising businesses and then nurture them. Another way is to find a business, hype your investment, let its valuation balloon, and then offload it further down the line.?

+ In many ways, a16z created the playbook for the boom times in tech.

+ More aggressive reporting on tech jeopardized the model of hyping a business and then selling after an inflated valuation. It’s no surprise, then, that Andreessen turned on the media.?

+ The main problem with Future was that it was boring, and accordingly, its audience fell off. Future quit publishing in October 2022, a year and a half after it launched.

+ Crypto is perhaps the purest hype-driven investment possible — relying almost exclusively on investor sentiment.

+ The New Yorker once hailed Marc Andreessen as “tomorrow’s advance man.” The question now is whether his vision of the future might be history.

Bob Iger rebuilt Disney. Fighting DeSantis could define his legacy.?Corporate America is closely watching to see whether one of the country’s most powerful companies can face down a threat to its self-governance and free speech.?WP

+ Bob Iger has twice considered running for president.

Shopify?cuts 20% of its workforce.

CNBC: Peloton shares plunge after company reports wider-than-expected loss

CNBC: Struggling Lordstown Motors expects to end production of its EV pickup ‘in the near future’

CNBC: Ferrari profit jumps 24% as demand pushes waiting list into 2025

ICE vs EV... ICE is winning.

Zombie cars are all around us, and more are on the way: With a crowd of unproven EV startups bringing new cars to market, buyers are left to wonder what the long road of ownership looks like.?Bloomberg

+ Since Henry Ford and his rivals started fiddling around with “horseless carriages” in 1903, there have been roughly 2,500 car companies in the US alone; today, there are about 50.

+?For every vehicle Lucid delivered last year, it logged $139,000 in revenue and $376,000 in costs, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

+ Rivian, meanwhile, spent $235,000 more than it collected on each of its trucks in 2022. Even Tesla is offering steep discounts to stay competitive against incumbent automakers catching up to electrification.

+ “At some point, some of these cars are best used as a garden decoration.”

+?In 2022, Lucid, Rivian and Polestar collectively made about 130,000 cars and trucks. Volkswagen Group churns out that many in a slow week.

How SpaceX set off a new race to commercialize space: Ashlee Vance charts the contest in “When the Heavens Went on Sale.”?Economist

Darden Restaurants?is betting on fine dining with its $715 million acquisition of Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

The real reason Bud Light sales are plunging?Andrew Van Dam

+ Mexico ships out more than twice as much beer as any other country and single-handedly accounts for 30 percent of the world’s entire export-beer market, according to Geneva-based trade statistics provider Trade Data Monitor.?

+ That puts Mexico far above the Netherlands (14 percent), Belgium (13 percent) and even Oktoberfest progenitor Germany (9 percent).

+ The United States is the world’s largest beer importer, accounting for almost 2 out of every 5 cross-border beer dollars.?

+ About 80 percent of that money goes to Mexico. That’s up from a paltry 17 percent in the early 1990s.

+ After Mexico, America’s next-biggest sources of suds are the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, Germany and Belgium.?

+ AB InBev stands out as a border- and brand-straddling colossus. Based in Belgium, it operates in almost 50 countries, owns more than 500 brands and sells something like 1 in every 4 beers worldwide.

+ “Once Americans began squeezing lime wedges into Corona longnecks, these brands became synonymous with relaxation, vacations and a bit more attitude than the standard American lagers that had dominated for decades.”

5 minutes that will make you love Herbie Hancock: We asked musicians and experts, including Thundercat, Patrice Rushen, and Nicole Sweeney, which Hancock song they would play for a friend.?NYT

Luke Russert’s Washington fairy tale is still missing an ending: He was anointed a prince of the DC press after his legendary father died. Then he left town to figure out what he really wanted.?WP

Oakland faces a ‘devastating’ future without pro sports: Chants of “Sell the team!” ring out at Oakland Coliseum, but fans know the A’s are likely following the NBA’s Warriors and the NFL’s Raiders out of town.?NYT

+ If the relocation happens, the A’s would become the third and final major sports team to leave Oakland since 2019, following the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, who moved across the bay to San Francisco, and the NFL’s Raiders, who fled Oakland for Las Vegas in 2020.?

+ The A’s were born in Philadelphia in 1901, moved to Kansas City, Mo., in 1955, and then took up residence in the East Bay, where they flourished for many of their 56 years there.

Deion Sanders’ extreme Colorado makeover has coaches buzzing: ‘It’s a tremendous risk’?The Athletic

Messi scandal spotlights Saudi ambitions to turn desert kingdom into tourist Mecca: AFP reports Lionel Messi’s promotional trip to Saudi Arabia has kicked up a storm at his Qatari-owned football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), while also casting a spotlight on Riyadh’s efforts to showcase its heritage and lure foreign visitors.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc?

Marc A. Ross | Chief Communications Strategist @ Caracal

Caracal produces ITK Daily.

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