ITK Daily | November 12

Happy Saturday.

Here’s today’s ITK Daily.

To be ITK, know this:

Ukraine liberates Kherson from Russia: The Times reports that Zelensky hails a historic day as Kremlin’s troops retreat from the regional capital.

Ukrainian soldiers are greeted in Kherson with jubilation: NYT reports after months of Russian occupation, residents said the moment recalled being liberated during World War II.?

Kherson is 'ours,' says Zelenskyy: DW reports the retreat of Russian forces from the southern city marks a setback for Moscow, as Kherson was the only major Ukrainian regional capital to fall into Russian hands since the start of the war.

Event: The struggle for freedom: Former President George Bush will hold a virtual conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, November 16. You can register here.

US seeks closer ties with India as tension with China and Russia builds: NYT reports Treasury Secretary Yellen wants India to be part of the Biden administration’s “friend-shoring” agenda, but trade tensions linger.

US, India pledge closer economic ties: WSJ reports the two countries are seeking to work more closely together to counter China’s manufacturing dominance.

Taiwan being read in: China reacted negatively after White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US planned to brief Taiwan on the results of the in-person meeting between Biden and Xi in Bali on Monday, calling it “egregious.”

For Biden and Xi, a long relationship with rising mutual suspicion: The men, who first met as vice presidents, plan to hold face-to-face talks for the first time as national leaders, and at a time when animus defines US-China relations. NYT

+ According to Biden, he and Xi have traveled many miles together — 17,000 of them, he estimates — and have spent dozens of hours in meetings — 78, to be precise — in the years they have known each other.

+ Biden said Wednesday that he would discuss with Xi “what each of our red lines are” to determine whether the critical interests of their countries “conflict with one another.” He continued, “And if they do, how to resolve it and how to work it out.” He said he expected Taiwan and trade to be among the topics.

+ Biden has treated the Chinese leader more like a Cold War-era nemesis than the calculating bureaucrat he once knew.

+ Since Biden took office in January 2021, the two leaders have spoken five times by phone or video call.

TikTok , time’s up. The app should be banned in America. Marco Rubio + Mike Gallagher?

+ The United States is locked in a new Cold War with the Chinese Communist Party, one that senior military advisers warn could turn hot over Taiwan at any time.

+ Yet millions of Americans increasingly rely on TikTok, a Chinese social media app exposed to the influence of the CCP, to consume the news, share content, and communicate with friends.

+ TikTok offers the CCP a unique ability to monitor more than 1 billion users worldwide, including nearly two-thirds of American teenagers.

+ TikTok is a major threat to US national security.?

+ This is why we’re introducing legislation which would ban TikTok and other social media companies that are effectively controlled by the CCP from operating in the United States. Congress needs to act against the TikTok threat before it’s too late.

+ Marco Rubio, a Republican, is a US Senator from Florida. Mike Gallagher, a Republican, represents Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District in the House.

Flashback: The geopolitics of TikTok Ross Rant

A meltdown in Haiti is testing Biden’s diplomatic mojo: Politico reports other countries have helped the United States on crises from Afghanistan to Ukraine. But they’re leery of intervening in Haiti.

Sending troops to Haiti would make a bad situation worse: The country faces serious challenges, but adding boots on the ground would be a recipe for disaster. Bloomberg - Editorial

+ Already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is on the brink of social collapse.?

+ At least 40% of the country’s 11.5 million people are suffering from acute hunger.?

+ Gang warfare and rolling antigovernment protests have blocked the distribution of food, fuel, and water.?

+ A cholera outbreak has killed dozens and sickened many more.

+ The world can’t ignore the suffering of the Haitian people — but it’s imperative that outsiders avoid making a bad situation worse. Sustained diplomatic engagement and security assistance, not military intervention, holds the best chance for success.

America’s deep suspicion of globalization makes it an outlier: The victory of radical leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is better news for open trade than US Republican gains. Alan Beattie

+ This time round, Lula has signaled a closer alignment to Beijing than did his predecessor, the populist conservative Jair Bolsonaro.

+ Meanwhile, in Washington, whether or not they take control of the House (and, less probably, the Senate), the Republicans remain a threat to an open world economy.

+ The reality is that among the main trading powers — including middle-income countries — the US is an outlier in its deep suspicion of globalization and trade deals and its willingness to bypass institutions like the WTO

+ Economically isolationist populism is now more of a threat in American politics than in most other major trading nations, and it poses a clear and present danger to an open world economy.

France puts the future of deep sea mining in doubt: Bloomberg reports the country’s call for an international ban on mining fragile ocean ecosystems disrupts negotiations to allow exploitation of the seabed to begin by 2024.

+ Over the past two weeks, a growing number of member states of the ISA, which includes 167 countries and the European Union, have called for a “precautionary pause” or moratorium on mining due to the lack of scientific data on fragile and biodiverse deep ocean ecosystems targeted for exploitation.

Solar panels to cover all large car parks in France under new mandate: Dezeen reports the French Senate has approved a bill requiring all large parking lots across France to be topped with solar canopies in the next six years, which are predicted to generate as much energy as 10 nuclear reactors.

+ The legislation mandates that all new and existing car parks with 80 or more parking spaces must be blanketed in photovoltaics covering at least half of their surface area.

+ This plan is ultimately expected to yield around 11 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity.

Mood shifts on gene-edited crops as droughts and wars bite: The European Commission is considering easing regulation on the technology. But critics say it is an untested risk being pushed by Big Ag. FT

+ If Europeans still want to eat home-produced food: gene-edited crops, which are more resistant to drought and extreme heat.

+ When GMO technology first arrived in Europe in the 2000s it met fierce opposition in a region that prides itself on the quality and provenance of its food. Products were labeled “frankenfoods” and trial fields were attacked by protesters.

+ Technological advances have made gene editing relatively cheaper than that for GMOs, while some gene-editing technologies are provided on open platforms if they are for research purposes.

+ More than 15 countries have set rules that are open to gene editing in crops, including China, India, Argentina, and Australia.

+ “We have to innovate if we want to produce food in Europe. Maybe we will become dependent on other countries if we do not adopt these new technologies.”

IBM ties up with new Japanese chip company to counter China: FT reports Big Blue’s partnership latest in multibillion-dollar effort to strengthen Tokyo’s ties with allies.

Achtung, baby: Axel Springer’s Mathias D?pfner wants to be a press baron for the digital age, part Murdoch but also part Musk. And still very German. NY Mag

+ For the past decade, D?pfner has been transforming Springer into a digital player worldwide.?

+ In 2014, he made another bet, teaming up with Politico’s owner, Robert Allbritton, to create Politico Europe in Brussels, which is the seat of the European Union.

+ The publication’s fast-paced, insidery argot shook up bureaucratic Brussels. As one founding staffer put it, “Axel Springer gains market-share size and reach, and Mathias builds his Rolodex and really his access to the upper echelons of global power.”

+ "Subscriptions work. Advertising works. So you just need to be a company that creates enough unique value for your audience and your clients, and put yourself in a defensible position, and you can survive.” -- Henry Blodget, Insider’s co-founder and CEO

雅诗兰黛有限公司 nears $2.8bn deal to buy TOM FORD FASHION : FT reports the cosmetics group in exclusive talks after beating rival bidder 开云 .

Nikkei: World primed for economic 'storm,' 摩根大通 CEO warns

+ 'Central banks came too late to the game' to fight inflation, says Jamie Dimon.

+? Conditions for an economic storm, including monetary tightening, inflation, and the war in Ukraine, have all fallen into place.

+ The world could see more "surprises" like the near meltdown of UK pension funds.

WSJ: Crypto exchange FTX files for bankruptcy, CEO resigns

How FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried went from crypto golden boy to villain: The exchange’s founder, once seen as a steady hand in the world of digital assets, is under investigation, and his company filed for bankruptcy. WSJ

WSJ: Twitter halts paid subscription plan

Trumpism is toxic: And three other lessons of the midterm elections. Tim Alberta

1. Democratic turnout is going to boom in the post-Dobbs era.

2. Bad candidates are an incurable (and fast-spreading) cancer.

3. Voters prefer “out of touch”? to “out of their mind.”

‘They completely f--ked up’: How the GOP lost its grip on the Senate majority: Democrats are on the doorstep of control, despite a series of obstacles. And they couldn’t have done it without Republicans blowing winnable races. Politico

+ Midterms are invariably stacked against the party in power, so Democrats had to run ahead of Biden’s low approval ratings and confront rising prices.

+ A bright spot for Democrats, their Senate candidates raised record-breaking sums. That allowed the DSCC to spend more money on field and voter programs than on TV ads for the first time in modern history.

Biden, turning 80, faces renewed age questions as he weighs reelection: WP reports as President Biden considers announcing a 2024 reelection bid, his aides are grappling with how to answer questions about his physical and mental fitness.

They told him to change his name. Now crowds are shouting it. Aftab Pureval , the young mayor of Cincinnati, has Democrats reaching for some flattering comparisons. Politico

+ Aftab Pureval is the half-Indian, half-Tibetan, 6-foot-3, just-turned-40-year-old who has been the mayor here for not even a year but in that time has been to the White House more often than most members of Congress.

Can a daily crossword puzzle slow cognitive decline? Research suggests that people with mild cognitive impairment may be helped, but the findings are far from conclusive. WP

+ For years, scientists have been trying to figure out whether “brain workouts” such as puzzles and online cognitive games could strengthen our minds and slow the process of aging.

+ The American Academy of Neurology estimates that mild cognitive impairment affects about 8 percent of people ages 65 to 69; 10 percent of people ages 70 to 74; 15 percent of people ages 75 to 79; 25 percent of those ages 80 to 84; and about 37 percent of people 85 and older.

+ “We’ve known for almost 30, 40 years that keeping yourself mentally active is really important. But we’ve not really translated that into an intervention that is a medical-grade intervention.”

How the unlikeliest World Cup ever came to be: Was realizing the dream of the Middle East’s first World Cup worth it? Qatar is about to find out. FT

+ The process of selecting a host country was opaque.?

+ Every seven years or so, football’s global organizer FIFA invites members to put their names forward for future tournaments, typically a decade or so ahead of time.?

+ Countries then have about a year to finalize their bids, setting off a frenetic storm of planning, lobbying and backroom deals.?

+ The final selection was decided by secret ballot, voted on by 22 executive committee members, who happened to be all male. It all culminates at a grand announcement ceremony in Switzerland.

+ The seeds of a Qatar-hosted World Cup may have been planted in England in the summer of 1966. The future emir, al-Thani, and his friend Abdullah bin Hamed al-Attiyah, were teenagers attending summer school in the UK.

+ Beginning in the 1990s, a series of high-stakes gambles propelled the country’s transformation. First, in the energy market.

+ By the mid 2000s, Qatar was the world’s top exporter of LNG, and had set up a sovereign wealth fund that today is estimated to manage assets of about $450bn.

+ Doha has poured at least $200bn into infrastructure and megaprojects in the years since being awarded the World Cup in 2010.

FIFA bans Danish World Cup squad's human rights shirts: Le Monde reports Denmark requested to train in jerseys bearing the message 'Human Rights for All' in protest at Qatar's track record in this area, but FIFA urged all teams to 'focus on football.'

Politico: French agency warns World Cup fans to get burner phones for Qatar apps

+ Avoid naughty pictures and scrub your phone to keep clear of state snoopers, French regulator says.

Pickleball is popular, but how much exercise are you really getting? You need to play as much as 4.5 hours of pickleball a week to meet the recommended weekly guidelines for moderate exercise. WP

+ Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, and people — including teenage prodigies and Hollywood celebrities — can’t seem to get enough.

+ If you’re counting steps, the study showed you will collect relatively few during an hour of pickleball, about half as many as during an average, hour-long brisk walk.

Magnussen claims maiden pole in the rain for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team : AFP reports Kevin Magnussen took full advantage of dramatically changing wet conditions to secure a sensational maiden pole position on his 100th Formula One appearance for the Haas team in Friday’s qualifying for this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

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