Facebook, LeBron James, Terrorist Attacks, Gap, Cocaine, Lime, Emmy Awards

Marc Ross Daily
September 21, 2018
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross

Reporting from Annapolis, Maryland

Marc Ross Daily  = Business News at the Intersection of Globalization, Disruption, and Politics

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TOP FIVE

✔️ Worldwide terrorist attacks decreased by 23% in 2017

✔️ Inside Facebook’s election ‘war room’

✔️ Trump to emphasize ‘sovereignty’ in UN visit

✔️ Self-driving motorcycles

✔️ LeBron James is already winning Hollywood

GEOECONOMICS

The plot to subvert an election: Unraveling the Russia story so far: For two years, Americans have tried to absorb the details of the 2016 attack: hacked emails, social media fraud, suspected spies — and President Trump’s claims that it’s all a hoax. The New York Times explores what we know and what it means. https://nyti.ms/2Nv1eVP

‘Fort Trump’ would be the second US site in Poland: Military Times reports, in March 2016, the U.S. broke ground on its first permanent military facility in Poland: Naval Support Facility Redzikowo, which will ultimately house a U.S. Aegis Ashore system to aid European missile defense. 

State Dept: Worldwide terrorist attacks decreased by 23% in 2017

The 2018 cyber strategy is here: War On The Rocks reports, great-power strategic competition, defend forward, and prepare for war: These are the three central tenets of the newly released summary of the 2018 Department of Defense Cyber Strategy. The new strategy document is decidedly more focused, risk-acceptant, and active than its predecessor in 2015. 

Where's my bitcoins?!? Japan's Zaif is the latest crypto exchange to be hacked, with losses of Bitcoin and two other digital currencies estimated at about $60 million.

China’s sea control is a done deal, ‘short of war with the U.S.’: NYT reports, rare visit onboard a U.S. military flight over the South China Sea showed how profoundly China had reshaped the security landscape across the region.

Objections to Google’s possible re-entry into the Chinese search market: Uniting Republicans, Democrats and some of Google's own employees in a rare alignment against the company, Axios' David McCabe writes.

Caracal Global Memo: Memo: Google in China: Values, missions, and business development http://bit.ly/2OkxSFX

Response to China's belt and road initiative? The EU has launched a new "connectivity strategy" linking Europe and Asia that focuses on "sustainable, comprehensive and rules-based" networks.

Bloomberg: China plans broad import tax cut as soon as October

Andrew Browne: Trump and Xi are destined to divorce: The 2008 crisis set the U.S. and China on an inexorable path to confrontation.

Fake news and voting: Facebook said it would partner the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, to help combat the global spread of misinformation and fake news that could potentially impact upcoming elections in the United States and elsewhere.

Inside Facebook’s election ‘war room’: NYT reports, more ore than 300 people across the company are working on the initiative, but the War Room will house a team of about 20 focused on rooting out disinformation, monitoring false news and deleting fake accounts that may be trying to influence voters before elections in the United States, Brazil, and other countries.

Argentina's GDP contracted 4.2% in Q2 of 2018.

May's Brexit plan goes pop after 'humiliation' by EU, British media says: Reuters reports, Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit proposals were declared dead by the British media on Friday after what they cast as a humiliation at the hands of European Union leaders at an informal summit in Salzburg.

AMERICAN POLITICS

Trump to emphasize ‘sovereignty’ in U.N. visit next week, Haley says: WSJ reports, Trump will address world leaders next Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly with a speech focused on “protecting U.S. sovereignty” and expanding relations with countries that share similar values, according to U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

GOP midterm strategy: Forget Trump and paint the Democrat as 'too far left': LAT reports, in one Orange County race, Republican incumbent Mimi Walters faces UC Irvine law professor Katie Porter, whom one ad portrays this way: "Liberal Katie Porter. Higher taxes. Open borders."

Weekly Standard - Editorial: Run, Mike, run: Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, is again considering a run for the presidency. In other words, 2020 is just two years away. He has openly toyed with presidential runs in each of the last three cycles. But these quadrennial flirtations can’t go on forever. He is 76.

"An unpredictable liberal could find a middle path between aged-out establishmentarians and ambitious hucksters in 2020. Run, Mike, run."

ENTERPRISE

Scoot-scoot: Lime and Bird have each already crossed the 10 million ride mark, with Lime recently reaching 11.5 million.

By the numbers, for Bird and Lime:

Total rides disclosed to date: Bird, 10 million; Lime, 11.5 million.

Total cities: Bird, 100; Lime, 100.

Total funding: Bird, $418 million; Lime, $467 million.

Valuation: Bird, $2 billion; Lime, $1.1 billion

Fatal e-scooter accident emerges as Calif. legalizes riding without helmet: WP reports, Texas authorities say a 24-year-old Dallas man died from blunt-force injuries to his head after falling off his Lime electric scooter, likely making him the first person to die while riding the e-scooters that have swept across the nation this year.

Self-driving motorcycles: BMW's bike division has built an autonomous prototype - one that can start, accelerate, steer and brake, all without a rider.

Anheuser-Busch InBev just signed new deals with the players unions of Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, and "the pacts are a significant development because pro sports leagues have historically been reluctant to allow active players to promote alcohol."

BuzzFeed News is cutting its in-house podcasting production team to focus on video.

Gap introduces Hill City - a men’s brand that will make high-performance, technical clothing that is designed to get a man from his workout to the office to hanging out with his kids over the weekend.

Sounds dreadful, if you ask me.

WSJ: Adobe buys marketing-automation firm Marketo for $4.75 billion

TRENDS + BUZZ

Cocaine production industry is having a banner year: Coca shrubland is up 17 percent in Colombia to 171,000 hectares, up from 48,000 hectares in 2013.

High school wake up time: 87 percent of American public high schools start before 8:30 am.

Commutes: The average American's commute now stands at 26.9 minutes.

Annoying calls: The FCC estimates that Americans get 2.4 billion unwanted, automated calls every month. 

CULTURE

Pentagon declares war on scooters: DefenseOne reports, after seven rental scooters were abandoned at the Pentagon following this year’s September 11 remembrances, police say they will begin impounding the unauthorized rides. Bikes, too. 

LAT: Emmy Awards' TV audience hits new low with 10.2 million viewers

LeBron James is already winning Hollywood: THR reports, as he prepares to debut with the L.A. Lakers, the NBA’s biggest star has emerged as one of the town’s hottest producers, setting up a dozen film and TV projects and starring in a new ‘Space Jam’ as he sounds off on Serena Williams (“I feel that struggle”) and becoming a Trump Twitter target: "What bothers me is that he has time to even do that."

HBD: Jerry Bruckheimer, producer, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-15), the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, 75