Concentration Camps, Drinkable Pot, Amy Klobuchar, Airbnb, Madeleine Albright
Marc Ross Daily
February 11, 2019
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross
Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia
Marc Ross Daily = News + Analysis at the Intersection of Globalization + Disruption + Politics
TOP FIVE
✔️ Turkey tells China to close Muslim 'concentration camps'
✔️ Xi to Mar-a-Lago in March?
✔️ Scientists race to make pot like booze — drinkable
✔️ Airbnb hires airline industry veteran for transport push
✔️ Madeleine Albright on diplomacy and dining
GLOBALIZATION
Turkey urges China to close mass internment camps: Ankara calls detention policy a ‘great shame for humanity’ in an unusually bold statement.
DW: Turkey tells China to close Muslim 'concentration camps'
CBC: US ambassador to Canada calls on China to release Canadians from 'unlawful' detention
Arrests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor 'unacceptable,' says Kelly Craft.
China in Greenland: The Pentagon raised an alarm last year over what its officials deemed a troubling development in Greenland: China was looking to bankroll and build three airports that could give it a military foothold off Canada’s coast.
UK sends an aircraft carrier to Pacific in a show of strength to China: The Times reports, Britain’s new aircraft carrier will be sent to China’s backyard in a show of strength as President Xi’s government increasingly disputes Pacific waters.
London won the race for the renminbi: The city’s charm offensive has paid off, with daily orders averaging $73bn in October.
US-China trade talks: USTR Robert Lighthizer and Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin will head to Beijing on Monday for the latest round of talks.
Xi to Mar-a-Lago? Axios reports, Xi may soon come to Mar-a-Lago. Trump's advisers have informally discussed holding a summit there next month with Xi Jinping to try to end the US-China trade war, according to two administration officials with direct knowledge of the internal discussions.
Hard Brexit risks 100,000 German jobs: A study has shown that Germany stands to lose the greatest number of jobs if Britain exits the EU without a deal. Some of the country's well-known auto and tech hubs are likely to be the worst hit.
FT - Editorial: Businesses desperately need clarity over Brexit: Theresa May’s government has failed to provide certainty for employers.
US companies warn investors of mounting Brexit risks: Threat of disorderly exit from EU prompts growing alarm in American boardrooms.
Petros Sekeris: Game theory says Brexit negotiations are now all about avoiding blame: The UK and the EU are continuing Brexit talks because, as game theory suggests, both sides want to avoid being blamed for the fallout.
Sajid Javid: ‘I’ve never called myself The Saj’: FT reports, he is a multimillionaire who took a steep pay cut from his job at Deutsche Bank to go into politics, yet the man hoping to walk through the door of Number 10 has a surprising confession to make. “It would probably sound strange sitting here as home secretary that you sometimes feel a little bit like an outsider, but I guess it is a bit like that still.”
Inside Germany's new spy HQ: The German Intelligence Agency (BND) has relocated to its massive new base in the capital after decades in provincial Pullach. The move is hugely symbolic for a country long skeptical of spy agencies.
The limestone and aluminum-fronted complex covers 10 hectares (25 acres) and cost €1.1 billion ($1.25 billion). It is one of the world's largest secret service bases.
Munich Security Conference: Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo are due to speak, but French president Emmanuel Macron is notably absent from the schedule, underlining that France finds itself rather isolated in its relationships with Germany and Italy.
Pompeo trip marks US re-engagement with long-overlooked central Europe: Reuters reports, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland this week he wants to make up for a lack of US engagement that opened the door to more Chinese and Russian influence in central Europe.
Brazil economy minister vows sweeping reforms: Paulo Guedes promises pension and tax changes and to push through privatizations.
OTD: In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa after 27 years in captivity.
DISRUPTION
Scientists race to make pot like booze — drinkable: Bloomberg reports, the market potential has attracted several big alcohol companies that are seeking to offset declining beer consumption with the next big thing. The best-known partnership is Constellation Brands Inc.’s 38% stake in Canopy Growth Corp., the largest cannabis firm by market value, for which it paid about $4 billion. Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev NV formed a research partnership with Tilray Inc., with each company investing up to $50 million in the venture, and Molson Coors Brewing Co. has teamed up with Quebec-based Hexo Corp.
Amanda Feilding: ‘LSD can get deep down and reset the brain – like shaking up a snow globe’: The campaign to legalise LSD in Britain is gathering pace. The force behind the movement is an English countess for whom lobbying – and experimenting – has been a life’s work.
The first hyperloop for cargo will be in India: DP World, UAE's state-owned port operator, signed a partnership with Virgin Hyperloop One to develop a cargo transporter.
POLITICS
Shutdown looms: Negotiations over a bipartisan deal for border-security funding have stalled, aides familiar with the talks and other officials said, raising the specter of another government shutdown at the end of this week.
FT: Talks to avoid second US shutdown are deadlocked
WP: Talks to avert shutdown collapse over immigration enforcement
Today: Trump holds a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas.
Election 2020: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) launches her presidential campaign.
Klobuchar is the fifth woman in Congress to announce her candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
I have Klobuchar as a second tier candidate - with a good fundrasing report she could make the first tier in the coming months.
LAT: Sen. Amy Klobuchar offers Democrats a Midwestern road to the White House
WSJ: Impeachment plan for Fairfax drafted in Virginia
Hold the line on China: The Senate Small Business Committee, which Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) chairs, will release a report on Tuesday "laying out the challenges with China’s campaign of industrial espionage and coercion," according to a source with direct knowledge.
Trade Works for America: The group aims to spend more than $10 million pushing members of Congress to support USMCA. Republicans and industry groups are starting to panic about Trump's NAFTA replacement bill, USMCA.
THOUGHT LEADER TACTIC OF THE DAY
Execute a twelve-month blog post scheme that involves owned and earned media.
COMMERCE
Airbnb hires airline industry veteran for transport push: Fred Reid tapped to help the start-up build ‘seamless’ travel services.
Uber and Airbnb are in a race to provide end to end travel and logistics services.
Reuters: Paris seeks $14 million from Airbnb for illegal adverts
Niall Ferguson joins blockchain project Ampleforth.
"I’m attracted by Ampleforth's mission to reinvent money in a way that protects individual freedom and to create a payments system that treats everyone equally."
Roger McNamee: Not taking responsibility has been central to the culture of Silicon Valley since just after the turn of the millennium: When thought leadership passed from traditional venture capitalists to the “PayPal Mafia”, visionary alumni of the payments start-up led by Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman. The PayPal Mafia were among the first to recognize the shift from a web of pages to a web of people, and their investments and insights propelled the social network generation to success.
Pirelli’s Tronchetti Provera: A contrarian view on dealmaking: Tyremaker’s top boss is willing to ‘go it alone’ in his business transactions. https://on.ft.com/2SoD0i9
Tom Braithwaite: Tech titans try to dazzle with jargon, but just lack substance: Earnings season saw Silicon Valley resort to an obscure performance without any meaningful numbers.
Silicon Valley is supposed to like big data. It is time to provide it.
CNBC: Google's top policy chief calls for 'common rules of the road' globally for tech regulation
CULTURE
Madeleine Albright on diplomacy and dining: The US’s first female secretary of state on entertaining foreign leaders in her Washington home. https://on.ft.com/2DxaReO
@ThatEricAlper: Fun fact: Elvis never performed a single encore, so when he left, he wasn't coming back. Hence the phrase, "Elvis has left the building."
BAFTA Awards: 'The Favourite' dominates with 7 wins, but 'Roma' claims top prize.
Grammy Awards:
Kacey Musgrave is the winner of the album of the year Grammy Award, the night's top honor. Musgraves won for "Golden Hour," which won earlier in the night for best country album.
Childish Gambino's "This Is America" won the Grammy Award for record of the year. Gambino is the alter ego of singer-actor Donald Glover
Dua Lipa is the winner of the best new artist Grammy Award.
Cardi B has made history as the first woman to win the Grammy Award for best rap album.
H.E.R. is the winner of the best R&B album for her self-titled album.
