Ruction
A disturbance or quarrel.
The Ruction is a weekly rundown of the top ten emerging issues from the past seven days shaping commerce + culture.
The Ruction is for communication strategists and global business executives.
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Memo: The Ruction | Edition 8, February 5, 2021
1. The army seized power in a coup in Myanmar and arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, the ruling party leader. The army claimed that the ruling party won by a landslide in November was fraudulent and had to intervene to ensure a fair poll could be conducted. The military said it would return power to civilians within a year. Western governments face a difficult decision about how to respond without pushing the country closer to China.
2. Mario Draghi, a former head of the European Central Bank, was asked by Italy's president to try to form a government. The current prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has lost his majority in a spat over covid-recovery funds. Draghi must clean up a mess left by squabbling politicians.
3. Britain formally submitted a request to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free-trade agreement among 11 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, and Mexico.
4. "America is back": Biden made his first foreign policy address. Some diplomats said Biden's speech was a much-needed antidote to distrust and dismissiveness at the State Department during the Trump administration.
5. SpaceX to launch the first all-civilian mission this year: The multiday flight will be led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is also financing the mission. One seat onboard the spacecraft is to be raffled off for charity. A 30-second commercial to announce the opportunity to join the crew will run during the Super Bowl.
6. Samsung is considering Austin as one of the sites for a new $17 billion chip plant that the South Korean firm said could create 1,800 jobs, according to Texas state officials' documents.
7. CVC in talks to buy a stake in San Antonio Spurs at a $1.3 billion valuation: The move that signals how private equity is poised to reshape National Basketball Association franchises' ownership structures.
8. Ford will install Google's Android operating system on all new vehicles starting in 2023, giving passengers access to more personalized services and potentially unlocking new business lines for the automaker. Ford is embracing digital technology and talking about it loudly to catch up with both Tesla and General Motors.
9. Uber expanded its home-delivery business by agreeing to buy Drizly, which supplies alcohol to your door, for $1.1 billion. One estimate reckons that online sales of alcohol grew by 80% in America last year due to lockdown.
10. Jeff Bezos said he would stand down as Amazon's chief executive later this year and devote more time to his climate-change project, the Washington Post, and other business and charity interests.
