July 29, 2020

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

International

Last week, Trump admitted to speaking to Putin about the economy and the START Treaty. (Trump wants to add China to the treaty which expires in 2021, and Trump made no mention of Russian bounties on US soldiers, but what’s a little bounty amongst friends.) While Trump and China each call the new treaty a non-starter (no pun intended), Russia has been shoring up its own military. Russia is testing anti-satellite weapons, in theory, run by their own Space Force. Putin has also announced that the Russian navy will be expanded to include hypersonic nuclear weapons. China is also expanding its naval presence in the South China Sea, as tensions with the US and Australia erupt. We didn’t think 2020 was missing a nuclear war…

Italexit: While the European Union just passed a €750B coronavirus recovery plan, Italy is playing with the idea of leaving the EU. Italy’s economy (and population) were extremely hard hit from the virus, and the economy is expected to shrink by 11% this year. Italy had a difficult time dealing with austerity after the 2008 financial crisis, and some of its most populist politicians don’t feel like putting up with it again (49% of Italians don’t want to remain in the EU, and most feel like Europe abandoned them during the pandemic).

Technology

Today we’ll see or hear from the CEOs of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook as they testify in front of the Antitrust subcommittee of the US House. Antitrust laws in the US look to protect consumers from predatory behavior and create an open, fair market. While we might have issues with the information the technology companies know about us, our privacy (which has been the subject most under attack) is not protected by antitrust. Also, most consumers are actually happy to have their technology all in one place — why search anywhere but the App Store for a new game or Amazon for a new product? Most of the technology companies have overwhelmingly positive brand identities in the US as well.

Apple will be under fire for its dominance in the App store, and the fact that it charges a 30% commission for purchases made there. One new wrinkle, the pandemic forced Airbnb and ClassPass to change their business models: both chose to offer virtual experiences (online interactions with hosts such as cooking classes or wellness lessons with Olympic athletes for Airbnb and online fitness instruction for ClassPass). Apple previously had not taken commission from these entities because of a loophole — either the purchases took place on the companies’ websites or the purchases were physical/in-person. Apple is now demanding its 30% commission since the experiences are virtual.

Facebook is expected to defend its social media platform and its control over Instagram and WhatsApp as patriotic: keep Facebook as one entity, and it can better fight competition from Chinese technology companies.

Google will have to defend its ownership of YouTube, its move into Google Shopping and its prominence in search. And why Google search tends to favor its own products.

While Bezos will defend Amazon’s stranglehold over e-commerce and its effective insider information as it collects data regarding product sales, we’ll see if the subcommittee goes after its B2B sector in Amazon Web Services. On a side note, ahead of the hearings MSCHF, a product design startup, has begun selling a device called Alexagate which attaches to an Amazon Echo and stops Alexa from listening.

The Giving Pledge: Jeff Bezos is the richest American, and despite being worth $180B, he is the only one in the top five richest not to have signed The Giving Pledge (Warren Buffet’s philanthropic campaign to encourage the wealthiest to donate the majority of their holdings to charitable causes). Bezos’s ex-wife, however, MacKenzie Scott has already donated $1.7B in the past year to causes ranging from racial equity to climate change to gender equality.

You are not being paranoid: Using technology comes with drawbacks: we are being watched by advertisers, our service providers, the government (through closed circuit cameras), and of course Siri/Alexa and whoever else we’ve let into our Zoom calls. Now car companies are getting into the act. Modern cars are already more computer than combustion engine, and now companies are building in more microphones and monitors not necessarily to help us drive but to read our emotions. The European Union has even mandated that new cars must be equipped with driver monitoring by 2022. (Rite Aid has been using facial recognition software in over 200 stores across the US supposedly to deter theft.) Next time you pick up your phone, yell from road rage or sneeze, get ready for your car to remind you to pay attention to the road. We think we’d prefer an actual backseat driver than an AI-based one.

Media Snippets

Music Licensing: TikTok has signed a licensing agreement with the National Music Publishers’ Association. The NMPA had previously threatened to sue TikTok as its users continually violate US copyright law by using snippets of popular music. Members of the NMPA will be able to opt-in to the licensing agreement, although we are not clear on the terms how songwriters/producers will be paid or what happens if a creator opts out.

Live Streaming: Not sure if we’d call this media or a new way to shop online, but several luxury brands are switching to live streaming shopping events as retail stores are closed due to the pandemic. While live streaming shopping is already popular in China, it is now just moving into Western brands. You can now shop one-on-one with Gucci Live associates from its signature store in Florence, or shop with designers through Moda Operandi. QVC has a modern update and its coming for your phone!

Talk Show Queen: Oprah Winfrey is coming back to the talk show circuit, although she’ll host her new interview series, The Oprah Conversation, on Apple+. Oprah hopes to “bring humanity back to the conversation.” The first episode, dropping July 30, is entitled “How to Be an Antiracist,” and will feature several interviews with prominent activists. Don’t have Apple+, her SuperSoul Conversations podcast will still run.

Space

Set your DVRs, this week will see some great space activity. On Thursday, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is scheduled to liftoff at 750AM ET. Perseverance will take seven months to reach Mars, and is scheduled to land in February 2021. Perseverance’s two year mission will collect Martian soil, and she is also carrying the Ingenuity helicopter — the first of its kind on an alien planet. Watch Perseverance lift off here.

On Saturday, SpaceX Dragon will disembark from the International Space Station, and return to Earth about 30 hours later. The astronauts left Earth just two months ago (we know, it feels like decades in pandemic time). Watch the astronauts in action at 734PM ET Saturday and touchdown in the Atlantic Ocean at 242PM ET on Sunday.

NASA also announced that Megan McArthur, the wife of Astronaut Bob Behnken (who will return along with Astronaut Doug Hurley) was chosen to pilot SpaceX’s Crew Dragon’s second mission in the spring.

Space Tourism: If you happen to have $250K to spare, Virgin Galactic unveiled the cabin of its VSS Unity — its spacecraft which is expected to launch later this year. Virgin Galactic is focusing on the customer experience, installing multiple windows and cameras. The company even hired the former president of Disney’s international theme parks to be its CEO.

Sports

Dr. Anthony Fauci through the opening pitch for the shortened 2020 MLB season, and his baseball card set an all-time high print run record. No word yet on whether the season will continue following 17 members of the Marlins testing positive for COVID. Unlike MLS or NBA which kept their teams in the bubble of Disney World, the MLB decided to allow teams to travel. One alternative, Governor Cuomo has invited all the teams to play in NY, creating a semi-bubble.

Culture

Want to watch a 60ft tall robot take its first steps? We are not sure of the purpose of the Gundam robot (anime inspired Transformer come to life), but we suspect the tourist attraction was meant to lure Olympic tourists. We’ll wait and see if Godzilla answers the call to action.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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