25 talking points for better conversation at cocktails based on what I found interesting this week.
Global Street Smarts
1. More than half of the 750k mourners are expected to queue to pay their respect to Queen Elizabeth II.
2. Queen Elizabeth II met 13 presidents during her 70-year reign: From Truman to Biden, with the exception of LBJ.
3. Charles gets an early poll bump: Some 63% of Britons expect Charles III to do a good job as monarch, compared with 15% who think he’ll do a bad job.
4. Wise people will tell you we have lived for 77 years without a nuclear war, but there have been 2,121 tests done since the first in July 1945 involving 2,476 nuclear devices. So it's better to say we have lived for 77 years without nuclear weapons being used on a battlefield.
5. Freedom is possible: The Wagner Group, a pro-Kremlin mercenary organization, has told inmates at a Russian prison that they will be set free if they survive a 6-month tour of duty in Ukraine but executed if they try to desert.
6. On the sidelines of a summit in Uzbekistan, Putin and Xi held their first face-to-face meeting since February, when the two declared a “no-limits” partnership less than three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
7. China emerges as IMF competitor as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Argentina have together received more than $32bn since 2017
8. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a $6.5bn bill to fund weapons for Taiwan.
9. US invites Mexico to join an effort to shift semiconductor production from Asia to North America.
10. 80% of the global workforce does not sit behind a computer: The Deskless Workforce numbers 2.7 billion people.
11. US mortgage rates shot above 6 percent for the first time in 14 years.
12. Ford's plug-in Mach-E is expected to outsell the traditional Mustang by 2027.
13. Gap + Kanye West end their partnership.
14. Citigroup has opened a hub for junior bankers in the Spanish beach town of Málaga as part of its effort to lure talent.
15. Tencent Music plans to start trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
16. SoftBank is considering a third Vision Fund.
17. Five main reasons why the Bloomberg Terminal succeeds: knowing their client preferences; the cost of substitution; a superior brand and network effects; a disciplined pricing strategy; and a long-term vision around product expansion.
18. Coca-Cola Japan + Kirin to develop health drinks.
19. Tonal is raising money at a $1.9bn valuation.
20. Shell announced the exit of CEO Ben van Beurden as the oil giant looks to reinvent itself under group renewables boss Wael Sawan.
21. Ethereum finishes long-awaited energy-saving ‘merge’ upgrade.
22. The NFL, estimated revenues of $18bn last year, generated more cash than the NBA and MLB combined.
23. LAFC's Gareth Bale has MLS's top-selling jersey.
24. Barclays projects the esports 'ecosystem' could be worth $9.6bn by 2030.
25. Apple + Amazon passed on LIV Golf media rights.
-Marc
Pro-tip: The picture is of the lobby bar at Fasano Hotel in São Paulo.
