Weekend Digest: The fireworks on Jupiter and bad rap from China edition

TV PREVIEW
On this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics, which airs Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Channel 7 in Central Arkansas and in Northeast Arkansas on KAIT-NBC, Sundays at 10 a.m.:

• Cotton Conversation
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is our guest for a wide-ranging conversation on the Benghazi report, the Istanbul bombing, Donald Trump’s comments on trade, the upcoming GOP convention, veterans legislation, and medical marijuana.

• Talk Politics
Our politics roundtable takes a legal turn. Former Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and KATV’s lead capitol reporter Janelle Lilley examine three big U.S. Supreme Court cases. What are the ramifications for Arkansas?

• Daily Digital Preview
And we’ll preview our upcoming daily digital newscast. Who will join us during the first week? What can you expect? And how can you get it? We’ll walk you through the setup.

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics in Central Arkansas on KATV Channel 7, Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and in Northeast Arkansas on KAIT-NBC, Sundays at 10 a.m.

THINK THE U.S. RELATIONSHIP WITH BRITAIN IS ‘SPECIAL?’ THINK AGAIN
Harvard Business Review says, “The U.S.’s ‘special relationship’ is with Germany, not Britain.”

“The day after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, President Obama went on record to reassure Prime Minister David Cameron that there would be no major change in American policy toward Britain. The two countries, he said, had always had a special relationship and this would continue.”

Yet the prevalence of talk about a special relationship is misleading. Yes, the U.S. and Britain have cooperated closely at times, particularly during World War II. But the two nations’ relationship has been far less unique than the myth of a “special relationship” suggests. In fact, history suggests it is Germany’s relationship with the U.S. that lives up to the title – especially as it pertains to the economy.

Why so? Go to this link to find out.

CHECK OUT THE PROGRESS ON APPLE’S SPACESHIP CAMPUS
It’s shape is a circle, like a giant spaceship, and it will be known as Apple Campus 2.  It was the brainchild of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who pitched the idea to the city of Cupertino before his death.

When complete, Apple’s new headquarters will feature 2.8 million square feet of office space and house 12,000 employees. It will be powered by 700,000 square feet of solar panels and some small fuel cells that generate energy through a chemical reaction, feature more than 7,000 trees, underground parking, and on-campus restaurants. Apple hopes to move in starting next year.

Want to see the latest progress at Apple’s new headquarters now under construction in Silicon Valley? One documentarian has you covered.

Matthew Roberts has published his latest video taken from a drone of Apple’s Campus 2 in Cupertino, Calif., including a peek at the main “spaceship” building as well as some of the others nearby.

Take a look at this link.

WHY EVEN THE C-SUITE MIGHT NOT BE SAFE FROM AUTOMATION
Algorithms are already outperforming execs in key C-level tasks at a time when anti-hierarchical headwinds are blowing stronger, posts Fast Company.

In 2013, two University of Oxford professors published a study analyzing 702 different occupations. Of those, they determined that the role of chief executive fell within the 10% they deemed “not computerizable.”

There’s reason to think twice about that. Here’s why.

GOOGLE PLUGS IN BIG-TIME WITH JAPAN
Google just plugged itself straight into Japan, reports Wired.

This week, a new undersea fiber-optic cable funded by Google and a consortium of Asian telecommunications companies went online. Dubbed Faster, the cable stretches about 5,600 miles from Oregon to two landing points in Japan. It’s the fastest, highest capacity trans-Pacific undersea cable ever built.

The amount of terabits it can deliver per second is staggering, and “will also help make the Internet more resilient in earthquake prone parts of Asia.

And what about those tsunami zones? For the full read, click here.

A ‘TINY FIRM’ TO DESIGN OBAMA’S LIBRARY
Beating out giant firms, “The Obama library in Chicago now has an architect: Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, a husband-and-wife duo whose resume includes the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, the LeFrak Lakeside Center in Brooklyn, and several university buildings across the US.”

Williams and Tsien’s eponymous New York firm beat out six others for the job, which consists of a library to house the Presidential archives and a museum “focusing on the Obama Presidency and issues of our time,” according to the Obama Foundation. Interactive Design Architects, a Chicago architecture studio, will collaborate with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects on the project.

The husband-wife team tends to build big, airy, modernist structures with expansive courtyards. Their most famous buildings would have a Brutalist edge, if not for the ethereal glow that comes from all the limestone and glass windows.

For more on this story from Wired, follow this link.

DONALD TRUMP STARTS A TRADE WAR – WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Washington Post reports, “The unusual battle between Donald Trump and much of the Republican establishment on international trade is rapidly escalating, as the presumptive GOP nominee rails against business groups and members of his own party while defenders of sweeping free-trade pacts rebuke him.

The rift deepened on Thursday when Trump called out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by name for the second straight day and pilloried the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, two landmark trade agreements broadly supported by Republicans.”

“I’m messing with bad deals that we could make good,” Trump said in his speech at a shuttered manufacturing plant in Manchester, N.H. “I could make good deals. Why would somebody fight that? I mean, the U.S. Chamber fights. They said, ‘Oh, Trump wants to stop free trade.’ I don’t want to stop free trade. I love free trade, but I want to make great deals.”

The mogul’s comments followed a flurry of insults throughout the week aimed at advocates of broad trade accords, which have been championed by Republican leaders for decades as crucial engines of capitalism. Trump accused TPP backers, for example, of wanting to “rape” the United States.

For the complete story, connect here.

BREAKING DOWN TRUMP’S BRUTAL JUNE
NBC News posts: Let us count the ways in which Donald Trump lost/squandered the month of June in his race against Hillary Clinton:

The polls: Trump now trails Clinton by six points nationally in the RealClearPolitics average, when Clinton’s lead had been just one point in late May.

The money: He had just $1.3 million in the bank, according to the last campaign-finance report, versus $42 million for Clinton.

The ads: For the month, Clinton and her allies outspent Team Trump over the battleground-state airwaves, $26 million to $0, though the NRA starts spending $2 million on Trump’s behalf in battlegrounds starting today (more on that below).

The travel: Despite having a month-long head start on Clinton in getting to the general election, the only battleground states that Trump has visited more than his rival are Pennsylvania (2 visits to 1), Florida (1 to 0), and New Hampshire (2 to 0, including today’s event), while Clinton has the advantage in Ohio (3 to 1) and North Carolina (2 to 1, including Tuesday’s upcoming appearance with President Obama).

The controversies: Whether it was the attack on the federal judge or his reaction to the Orlando terrorist attack, the attention Trump received in June was mostly negative.

Go to this link to learn the NBC News prescription for stopping the slide as the GOP convention approaches.

CLINTON RESHUFFLES THE SWING STATE DECK
Wisconsin is out. North Carolina is in.

POLITICO posts, “The sudden interest in North Carolina is a sign of Donald Trump’s recent slide in the polls.”

When President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton take the stage for their symbolic joint rally on July 5, it will send a subtle but unmistakable signal about the evolving outline of the swing state map.

By announcing Wednesday that the rescheduled event will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, rather than Green Bay, Wisconsin – the original plan several weeks ago – the presumptive Democratic nominee’s campaign telegraphed that it sees newfound promise in a battleground state that narrowly rejected Obama in 2012.

For the full story plus analysis, click here.

LOSING PAT SUMMITT, LEGENDARY TENNESSEE BASKETBALL COACH
“Pat Summitt, who was at the forefront of a broad ascendance of women’s sports, winning eight national basketball championships at the University of Tennessee and more games than any other Division I college coach, male or female, died on Tuesday. She was 64,” reports The New York Times.

Summitt stepped down after 38 seasons and 1,098 victories at Tennessee in April 2012, at 59, less than a year after she learned she had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Go to this link to learn more about the life and career of this all-time great coach and mentor, “who belonged on the Mount Rushmore of women’s sports.”

A FIREWORKS PARTY ON JUPITER
“On Jupiter, Fourth of July fireworks last year-round.”

The Los Angeles Times posts on Jupiter’s never-ending auroras, which seem to be “throwing a fireworks party” for an approaching NASA spacecraft.

New images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a new feature of the gas giant: brilliant blue auroras.

“These auroras are very dramatic and among the most active I have ever seen,” Jonathan Nichols, who studies auroras at the University of Leicester, said in a statement. “It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a fireworks party for the imminent arrival of Juno.”

“During its 20-month mission, it will measure the composition of the gas giant’s atmosphere, search for a core and help determine how the planet itself — and solar systems in general – are formed.”

But what causes this amazing glow? Find out and take a look at some fantastic images at this link.

CHINA TRIES TO DISPEL BAD RAP WITH ACTUAL BAD RAP
The World Post highlights the “next hot track,” which comes from China’s Communist Youth League.

That’s right, a wing of the Chinese Communist Party just released a rap video to correct any misconceptions foreigners might have about their country.

The song runs down a list of problems that China has faced, such as struggles with pollution, food safety challenges like the melamine milk scandal, vaccination issues, illegal business operations and crooked politicians. It also tries to explain mainland China’s relationship with Taiwan.

Whew. That’s quite a heavy list for a rap song. Want to hear it? Go to this link.