Talking Points
- China's carbon emissions eclipsed the developed world's combined
- An unguided Chinese rocket poses a more proximate threat
- Australia's PM accidentally endorsed Beijing's Taiwan policy
- The Taliban launched a major offensive in Helmand province
- The death toll rose from recent Tajik-Kyrgyz border clashes
- Donald Trump tried blogging after his Facebook ban was upheld
- Lawyers representing George Floyd's murderer sought a new trial
- Bill and Melinda Gates pulled the plug on their marriage
- The 'joke' cryptocurrency Dogecoin rallied quite seriously
- A paper evidenced the claim that MDMA can treat PTSD
Dive deeper
This week we'll sit in the public gallery of a titanic legal battle. Can Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite, shoot their way into Apple's walled garden? Or will the world's most valuable tech company blow up another opponent. It's damn good entertainment either way.
The problem is (likely) in your palm
In 2007 the first iPhone launched Apple into stratospheric new heights. The company founded by two Steves and a Ronald changed consumer electronics overnight. The dawn of the era of the smartphone was full of possibility; you could do just about everything but microwave dinner with an iPhone. To make possible probable, Apple launched its App Store in 2008. External developers could now create programs that would enrich the user experience. In the years since, Apple has continued along a lofty trajectory. Indeed, in some quarters it hasn't appeared to be constrained by gravity at all.
As CEO Tim Cook crowed earlier in the year, there are one and a half billion iPhones in use. So there is a sizeable chance that you are reading this on one right now. Apple's $2.2tn market capitalisation sits in the category of numbers too large to even bear thinking about. But all this success was not borne of a snappy handset alone – there are a number of arguably better smartphones on the market today. Cook delivers glowing earnings reports quarter after quarter because Apple has made itself indispensable. It invites users into a beautiful garden and then walls them in.
At the gentler end of the spectrum, Apple has created a frictionless user experience with uniform design principles and coherence between its products. But this masks the sharper edges: steep barriers between Apple's system and the outside world. And a willingness to enforce incompatibility that borders on malicious – the removal of headphone jacks from iPhones rankles many years after the fact. Nowhere is this business logic clearer than in the App Store. A developer cannot gain access to 1,650,000,000 iPhone users unless it submits to Apple's terms, uses Apple's payment system, and pays an eye-watering slice of its revenue for the privilege. Cupertino's spokespeople argue that this is crucial to ensure the security and privacy of its users. That is, to put it politely, codswallop doused in hogwash.
Battle Royale
It takes a lot of pluck to stand up to a company the size of Apple. Pluck, and money. Epic Games has both in spades. The North Carolinian developer is known to gamers (of a certain vintage) for creating the gold-standard game engine. The 'Unreal' engine has powered all manner of first-person shooters since 1998. In 2012, the Chinese video-game giant Tencent acquired a 40% stake in Epic and began nudging the developer towards the games-as-a-service model. The model works: the four most-played video-games in the world are developed by Tencent. At Epic, a project that combined world-building with third-person-shooter was already in the works. It was released under the title Fortnite in 2017, and the rest is history. The explosively popular game has 350m devoted users; you'd be hard pressed to find a young person who hasn't played it.
Between 2010 and 2017, Epic wasn't just chummy with Apple, it was inside of it. Its games were regularly featured in Apple's pantomime product demonstrations and Epic engineers got early access to Apple's newest products and systems. Buoyed by the runaway success of Fortnite, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called out the fact that Apple was clipping tickets with a novelty-sized hole punch. 30% of his subscription revenue was being soaked up by Apple. Epic is by no means a small fish; the developer raised $1b earlier in the year on a valuation of $27b. But every number looks minuscule relative to Apple's. In time, Sweeney's language darkened. He went on to describe the App Store fee as a "parasitic loss".
By 2018, Epic had removed its games from Steam, the ubiquitous digital game distribution platform (which also takes a 30% cut of developer revenue) and established its own Epic Game Store. The hitherto functional relationship between developer and tech giant collapsed when the latter rebuffed the very suggestion of allowing the Epic Game Store onto its operating system. This would strike at the very heart of its lucrative business model. The issue festered, unresolved. Last year, Sweeney asked Apple for permission to let it collect payments outside the walled garden – an offer they couldn't not refuse. Apple declined. The very next version of Fortnite was released with a backdoor leading out of Apple's payment system. And just like that one of the world's most successful games was removed from the App Store.
Laying siege to the walled garden
This week saw the opening arguments in the long-awaited legal battle . But a straight up-and-down commercial dispute between a stupendously wealthy powerful company and its erstwhile business partner is not going to set too many hearts racing. Which is why the clever cookies in Epic's legal team have wrapped themselves in the flag of Washington's latest cause célèbre. "The evidence will show unambiguously that Apple is a monopoly ", stated Epic attorney Katherine Forrest on the first day of the trial. Sweeney made sure there was no room for misinterpretation in his own statement, "I wanted the world to see Apple exercises total control over all software on iOS and it can use that control to deny users access to apps."
Epic isn't seeking financial damages – instead it is using the lawsuit to breach the walled garden. A ruling against Apple could upend the entire $100b app industry, and galvanise the tech antitrust movement. App developers all over the world would be freed from the heavy impost and billions would evaporate from Apple's bottom line. On the other hand, a ruling against Epic would be a setback for those trying to rein in America's tech monopolists. Still, no matter what the result in the District Court of Northern California, the tide is turning. On April 30, the European Commission alleged that Apple had 'distorted' the music streaming market following Spotify's earlier complaint that mirrors Epic's. Is that gravity tugging on Apple's core?
Editor's note: It can't be overlooked that Epic released the fourth iteration of its Unreal engine as a subscription service. It takes 5% of sales revenue from developers that use it. Unless, of course, those developers publish through the Epic Games Store. If you can't beat them...
Worldlywise
Israel locked in stasis as Sheikh Jarrah disappears
This week the embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form government after a fourth inconclusive election in just two years. While Bibi's right-wing Likud party took the largest share of votes, he fell well short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. After all these years of political deadlock and corruption, coalition partners in the famously fractious chamber have proven hard to come by. And so President Reuven Rivlin has given opposition leader Yair Lapid 28 days to form government . We wish him luck in herding these cats. He can count on the support of Israel's nominally left-wing and centrist parties, as well as the growing anti-Netanyahu conservative splinter factions. Even still, Lapid will also need to convince some Arab Israeli lawmakers and one sizeable right-wing party to reach the desired 61 seats.
Enter Naftali Bennett , an ultra-right-wing religious nationalist who looks most likely to take his Yamina parliamentarians out of Netanyahu's camp and into Lapid's. Building a coalition to throw out Bibi is one thing: a growing majority of the country have had enough of him. But trying to hold together a coalition of those who wish for peace with Palestine and those who want to annex it entirely isn't just a steep ask; it's absurd. And so don't discount the possibility that Lapid will fail and Israel will go back to the polls for a fifth time in two years.
Whatever happens in parliament, Israel's annexation of the West Bank continues unabated. Jewish extremists have occupied dozens of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah in the passed weeks alone. Some of the families expelled had lived in the neighbourhood since their ancestors were forced out of their villages during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Britain have called upon Israel to immediately halt the settlement building . It goes without saying the expansion is illegal under international law. It also goes without saying that the plea has fallen on deaf ears in Israel.
FKA the United Kingdom
At time of writing, ballots were still being counted from Britain's 'Super Thursday' elections . Up for contest were the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections, the Hartlepool by-election, the mayoralty of London, and a handful of other mayors and councils in England. Labour appears set for more pain after its drubbing in the 2019 general election – a senior Opposition MP conceded on election night that, "We haven't got over the line, that's quite clear from the ballots". It's another crack in the once-impregnable 'red wall'; before Thursday the north-eastern seat of Hartlepool had voted Labour in an unbroken line since its formation. Keir Starmer set expectations earlier in the week by offering to "carry the can" for the results.
But the rejoicing in Downing Street may be muted. Final tallies are also due on Saturday for the Scottish elections. There, polls suggest, the Scottish National Party will swell into majority government . If Nicola Sturgeon ascends as expected, she will press Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a second independence referendum. And support for a free Scotland has only intensified since the Brexit vote. Johnson therefore faces the breakup of a political union that goes back three centuries and will be loathe to grant another vote. And, in London, late polls showed the popular Sadiq Khan leading his Tory challenger.
British politicians are known to beat the drums of war to manufacture a khaki election, but only time will tell how voters were influenced by the high seas showdown off Jersey this week. A pair of gunboats from the Royal Navy was dispatched to keep an eye on a flotilla of angry French fishers blockading the Channel island's port. Les pêcheurs were fairly exercised about a Brexit agreement that will deny them fishing grounds they and their predecessors have plied for centuries. If you're wondering why the French should have access to Britain's territorial waters, we implore you to look up Jersey on a map.
The best of times
Prides over profit
South Africa has announced a ban on the practice of breeding of lions in captivity for commercial gain. They are a lucrative drawcard at petting zoos as cubs. Experts estimate that at least 8,000 of the big cats are held behind bars and a paltry 3,000 remain in the wild. A two-year study found that breeding lions in captivity puts both tourism and conservation of the species at risk. And so, stopping the act will allow big cat populations to prowl the savannah, rather pace their enclosures.
An ancient ritual
Staying in Africa, archaeologists have confirmed the continent’s earliest human burial in a sacred Kenyan cave. The three-year-old child was wrapped in cloth and placed in a grave 78,000 years ago. While parts of the remains were discovered in 2013, excavation of them took years due to their fragility. To analyse the bones, the entire pit had to be dug out, encased in plaster, and then imaged with 3D x-ray equipment. The burial process was a marked development in the growth of our species as social animals.
The worst of times
Colombia cracks down
An excessive use of force against Colombia’s protesters claimed two dozen lives and left hundreds injured . Almost 50,000 uniformed personnel have been deployed across the country after more than a week of marches. The movement initially began in opposition to tax reform, though it later expanded to rally against poverty and police brutality. In response, authorities have used teargas, shot protesters at point-blank range, and charged motorcycles through crowds.
Rail disaster preceded by a litany of issues
The train crash which killed at least 24 and injured dozens more in Mexico City was preventable. The line is said to have been constructed in a rush, causing concerns of structural weakness. Additionally, it was further damaged by a 2017 earthquake which caused cracks in the overpass’ concrete pillars. Those who did flag issues were either ignored or fired . The authorities focused on expansive new projects instead of fixing the line and other existing pieces of infrastructure.
Weekend Reading
The image
The quote
“Almost heaven, West Virginia /
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River /
Life is old there, older than the trees /
Younger than the mountains / growin' like a breeze.”
– John Denver didn't write these iconic opening lyrics this week, but they did reappear in this fantastic piece from The Atlantic on how the country icon sold America to a generation of Asian immigrants. Any excuse to put Take Me Home, Country Roads on is a good one.
The numbers
$26b
- This week the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer upgraded its revenue forecast for 2021 on very favourable coronavirus vaccine sales. It's a nice $11b higher than earlier projections. It's easy making money when the rest of your competitors have pledged to sell at-cost for the duration of the pandemic.
2%
- The number of vaccines administered to date in low-income countries . The Biden administration took a long-overdue step to rectify this injustice by supporting a waiver of vaccine patents. Pfizer's share-price took a hit on the news.
The headline
"A Farmer Moved a 200-Year-Old Stone, and the French-Belgian Border" – The New York Times .
The special mention
There is a nascent but noisy movement in France that seeks to remove Napoleon from his position atop the pantheon of national heroes. The issue of how a society ought to commemorate its questionable figures is a vexed one. So, t his week, we're opting for some audience participation. Are you awarding the special mention to:
a) Napoleon Bonaparte, the lauded Emperor who restored French dignity on the global stage (by conquering most of Europe) and instilled reforms that still shape the country.
b) Napoleon Bonaparte, the weird little Corsican dictator and slaver who ruthlessly dismantled the French Republic.
A few choice long-reads
- What cost a high-flying tech CEO his job? Was it the cargo shorts – or the LSD? Bloomberg Businessweek with a pearler.
- In any discussion about the rise of a Chinese superpower you'll see the familiar canards about democratic and autocratic values trotted out. Foreign Policy asks: what if the West is overestimating its values?
- Modern Australia owes its wealth to coal. It'll owe its destruction to the very same blackish rock too. Financial Times on a dilemma that has paralysed one of the world's wealthiest countries.
Tom Wharton @trwinwriting
