Welcome to the Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business and cultural news from around the world.

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PRES. PETRO BRINGS GUERRILLAS TO THE PEACE TABLE

Gustavo Petro, the president of Columbia who once chose his nom de guerre from the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, is setting out to end 60 years of turmoil as he engages in new peace talks with leftist guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The talks, which began on Monday in Venezuela, are a significant first step in President Petro’s plans to agree ‘total peace’ with as many active groups of illegal combatants in Colombia as possible, who have been responsible for the region’s long history of civil war.

The ELN, one of the largest of these groups, emerged in the 1960s aiming to disrupt the pattern of alternating Liberal and Conservative governments in Colombia. While these governments were politically and economically stable, they were perceived as closed-off and disinterested in the situations of the country’s Black and indigenous populations, as well as its poor. Between 1985 and 2018, the conflict in Colombia saw 450,000 deaths.

President Petro’s plan was formalised in Colombia’s congress in August. Although numerous groups have shown a willingness to negotiate, with the ELN talks this week being the first since dialogues with the army collapsed into violence in 2019, there has also been a rise in killings as combatants have raced to gain a strategic lead ahead of negotiations.

Significantly, the president was himself a member of the guerrilla faction M-19 in his youth, assuming the name Aureliano which was taken from Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. He has long since distanced himself from his militant history as Aureliano, but perhaps this experience and his promises of true reform will assist him as he strives to bring ‘total peace’ to a region that may have forgotten what this means.

BATTLE OF THE BOBS

An internal revolt, a rivalry, a $10m consultancy deal and a comeback story. Not quite the plot of a Disney film.

This week all eyes were on Disney as Bob Chapek was ousted as CEO, after being at the helm of the company for three years. This followed disastrous earnings results which saw losses of $1.5bn and the company’s operating income plunging by 91 per cent to $83mn.

The results were the final blow for Chapek who was already facing an internal campaign by executives who had questioned his ability to lead. Stunningly, it has been announced that his predecessor Bob Iger will be returning. Iger, who was CEO for 15 years, is often credited with building Disney into the behemoth it is today.

Chapek had battled challenges from the beginning of his tenure. Firstly, the closure of cinemas and theme parks in the pandemic, then there was the botched response to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill and finally and perhaps most critically, the financial consequences of going head-to-head with Netflix in a streaming war.

It also doesn’t seem that Disney had much confidence in Chapek in the first place – awarding Iger a $10m consultancy deal to advise his successor when he stood down. This setup was far from ideal, with rumours of a Bob vs Bob feud bubbling and reports that Iger was frustrated that his advice was not being taken.

While the markets have rallied behind Iger’s return, Disney seems to have a succession problem. Given Iger delayed his retirement four times in his efforts to find a candidate and handpicked Chapek, we can safely say succession planning is not his strong suit. And this problem is historic. In the 1990s there was a similar battle – this time between two Mikes - Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz which resulted in a pay-out of $140m for the latter.

With a brutal streaming battle afoot and two years on the clock to find the next CEO, Disney may want to consider spreading this responsibility and letting Iger focus on what he does best.

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UNIONS STRIKE WHILE THE IRON’S HOT

This week, tram drivers working on the West Midlands Metro in England received a 20% pay increase, after Unite the Union announced the workers may strike from the end of November.

News of this union victory from the Black Country comes as workers across Britain gear up for a new wave of strike action in the lead-up to Christmas.

Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) General Secretary Mick Lynch made a visit to the Department of Transport on Thursday after his announcement of further strikes from his members. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the meeting between the two was productive, and while Lynch seemed to be thankful a dialogue had been started, the strikes over Christmas will nonetheless go ahead.

On Tuesday, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) Dave Ward challenged the CEO of Royal Mail Simon Thompson to a live debate on Sky News. Meanwhile, on Thursday, thousands of postal workers joined the picket line as well, beginning their own 48-hour strike over pay and conditions.

In addition, the Royal College of Nursing confirmed this week that they were planning on going ahead with strike action in December, the first time in their 106-year history.

And if that wasn’t enough, in education we saw another rare moment as Scotland’s teachers also went on strike for the first since the 1980s. Meanwhile, over 70,000 staff in our universities also went on strike this week, as the University and Colleges Union strike over pay, working conditions and pensions.

This year has seen these strikes on an unprecedented scale in recent times. For some, such as the Metro workers in the Midlands, their disputes have already been solved at the turn of the winter weather, but for both unions and the Government, it’s looking like a tough few months of debate over pay, terms, and working conditions.

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NASA (REALLY) PROMISES THE MOON

On Wednesday, Artemis 1, the most powerful space rocket in history, successfully set out from Cape Canaveral, Florida on its journey to the moon and back. Over 25 days, the rocket, named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, will cover 1.3 million miles, come within 60 miles of the Moon, and return to the Pacific Ocean on December 11th at a speed of 25,000mph and temperature of 2,800C. Artemis 1 is not manned but intends to pave the way for Artemis 2 and 3, which will carry crew to the moon for the first time in half a century.

Aboard Artemis 1 are mannequins named Helga and Zohar, who will be testing the impact of cosmic radiation. For the first time in history, these mannequins are modelled on the female body, in preparation for Artemis 3 scheduled for 2025, which NASA has pledged will place the first female astronaut and the first astronaut of colour on the moon.

Howard Hu, leading this programme for NASA, has said that astronauts will be living on the moon for ‘durations’ by 2030. “We are going to have people living for durations, depending on how long we will be on the surface. They will have habitats, they will have rovers on the ground… We are going to be sending people down to the surface, and they are going to be living on that surface and doing science.”

It's safe to say that humans living in space is still a way off, but if successful, the Artemis programme will represent an important step in man’s space exploration journey. As NASA boss Bill Nelson told The Guardian last year, “Why the moon?... Because the goal is Mars.”

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EXCEL-LENCE PERSONIFIED

Pivot tables, V lookups, and nested ifs: Excel power users may as well speak a different language. In offices across the world, acolytes of the software speak of the wonder and wizardry of Excel. The rest of us ‘normies’ who might be able to use it to “do adding” and, at a push, calculate an average, can only look on in quiet wonderment.

It may not have created its own religion, but its following has been sufficiently dedicated to turn Excel usage into a competitive sport. This week, The Times covered the outcome of the final of the Microsoft Excel world championship and a short profile of its winner, Andrew Ngai, director of actuary firm, Taylor Fry.

Remarkably, the championship attracts a considerable fanbase, with live-action broadcasts on YouTube. The competition’s chairman suggested it simply reflected the increasing popularity of electronic sports or ‘esports’ – which are seeing more players and spectators. So if watching others play Call of Duty, Minecraft or FIFA isn’t your thing, you can observe the spreadsheet elites solve data problems at rapid pace.

The charming interview with Mr Ngai concluded “The beauty is that [Excel] is way more powerful than people imagine”. Mr Ngai was referring to its problem-solving capability, but Excel’s cultural influence must be far stronger than the people of Microsoft could have imagined when they launched the programme nearly 40 years ago.

And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audley.uk.com.

For now, that’s the weekend box officially closed.

Weekend Box: Disney drama, NASA launch & more

Welcome to the Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business and cultural news from around the world.