| | | | | | | Presented By Facebook | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·Oct 23, 2020 | | ☕ Happy Friday! Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,181 words ... 4½ minutes. - 💻 Today at 3:30 p.m. ET, join Margaret Talev, Stef Kight and me for an Axios virtual event with Gen. H.R. McMaster, Voto Latino CEO and president María Teresa Kumar and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.). Register here.
| | | | | | 1 big thing: "This guy" | | Photos: Brendan Smialowski, Jim Watson and Morry Gash via Getty Images Joe Biden twice referred to President Trump as "this guy," and Trump called the former vice president's family "like a vacuum cleaner" for foreign money. - "Oh, God," Biden said during an exchange on race.
- Why it matters: The personal venom — during the final presidential debate, in Nashville last night — was a reminder that even during a more normal debate, nothing this year is normal.
Foreshadowing the crises he'd face if elected, Biden said America is "about to go into a dark winter" because of the coronavirus: - "220,000 Americans dead. If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this: ... Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America."
- Trump responded that he expects a vaccine "within a matter of weeks": "I don't think we're going to have a dark winter, at all. ... We have to open our country."
An exchange that captures the two in a nutshell: - Biden: "It's not about his family and my family. It's about your family. And your family's hurting badly. ... [Middle-class families are] sitting at the kitchen table this morning deciding: 'Well, we can't get new tires — they're bald — because we have to wait another month or so.'"
- Trump: "That's a typical political statement. Let's get off this China thing, and then he looks [in mocking tone]: 'The family around the table,' everything. Just a typical politician when I see that. I'm not a typical politician. That's why I got elected."
Go deeper: Our "Axios AM Thought Bubble" on the debate hit your inbox just after 11 p.m. ET. 🎧 Hear our debate postgame on the "Axios Today" podcast with host Niala Boodhoo. |     | | | | | | 2. Climate change goes mainstream |  | | | Photo: Jim Bourg via AP | | | | The most notable part of last night's debate on climate change was the fact it was included as a topic and assumed as a fact, Axios' Amy Harder writes. - Why it matters: This is the first time in U.S. history that climate change was a featured issue at a presidential debate. It signals how the problem has become part of the fabric of our society. More extreme weather, like the wildfires ravaging Colorado, is pushing the topic to the front-burner.
Moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News asked how the candidates would create jobs while also tackling climate change and how to combat environmental justice. - That's the concept that communities of color often live closest to polluting facilities — a dilemma receiving renewed attention as the nation focuses more on systemic racism.
What we're watching ... Expect this exchange to come back again during the campaign's final 11 days: - Trump: "Would you close down the oil industry?"
- Biden: "By the way, I would transition from the oil industry, yes."
- Trump: "Ohhhhh, that's a big statement."
- Biden: "I will transition. It is a big statement. ... Because the oil industry pollutes, significantly. ... [I]t has to be replaced by renewable energy over time."
- Trump: "Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio?"
- Biden: "He takes everything out of context."
Share this story. | | | | | | | | 3. The cliffhanger could be ... Georgia |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Georgia hasn't backed a Democrat for president since 1992. But the state's changing demographics may prove pivotal this year — not only to Trump vs. Biden, but also to whether Democrats take control of the Senate, Axios' Margaret Talev and Alexi McCammond report. - Why it matters: If the fate of the Senate does hinge on Georgia, it might be January before we know the outcome.
Here's why it could come down to Georgia: - Not just one, but both of Georgia's Senate seats are on the ballot this year because of the special election to fill Johnny Isakson's seat.
- Polling shows they're crowded or close races with no clear winner.
- Georgia law sends general-election races to a Jan. 5 runoff if no one hits 50%+ — and, right now, no candidate is reaching 50% in the polling. So if control of the Senate isn't clear by then, we'll have to wait for the Georgia runoffs.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | We support updated internet regulations | | |  | | | | At Facebook, we continue to take steps to improve our platforms such as tripling our safety and security teams, building privacy tools, and more. Updated internet regulations will set standards for addressing today's toughest challenges. Read why we support updated internet regulations. | | | | | | 4. Pic du jour | | | | | | | | | | 5. AI can predict Alzheimer's | | A new AI model is able to predict future onset of Alzheimer's disease around seven years in advance of diagnosis using short speech tests, Axios' Caitlin Owens writes from a new study in The Lancet's EClinicalMedicine. - Why it matters: There's still no treatment for Alzheimer's. So there could be limited real-world demand by patients for such a tool today. But it could also be valuable for recruiting patients for clinical trials for potential treatments.
The model, developed by IBM Research and Pfizer, analyzed speech samples provided by the Framingham Heart Study, a long-term study that has been tracking thousands of people since 1948. | | | | | | | | 6. Texas, L.A. lead way back into office |  Reproduced from Kastle Access Control Systems. Chart: Axios Visuals A running week-to-week tally of office space occupancy rates has found that New York City's rate keeps edging up, although the top rates are in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Austin, L.A. and Philly, Jennifer A. Kingson writes in Axios Cities. Kastle Systems, which runs electronic card-swipe entry systems for about 3,600 buildings and 41,000 businesses (and has more than 1.3 million cardholders), has run the "Kastle Return-to-Work Barometer" since the virus started hitting hard, tracking office occupancy rates in 10 big cities every week. - Cities range from a low of 14% in San Francisco to a high of more than 40% in Dallas, Mark Ein, chairman of Kastle Systems, told Axios.
- The 10-city average continues to rise, and is now at 27%.
Sign up for the weekly Axios Cities. | | | | | | | | 7. What Palantir knows | | Illustration: Nikita Iziev for The New York Times The New York Times Magazine's Michael Steinberger talks with Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, the tech giant that helps government and law enforcement decipher vast amounts of data, with customers paying $10 million to $100 million annually: Palantir merged around two billion data elements related to the COVID-19 outbreak in less than three weeks. Once the data has been integrated, it can be presented in the form of tables, graphs, timelines, heat maps, artificial-intelligence models, histograms, spider diagrams and geospatial analysis. It is a digital panopticon, and having sat through several Palantir demos, I can report that the interface is impressive — the search results are strikingly elegant and easy to understand. Keep reading (subscription). - 🎬 See my "Axios on HBO" interview with Karp.
| | | | | | | | 8. Investors around world prefer Biden |  Reproduced from UBS Investor Sentiment Q3 2020. Chart: Axios Visuals Investors around the world prefer Joe Biden, according to a UBS survey of nearly 3,000 investment professionals in 14 global markets, Dion Rabouin writes in Axios Markets. - 72% of investors said they plan to adjust their portfolios ahead of the election.
| | | | | | | | 9. So long, Santa | | Santa takes a break during Macy's Great American Christmas in 1976. Photo: Gary Fong/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Macy's said Santa Claus won't be greeting kids at its flagship New York store this year due to the coronavirus, interrupting a holiday tradition started nearly 160 years ago, AP reports. - Before taking a picture with the jolly old man, crowds walk in tight quarters through a maze-like Santaland that's filled with Christmas trees, running toy trains and elves in green costumes.
- Santa also won't be showing up at its Chicago and San Francisco stores, which have similar Santalands.
The Macy's decision differs from big mall owners, which will still go ahead with in-person Santa visits by banning kids from sitting on his lap and making sure they stay six feet away from him. | | | | | | | | 10. 1 tweet to go | | | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | We support updated internet regulations | | |  | | | We support new regulations that hold companies, including Facebook, accountable on issues including: - Combating foreign election interference.
- Protecting people's privacy.
- Enabling safe and easy data transfer between platforms.
Read why we support updated internet regulations. | | | | 📱 Thanks for starting your day with us. Invite your friends to sign up for Axios AM/PM. | |
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