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| Presented By American Bankers Association |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Apr 02, 2021 |
| 🕊️ Good morning. It's Good Friday. - Smart Brevity™ count: 1,168 words ... 4½ minutes.
⚡ Breaking ... Corporate criticism of GOP-led voting bills spreads to Texas: American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, came out against voting restrictions likely headed to Gov. Greg Abbott in coming weeks. —AP |
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| 1 big thing ... Exclusive data: How Trump made inroads with Latinos |
 Reproduced from Equis Labs. Chart: Axios Visuals A new analysis of U.S. voters suggests that the pandemic may have helped drive former President Donald Trump's surprising increase in support from Latinos last November, Jonathan Swan reports. - By shifting Trump's rhetoric from immigration to fears around the economic impact of shutdowns, the virus gave conservative and low-information Latino voters space to back Trump even if they shunned him in 2016, according to preliminary findings by research firm Equis.
- Some feared economic damage from school and business closures more than getting sick.
Between the lines: Trump's biggest gains were, surprisingly, among Hispanic women — a group that still overwhelmingly rejected the former president but softened on him in 2020. - Trump's "baseline shift" improvement among Latino voters was bigger and broader than shifts among African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Keep reading. |
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| 2. Boycott threats for 2022 World Cup, Olympics |
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| The German national team prior to a FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar qualifying match in Germany on March 25. Photo: Tobias Schwarz/Pool/Getty Images |
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| The hosts of both of next year's two biggest global sporting events are facing boycott threats, Axios' Kendall Baker and David Lawler report. When European qualifying for the 2022 World Cup kicked off in March, players from three countries seized the opportunity to protest the human rights conditions in host nation Qatar. - Qatar has faced scrutiny over the poor conditions migrant workers are facing as they help build the infrastructure for the tournament.
- Norway donned shirts that said "Human rights on and off the pitch" ... Germany spelled out "human rights" on their shirts ... The Netherlands wore shirts that said: "Football supports change."
There are also calls for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. That pressure is coming mainly from human rights groups and politicians, rather than athletes. - It's hard to envision stars with the profile of Germany's top soccer players taking a similar stand against the mass detentions in Xinjiang, because so much money is at stake for the players and their clubs.
What to watch: Sponsors of the 2022 Olympics are under pressure to pull out, or at least to speak out. |
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| 3. How GOP plans to strafe Biden plan |
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| Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios |
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| GOP aides tell Axios they'll try to convince voters that infrastructure legislation is more of a wish list for progressives than about roads and bridges, Axios' Lachlan Markay and Alayna Treene write. - "Joe Biden's 'infrastructure' plan is not really about infrastructure, it is another multi-trillion dollar far left wish list," declared an RNC email.
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Biden's proposal "would spend more money just on electric cars than on America's roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways combined."
- A new memo from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says: "Biden's so-called infrastructure plan spends less than 6 percent to repair bridges, highways, and roads."
Keep reading. |
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| A message from American Bankers Association |
| To promote financial inclusion, ABA supports Bank On |
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| The banking system works best when it works for all Americans. While the number of unbanked adults is now at its lowest level ever, there is more to do. One solution: a growing number of banks are joining the Bank On movement to help everyone enjoy the benefits of a bank account. Learn more about Bank On. |
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| 4. Pictures of America: Play ball! |
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| Photo: Denis Poroy/AP |
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| Fans sit in social-distance squares in San Diego for the Padres' Opening Day win (8-7) against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Photo: Shafkat Anowar/AP Spotted outside Wrigley Field. Photo: Shafkat Anowar/AP The year that masks weren't just for catchers. |
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| 5. Boat floats but shipping still broken |
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| Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios |
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| International shipping and supply chains are in rough shape, even without a container ship lodged in the Suez Canal, chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon writes. - Why it matters: The pandemic threw a wrench into a global network that was already struggling with oversized ships. The stuck ship could reverberate for months.
Bottlenecks have built up, especially in Southern California, with ships waiting weeks to unload. - Because the ships are so large, their maximum speed has been reduced to the point at which they cannot make up for lost time.
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| 6. Chauvin trial: Awful day for defense |
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| Prosecution exhibit shows surveillance cameras at intersection where George Floyd died. Photo: Court TV via AP |
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| A Minneapolis supervising sergeant, who was on duty the night George Floyd died, testified that the officers who restrained Floyd could have ended it after he stopped resisting, AP reports. - A paramedic, Derek Smith, testified that he checked for a pulse and couldn't detect one: "In layman's terms? I thought he was dead."
Courteney Ross, Floyd's former girlfriend, disclosed that his pet name for her in his phone was "Mama" — making it uncertain whether Floyd was crying out for his mother as he lay pinned. |
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| 7. Amtrak teases "new city pairs" under Biden |
Light-blue lines are new services. Map: Amtrak This is the most vivid, specific reaction I have seen to President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan: Amtrak released a proposed map of new and expanded service if it gets the $80 billion Biden proposed for his beloved rail service, per USA Today: Amtrak's vision calls for bringing new intercity rail service to up to 160 previously unserved communities over the next 15 years, including 30 potential new routes ... New service is identified for major cities that currently have no Amtrak service such as Las Vegas, Nashville, Columbus, Ohio, and Phoenix. Go deeper: Detailed version of map above (below fact sheet). |
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| 8. Cable lobbyist slams Biden plan as "Soviet" |
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| Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios |
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| Michael Powell, CEO of the cable trade group NCTA, told Axios that President Biden's $100 billion plan for high-speed internet relies too much on government-owned networks, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill writes. - "The idea that the private sector and profit incentives are intrinsically unsuited to do the job" is "surprisingly Soviet," Powell said.
The broadband proposal has internet service providers up in arms: - The plan prioritizes spending for government-run or nonprofit networks.
- The plan calls for making internet service more affordable by finding ways to bring prices down, instead of giving government subsidies to service providers so they can charge some consumers less.
Keep reading. |
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| 9. Signs of swagger return to box office |
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| Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP |
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| "Godzilla vs. Kong," one of the few tentpole movies to dare release in the time of virus, is expected to set a new high this weekend for ticket sales during the pandemic, AP's Jake Coyle writes. - Why it matters: Big-screen mayhem and mass destruction are back, reassuring theater executives.
- It won't be the blockbuster business that's typical for such a big-budget release. But opening-day ticket sales on Wednesday set a single-day pandemic record.
What's happening: Since "Tenet" fizzled in August, most studios have postponed their biggest releases, or rerouted them to streaming. - But about 60% of theaters will be open this weekend. On Monday, L.A. County will expand cinema capacity from 25% to 50%.
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| 10. First look: McCain interview in Ken Burns film on Hemingway |
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| Archival photo from "Hemingway," courtesy PBS |
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| Exclusive first look for Axios AM readers: John McCain, just before his death in 2018, did an interview for Ken Burns' upcoming PBS film about Ernest Hemingway, in which the senator talks about "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and his hero, Robert Jordan. - "Hemingway" — a three-part, six-hour documentary film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick — examines the visionary work and turbulent life of Ernest Hemingway, one of America's iconic writers.
From "Hemingway" ... John McCain: "I was 12 years old. I found a four-leaf clover and I [pressed] it in a book so I could preserve it. ... That happened to be 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' still the great American novel. And I started reading and I couldn't stop until I finished." - Narrator: The story — published in 1940, with Europe and Asia engulfed in a world war — "is set in 1937, when the defeat of Franco's forces had still seemed possible. Its hero is an idealistic young American college instructor named Robert Jordan, with some knowledge of explosives and no political affiliation other than hatred of fascism, who finds himself part of a guerrilla band that undertakes a doomed mission to dynamite a bridge."
McCain: "My hero is Robert Jordan. Robert Jordan is as real to me as you are. He was working as a professor at the University of Montana. ... But he heard about this struggle. He knew about fascism. He knew what Hitler and Mussolini were doing." - "And he decided to go and fight on behalf of people he had never met and he did not know. Even knowing that that cause was a flawed cause. ... But he was willing to fight and do whatever he thought he could for the cause of justice and freedom. I always wanted to be Robert Jordan."
🎞️ See an exclusive clip of Sen. John McCain on Hemingway. |
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| A message from American Bankers Association |
| America's banks – a source of strength for the economy |
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| Banks of all sizes are prioritizing the post-pandemic recovery, economic growth, innovation and financial inclusion for all communities. To see our ideas for jumpstarting the recovery and growing a more inclusive economy, read ABA's Blueprint for Growth. |
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| 💡 This newsletter is written in Smart Brevity®. Learn how your team can communicate in the same smart, clear style with Axios HQ. |
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