😷 Axios PM: Mask rage

Plus: 🥧 | Monday, August 23, 2021

Open in app View in browser   Presented By AT&T   Axios PM By Mike Allen ·Aug 23, 2021 Good afternoon. Today's PM — edited by Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath — is 389 words, a 2-minute read. ⚡ Situational awareness: Gov. Andrew Cuomo leaves office at 11:59 p.m. ET. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will then be sworn in as New York's first female governor. Go deeper: Cuomo's defiant farewell address.     1 big thing: Mask rage Protesters rally outside Hewes Middle School in Tustin, Calif., on Aug. 13. Photo: Orange County Register via Getty Images   Back-to-school mask fights are getting scary and violent. Teachers have been punched, and parents are wielding bullhorns and even getting charged with crimes, Axios' Ivana Saric writes. School board members, county commissioners, doctors and local leaders are regularly confronted with angry taunts that compare them to the Taliban, Marxists and more, AP reports. A parent in Austin ripped off a teacher's face mask during a "Meet the Teacher" event. Other parents screamed at teachers, demanding they remove their face coverings. Outside Sacramento, a parent left a teacher bleeding and requiring hospital treatment — after the parent tried to attack the principal over masks and the teacher jumped in, KCRA-TV reports. In Nevada and Pennsylvania, school-board meetings this month got so out of hand that police were called. Go deeper.     2. Axios interview: YouTube's creator strategy Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photos: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch, Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images   YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan tells Axios' Ina Fried that the Google-owned video site is working to be a better content moderator — in part because it's good for business. The latest: YouTube announced today that it now has 2 million people in programs that enable creators to get paid. On COVID misinformation, Mohan points to YouTube collaborations between creators and health authorities. "99.9% of creators are looking to do the right thing," he says. "I hope that we are perceived as ultimately a positive voice here." Share this story.     A message from AT&T We are connecting communities to their American Dream     We're making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable. So low-income families like the ones Kamal works with, have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more.     3. Catch up quick A U.S. Marine high-fives a child at Kabul airport yesterday. Photo: Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps via AP   Twenty people have been killed in the chaos outside Kabul airport, most in shootings and stampedes, Reuters reports. 💉 The FDA gave full approval to Pfizer's vaccine. President Biden said that for those who have been hesitant, "the moment you've been waiting for is here." Go deeper. China is back to zero COVID cases, just over a month after taking draconian measures to stop the Delta variant, Bloomberg reports.     4. 1 🥧 to go Photo: Marcia Miller   Above: Marcia Miller shared some samples of her Iowa State Fair pies with her neighbor, Axios Des Moines reporter Jason Clayworth. She wouldn't, however, give up the recipe for her black and blueberry cucumber cream pie. Photo: Linh Ta/Axios And what would a 2021 State Fair be without ... llama yoga? See more photos.     A message from AT&T We are connecting communities to their American Dream     We're making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable. So low-income families like the ones Kamal works with, have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more.   Like this email style and format? Learn more about Axios HQ. It'll help you deliver employee communications more effectively.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: