| | | | | | | Presented By Google | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·Feb 11, 2022 | | Happy Friday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,376 words ... 5 minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Populism's new inferno | | Trucks park this week in Ottawa. Photo: Dave Chan/AFP via Getty Images What began as a small-but-loud truck convoy protest against Canadian pandemic restrictions has snowballed into an international crisis that's choking the busiest border crossing in North America. - Why it matters: This anti-establishment eruption could threaten America's fragile, halting recovery. It's especially bad for automakers, after two years of pandemic-induced supply-chain hell, Axios transportation correspondent Joann Muller writes from Detroit.
Zoom out: The "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations, protesting vaccine mandates for truckers entering the country, join populist uprisings around the globe — from the rise of Donald Trump and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, to the "yellow vest" anti-tax protests in France. - Fox News' Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are cheering on the truckers. TuckerCarlson.com is selling a $35 "Pro Trucker, Pro Freedom Shirt ... Support truckers. Oppose government mandates."
Screenshot: Fox News Catch up quick: Hundreds of demonstrators in 18-wheeler cabs have paralyzed the streets of downtown Ottawa, the Canadian capital, for almost two weeks, and have closed three U.S.-Canada border crossings. - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has become a focus of the fury, even though, as AP points out, many of Canada's mask rules and vaccine-passport requirements came from provincial governments — and are already rapidly being lifted as the omicron surge levels off.
What's happening: Copycat convoys are expected in the U.S., where officials warned of a potential disruption to Sunday's Super Bowl in L.A., and President Biden's State of the Union address March 1. - Auto factories facing a shortage of parts have been forced to stop production on both sides of the border.
- Agricultural exports from the U.S. to Canada are endangered.
👀 What we're watching: GM is chartering cargo planes to fly parts stuck at the border over the Detroit River and into the U.S. to keep a critical truck plant going in Indiana, the Detroit Free Press reported. |     | | | | | | 2. U.S. is booming but cranky |  | | | Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios | | | | America's economy is booming, but many of us think we're a hopscotch away from recession, Axios Pro Rata author Dan Primack writes. - Only 33% of Americans are very or somewhat satisfied with the state of the economy, according to Gallup — despite consistently strong GDP figures and the most robust job market in memory.
Why it matters: This is the byproduct of a politics in which the economy is reflexively disparaged by those out of power. What's happening: Republicans and conservative media regularly shout that strong monthly job reports are weak, and that inflation is the only economic measure that really matters. - Democrats and left-wing media were similarly dismissive of strong economic data in the pre-pandemic years under President Trump, often emphasizing inequality over broad-based gains.
Those in the political middle just keep hearing how terrible things must be — particularly as Democrats imply that the country's economic fate is tied to the stalled Build Back Better. | | | | | | | | 3. 🚽 Trump's record gaps |  - Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs tweeted confirmation of Maggie Haberman's scoop in "Confidence Man" — the forthcoming book previewed exclusively for you yesterday — that staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet. Trump called Haberman's report "simply made up."
- Trump confirmed he surrendered to the National Archives boxes of "letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and various articles" taken to Mar-a-Lago. "Some of this information will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library," he added.
- Some of the documents Trump "improperly took to his Mar-a-Lago residence were clearly marked as classified." —The Washington Post
- The House 1/6 committee has discovered gaps in White House phone logs from the day of the riot, with few records of calls by Trump "from critical hours when investigators know that he was making them," The New York Times reports. Investigators haven't found evidence of deletions — Trump routinely used a personal cellphone, "or he could have had a phone passed to him by an aide," AP notes.
| | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Google keeps more people safe online than anyone else in the world | | |  | | | | Google keeps billions of users safe online with tools like Security Checkup. Security Checkup gives personalized security recommendations for your Google Account, like alerting you if any saved passwords have been found to be involved in a data breach and should be changed. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. 📷 Pics of the day: Shaun White retires | | Photo: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images Team USA's Shaun White, 35, doffs his helmet after his final run during the men's snowboard halfpipe final in Zhangjiakou, China, today. - He'd said this Olympics would be his last competition after taking snowboarding on a wild ride for 20 years.
Photo: Hannah McKay/Reuters On a bittersweet day of riding that ultimately ended in a fall, White came one spot shy of a medal, AP reports. - "I'm not sad," he insisted. But the tears and stifled sobs showed he knows this party really is over.
More photos ... Axios Olympics dashboard (including medal tracker). | | | | | | | | 5. California's extreme-weather whiplash |  | | | Illustration: Megan Robinson/Axios | | | | An extraordinary example of weather whiplash is underway in California, where one of the state's wettest months of December was followed by a bone-dry January into the first part of February. - Why it matters: This unusually punishing weather is a preview of the years ahead, Axios climate expert Andrew Freedman writes.
What's happening: The state entered the wet season with extraordinary precipitation deficits from a multi-year "megadrought." A dry winter could result in water restrictions and another devastating fire season. - The wet December built up a deep snowpack.
- Then weather patterns changed drastically: A strong ridge of high pressure parked across the West from January into early February, causing storms to detour around the state.
- It's as if Mother Nature shut off the tap and turned up the thermostat.
🔮 What's next: Climate studies show precipitation is likely to fall in a feast or famine fashion in California. - More dry periods are likely to overlap with strong offshore wind events into the late fall and winter, raising wildfire risks.
🏈 Threat level: With L.A. hosting the Super Bowl on Sunday, an unheard-of February heat advisory is in effect for the region. | | | | | | | | 6. First look: Harvard wave for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson | | In a 1996 photo (from left), Antoinette Coakley, Nina Coleman, Lisa Fairfax and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Photo: Lisa Fairfax A group of about 175 Black alumni of Harvard today will deliver a letter to the White House supporting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who sits on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is one of President Biden's top prospects for the Supreme Court: We come from the South, North, East, and West. We are civic and corporate leaders, scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, public school teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, and stay-at-home parents, among others. ... Judge Jackson knows how to build community and consensus. ... Judge Jackson would listen to diverse perspectives and assemble coalitions to accomplish objectives. Judge Jackson achieved a level of personal excellence in school that was legendary, but she also paid it forward by helping others, such as when she taught high school students to perform with poise and confidence in public speaking competitions. Read the letter. Lester Holt and President Biden talk in Culpeper, Va. Photo: NBC News State of play: President Biden told NBC's Lester Holt yesterday, in an interview airing in part during the Super Bowl pregame show on Sunday, that he has "taken about four people and done the deep dive." - "I think whomever I pick will get a vote from [the] Republican side," Biden said. "I'm not looking to make an ideological choice here."
- "I'm looking for someone to replace Judge Breyer with the same kind of capacity Judge Breyer had — with an open mind, who understands the Constitution, interprets it in a way that is consistent with the mainstream interpretation of the Constitution."
Video from the interview. | | | | | | | | 7. 🇮🇳 U.S. media giants court India |  Data: Parrot Analytics. Chart: Thomas Oide/Axios Facing saturation in the U.S., media giants are looking abroad for growth, and India — the second-largest internet population globally — is ripe for disruption, Axios Media Trends expert Sara Fischer writes. - Global demand for Hindi-language programming is the highest by far among non-English content, according to data from Parrot Analytics, despite losing some ground to Japanese content in recent months.
What's happening: Disney on Wednesday revealed for the first time a geographic breakdown of Disney+ subscribers. India — not North America — is currently its biggest market. 🔮 What's next: Because cricket rights are a huge entry point into the Indian media market, entertainment giants are jostling to bid, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription). | | | | | | | | 8. 🍪 1 for the road: Girl Scouts learn inflation, supply chain | | Nicole Judd, leader of Brownie Troop 4256, at yesterday's cookie drop in Columbus, Ohio. Photo: Alie Skowronski/The Columbus Dispatch via USA Today Network Girl Scouts are earning a badge in global economic turmoil: Supply-chain woes have hit this year's cookie-selling season, and customers are complaining about inflation, The Wall Street Journal writes (subscription): - "Some troops are grappling with shortages of flavors from S'mores to Samoas, plus the occasional angry grown-up customer ticked off about price increases, sometimes from $4 to $5 or $6 per box."
| | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Google helps candidates and campaigns stay safe online | | |  | | | | Targeted online attacks on political campaigns have increased in recent years. In the run up to the 2022 elections, the Google Campaign Security Project aims to train 10,000 candidates and campaigns across the political spectrum on security best practices to help keep them safe. Learn more. | | | | 📬 Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here for your own personal copy of Axios AM and Axios PM. |  | Bring the strength of Smart Brevity® to your team — more effective communications, powered by Axios HQ. | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment