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| Presented By Facebook |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Mar 18, 2022 |
| 🍻 Happy Friday from Minneapolis, where Axios CEO Jim VandeHei and I spent St. Patrick's night with the Axios Twin Cities crew. - Smart Brevity™ count: 1,034 words ... 4 mins. Edited by Justin Green.
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| 1 big thing: CEOs' abortion pressure |
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| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
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| Companies that never had to deal with abortion rights are now picking a side, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck reports. - Why it matters: After Texas effectively banned the procedure last year, and with the Supreme Court potentially poised to roll back abortion rights, new restrictions could soon put more pressure on big businesses to act.
It's a rare event when a change to a company's insurance benefits makes news. But that's what happened this week when Citigroup mentioned in a regulatory filing that it would cover travel expenses for U.S. employees seeking abortions. Citi appears to be one of the first public companies to officially update its employee healthcare policy in response to the changing legal landscape. - Apple, which has a big presence in Texas, confirmed to Axios that its health insurance policies cover abortions, including travel fees if needed.
It's possible other employers have similar health insurance policies, but they haven't been talking about them. - The CEO of Match, the dating company, funded a program with Planned Parenthood to ensure her Texas-based employees receive safe and legal care.
- Dating app company Bumble helped create a relief fund, in conjunction with advocacy groups, to help women pay for reproductive care in Texas.
How it works: Citi's policy is surprisingly uncomplicated. Travel expenses are covered under an employee's health insurance, according to a source familiar with it. - The company plan already covers people with, say, a heart condition who need treatment at a far-off hospital. This is no different. The benefit would extend to employees in any state where access is restricted.
- Paid sick leave would cover any time off for an employee who needs to travel, get the procedure done and recover.
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| 2. 🚨 Russian missiles hit Lviv |
| Breaking: Russian missiles struck today near the international airport in Lviv, a historic city in western Ukraine that has been a safe haven for people fleeing fighting — and a hub for U.S. media, the BBC reports. - U.K. armed forces minister James Heappey told "BBC Breakfast" that Britain is training Ukrainians to use Starstreak anti-aircraft missile systems, which should arrive in the country "imminently."
Satellite image: Maxar Technologies via AP This satellite image shows burning buildings in a residential area in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, on Wednesday. - At least 53 people in Chernihiv were brought to morgues over 24 hours, killed amid heavy Russian air attacks and ground fire, the local governor, Viacheslav Chaus, told Ukrainian TV.
- "The city has never known such nightmarish, colossal losses and destruction," Chaus said.
Ukraine's emergency services said a mother, father and three of their children, including 3-year-old twins, were killed when a Chernihiv hostel was shelled, AP reports. - Civilians were hiding in basements and shelters across the embattled city of 280,000.
Photo: Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images Above: Firemen work yesterday in the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building that was hit by debris from a downed rocket. |
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| 3. Crypto apps are hot |
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| Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios |
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| The last three months of 2021 saw more than 100 million crypto app downloads — the first time that milestone was reached in a single quarter, Axios' Brady Dale writes from data by Adjust and Apptopia. - Why it matters: Crypto assets are entering the mainstream. Many investors rely on third party apps to do the heavy lifting for them, rather than the more technical approach of interacting directly with blockchains.
🔮 Coming soon: Axios Crypto newsletter, by Brady Dale. Sign up here. |
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| A message from Facebook |
| We're making investments in safety and security — and seeing results |
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| Facebook has invested $13 billion over the last 5 years to help keep you safe. Over the last several months, we've taken action on: - 62 million pieces of explicit adult content.
- 51.7 million pieces of violent and graphic content.
See how we're working to help you connect safely. |
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| 4. 📷 1,000 words |
| Photo: Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images Above: An Osprey returns to its nest near NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday. - At the same time, the next-generation Artemis I lunar rocket was ferried atop a mobile launch platform to storied Launch Pad 39B for tests (photo below).
Photo: Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images Why it matters: NASA says Artemis missions eventually will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. - An uncrewed launch is scheduled for May but could slip into summer.
Go deeper. |
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| 5. 🏠 Mortgages top 4% for first time in COVID era |
 Data: Freddie Mac via St. Louis Fed. Chart: Axios Visuals For the first time since May 2019, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage exceeded 4% this week, Axios Closer author Hope King writes from Freddie Mac data. - That's a sharp uptick from a record low of 2.65% last January. But the rate is still historically low (graphic above).
Why it matters: "The era of ultralow mortgage rates is over," The Wall Street Journal declares on today's front page (subscription). |
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| 6. War fuels U.S. defense boom |
| A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone in an Estonian hangar in 2020. Photo: Janis Laizans/Reuters Russia's invasion has spurred demand for U.S. weaponry: - European countries have approached the U.S. government and defense contractors with a shopping list of arms including drones, missiles and missile defenses, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: European countries are boosting defense budgets to meet an increasingly uncertain security outlook. Germany, Sweden and Denmark are among those promising a sharp increase in spending. |
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| 7. Tough times are sweet for sweets |
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| Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios |
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| Consumers gobbled up a record $36.9 billion in candy, gum, mints and chocolate in 2021 — and are projected to keep buying more, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes from a National Confectioners Association report. - Why it matters: The pandemic not only gave us license to buy goodies, we got into the habit of buying them online and eating them at home.
Flashback: One of the last big spikes in sales of sweets happened in 2009 — the height of the big recession. |
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| 8. 🏀 Bracket buster: Holy Saint Peter's! |
| Daryl Banks III of Saint Peter's dunks on Kentucky. Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images Saint Peter's — a Jesuit university in Jersey City, N.J., that had never won a March Madness game — shocked the world with an 85-79 (OT) win over powerhouse Kentucky, Jeff Tracy writes for Axios Sports. The Peacocks' bracket-destroyer was the fourth-biggest upset since the men's NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985: - 2012: No. 15 Norfolk State (+21.5) def. No. 2 Missouri
- 2018: No. 16 UMBC (+20.5) def. No. 1 Virginia
- 1993: No. 15 Santa Clara (+20) def. No. 2 Arizona
- Thursday: No. 15 Saint Peter's (+18.5) def. No. 2 Kentucky
Wild stat: The Kentucky Wildcats have four assistant coaches who make more than Saint Peter's head coach Shaheen Holloway (~$250,000), ESPN's Pete Thamel notes. - The Peacocks' entire budget is $1.5 million. Kentucky coach John Calipari makes $9 million per year.
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| A message from Facebook |
| We're making investments in safety and security — and seeing results |
| |
| |
| |
| Facebook has invested $13 billion over the last 5 years to help keep you safe. Over the last several months, we've taken action on: - 62 million pieces of explicit adult content.
- 51.7 million pieces of violent and graphic content.
See how we're working to help you connect safely. |
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| 📬 Invite your friends to sign up here to get their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. |
 | It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 200 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | |
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