| | | | | | | Presented By Walmart | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·Mar 30, 2022 | | Happy Wednesday. Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,192 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by Zachary Basu. | | | | | | 1 big thing: War's global hit |  Data: Economist Intelligence Unit. Chart: Will Chase/Axios The war is cooling what was supposed to be a hot economy this year, Axios Markets co-author Matt Phillips writes. - Why it matters: Economic ripple effects from the war — like the surge in commodities prices and the supply chain disarray that's ensued — will spread far outside the borders of Ukraine and Russia.
An Economist Intelligence Unit report, published last evening, finds the war will knock half a percentage point off of the unit's previous GDP forecast. The global economy is now expected to grow 3.4% in 2022. - The decline is sharp in Europe — especially Italy and Germany, which are both reliant on Russian energy imports.
Let's not forget the people of Ukraine. The consultancy wrote: "We do not believe that Ukraine's GDP will recover to pre-war levels for more than a decade." |     | | | | | | 2. Choose-your-own-adventure vaccines |  | | | Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios | | | | America's choose-your-own-adventure pandemic response is spreading to booster shots, with Americans 50 and older now having the option to get a fourth dose — without explicitly being encouraged to do so, Axios' Caitlin Owens writes. - Why it matters: Many experts say yesterday's FDA authorization makes sense as a precautionary measure. But the policy could create more confusion around the U.S.' long-term vaccination strategy.
Authorizing another shot for those who got their last dose at least four months earlier is an added safeguard — it's still unclear how much three doses protect against severe illness over time. The three-dose approach appears to hold up well in the short term. - Israeli data has shown that a fourth dose does offer a stronger level of protection in older people. But it's still unclear just how much a difference it makes. Some experts also questioned whether extending the authorization to healthy people in their 50s is really necessary.
Between the lines: The authorization effectively lets individuals choose whether to shore up their immunity against the virus the same way they can now choose to mask or take other precautions. - "Giving people the choice to have an added level of protection is where we should be at this point in the pandemic," said Leana Wen, a health-policy professor at George Washington University.
🥊 Key stat: Only half of Americans eligible for a first booster shot have received one, per the CDC, despite the benefits third shots brought during the Omicron wave. | | | | | | | | 3. 🛰️ Satellite-eye view of war | | Satellite image: ©2022 Maxar Technologies In the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, a large crowd waited outside a grocery store yesterday. Satellite image: ©2022 Maxar Technologies Apartment buildings and homes destroyed by Russian shelling in Mariupol. ⚡ The latest: Some Russian units suffering heavy losses in Ukraine have been forced to return home and to neighboring Belarus, British military intelligence said today. —Reuters | | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | Walmart is transforming stores with last mile delivery | | |  | | | | Over the last two years, Walmart has been making delivery faster for customers —leveraging stores as fulfillment centers and utilizing new tech to create a more efficient supply chain. The goal: Sustainably serve communities in new ways — working to move delivery from days to minutes. | | | | | | 4. 📷 1,000 words | | Photo: VCG via Getty Images This is the empty Lupu Bridge in Shanghai, population 26 million, which is locked down for mass COVID testing. Get the latest. | | | | | | | | 5. TIME's most influential companies | | Covers: TIME TIME has three covers for its second annual list of 100 Most Influential Companies in the World: - HYBE, a South Korean music platform company ... Mindy Kaling, founder of the Kaling International media company ... and new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
70+ of the companies are headquartered in the U.S., including Airbnb, Allbirds, Disney, DoorDash, Ford, Impossible Foods, Moderna, Netflix, Nextdoor, Patagonia, Pfizer, Kim Kardashian's SKIMS, United Airlines, UPS, Walgreens, Walmart. - Tech honorees include Grammarly, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Meta, TikTok, IBM.
- From finance: Nubank, Klarna, Capital One, Paxful.
- And entertainment: AMC, NFL, Spotify, TikTok, Sony.
See the full list (Live soon). | | | | | | | | 6. 🎩 First look: Meacham's "very human Lincoln" | | Cover: Random House Pulitzer-winning biographer Jon Meacham will portray what he calls "a very human Lincoln" in "And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle," out Oct. 25. - Meacham told me: "I wanted to learn all I could about a man who confronted crises of democracy and of justice and managed, however imperfectly and incompletely, to bend the arc of history toward the good."
The book chronicles Lincoln's moral evolution as he expanded America's possibilities — while confronting secession, slavery and threats to democracy. - "A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a 21st century moment of polarization and political crisis," Meacham said in a statement.
- "Lincoln was president when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions inextricably bound up with money, power, race, identity, and faith. He was hated and haled, excoriated and revered — and in him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations."
The title was inspired by the words of Frederick Douglass, who was enslaved and rose to become a celebrated orator, adviser and abolitionist: I do not despair of this country; the fiat of the Almighty — "Let there be Light" — has not yet spent its force. Preorder here. | | | | | | | | 7. Exclusive: Red Sox pledge to make Fenway carbon neutral |  | | | Photo by Blake Nissen for The Boston Globe via Getty Image. | | | | The Boston Red Sox are expected to announce today that games at Fenway Park will be carbon neutral, a first for Major League Baseball, Axios Pro Rata author Dan Primack has learned. - Why it matters: Sports venues like Fenway Park have large carbon footprints, particularly when attendee travel is taken into account.
Under an agreement the team signed with climate finance company Aspiration, part of each ticket sale will be used to purchase carbon offsets. - The credits cover not only direct and indirect impacts of operating Fenway, such as electricity and water usage, but also the so-called Scope 3 emissions attributed to attendees.
- Aspiration's investors include actors Robert Downey Jr. and Leonardo DiCaprio, plus a slew of venture capital funds.
🔮 What to watch: Expect more pro sports clubs to follow suit. | | | | | | | | 8. 🍝 5-min. food delivery | | Photo: Flytrex A pioneer in delivering food by drone is expanding to Texas, where residents of Granbury, outside Fort Worth, will be able to get a drone-dropped meal in about five minutes, Axios' Joann Muller writes. - Why it matters: Drone delivery, still a novelty in the U.S. because of regulatory limits, could address America's growing demand for instant gratification while making roads safer and less congested.
Flytrex, an Israeli startup, is now making drone deliveries in North Carolina under a pilot program. Last year, Flytrex delivered 12,000+ items from restaurants and retailers. - The Texas expansion is in partnership with Dallas-based restaurant chain Brinker International, parent of Chili's and Maggiano's + two carryout brands — It's Just Wings and Maggiano's Italian Classics.
How it works: Co-founder and CEO Yariv Bash describes Flytrex as "DoorDash, but with drones." - Customers use the Flytrex app to place their order from the menus of participating restaurants.
- Flytrex employees, working out of a parking lot, grab the food, clip the bag to a cable and load it into the drone delivery box. It can handle up to 6.6 pounds — enough for a family meal of burgers, fries and beverages, or a mother lode of wings.
- The drone flies to the destination, which must be within a mile of the takeoff location. A drone operator monitors the flight.
- Upon arrival, the drone hovers about 80 feet off the ground, lowers the bag to the ground via cable, then releases the clip.
Share this story. | | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | Walmart is changing the future of delivery with last mile | | |  | | | | With 4,700 stores across the country located within 10 miles of 90% of the population, Walmart is using their size and scale to revolutionize last mile delivery. The company is finding innovative and sustainable ways to improve their customers' shopping experience — online and in-store. | | | | 📬 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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