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| Presented By Google |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen · Apr 14, 2022 |
| ☕ Happy Thursday. Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,179 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by Zachary Basu. 💰 Today at 12:30 p.m. ET, please join Axios' Brady Dale and Lucinda Shen for a virtual event on trends in cryptocurrency. Register here. |
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| 1 big thing: Big Labor's big miss |
 Data: BLS.gov. Chart: Axios Visuals The huge labor unions are failing to capitalize on growing momentum for unionization, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck writes. - Why it matters: With a sympathetic White House, a tight labor market and workers around the country voting to unionize, this should be Big Labor's moment. And grassroots efforts are taking off. But insiders say institutional labor is falling short.
Between the lines: Big Labor has overseen decades of decline, and isn't quite used to this kind of excitement around organizing. - The successful Amazon union vote in Staten Island earlier this month was a grassroots effort that took Big Labor by surprise.
State of play: Momentum for organizing has been building in the U.S. since 2018, when a record number of workers went out on strike. - But it was the pandemic and the current labor shortage that really served to energize hourly workers in the U.S.
What's happening: Key labor advocates tell us the big unions are too focused on getting legislation passed in Congress, and haven't paid enough attention to grassroots organizing efforts. - "Labor can't just act or be perceived as a wing of the Democratic party," says Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (part of the AFL-CIO).
The other side: The major labor unions say they're excited by recent wins. - Liz Vlock, the AFL-CIO press secretary, said the group's "priorities have always, and will always, be focused on making a difference in the lives of working people."
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| 2. Russian flagship crippled |
| The Russian navy's guided missile cruiser Moskva in port in Sevastopol, Crimea, last week. Satellite image: ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet was "seriously damaged" in a blast, Russian's defense ministry said, forcing its 500-member crew to evacuate. - Ukraine claimed it struck the 610-foot Moskva with Neptune cruise missiles, and that the vessel was at risk of sinking.
Why it matters: The loss of the Moskva, a Soviet-era missile cruiser first commissioned in 1983 and named for Russia's capital, would be a stunning moral victory for Ukraine — and major blow to Russia on the 50th day of the war, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. - The Moskva was involved in one of the famous early exchanges of the war, when Ukrainian border guards defending Snake Island told the warship to "go f*ck yourself" in response to a call to surrender.
Unverified claims that the vessel had been sunk sent Ukrainian Telegram channels into a frenzy over a potential new David vs. Goliath legend. |
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| 3. Mapped: One city's terror |
| Map: Marco Hernandez/The New York Times. Licensed by Axios New York Times reporters and photographers produced this stunning map by spending more than a week with officials, coroners and scores of witnesses in Bucha, Ukraine, uncovering details of execution-style atrocities against civilians. - "The evidence suggests the Russians killed recklessly and sometimes sadistically, in part out of revenge," The Times reports in "Bucha's Month of Terror" (subscription).
🗞️ N.Y. Times lead story: "GROWING HUNT FOR SIGNS OF WAR CRIMES" ... WashPost lead story: "Growing focus on atrocities in Ukraine." |
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| A message from Google |
| Google is helping American small businesses grow |
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| In 2021, Google digital tools helped increase $617 billion in economic activity for millions of small businesses. Digital tools include: Google Search, Google Play, Google Cloud, YouTube, Google advertising tools, and more. View the 2022 Google Economic Impact Report. |
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| 4. 🏖️ The end of off-peak travel |
| Spring break passengers wait in a TSA line at Orlando International Airport last month. Photo: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Javier David, Axios managing editor for business, thought he was outsmarting the crowds by booking a 6:30 p.m. flight on a Sunday for his spring break jaunt from JFK to Fort Lauderdale. - Foiled! The terminal looked worse than during the Thanksgiving rush. Worker shortages added to the travel havoc: He ended up spending seven hours at the airport — only to Uber home to Brooklyn.
- Javier returned the next day to catch a flight scheduled for 9:30 p.m. It wasn't wheels-up until nearly midnight. Again: It was packed.
Why it matters: Our colleague was discovering the new reality as travel moves toward normal. There's no down time: Flights are crammed, whether it's 5 a.m. or 9 p.m. Crowds are crazy and cranky at all hours. Threat level: This should last through summer. Delta said in an earnings report yesterday that bookings are at record levels, Nathan Bomey writes in Axios Closer. - Delta CEO Ed Bastian told investors on a conference call: "With the rebound in demand, the month of March was the best cash sales month in Delta's history, outpacing our prior record from spring of 2019 despite offering 10% fewer seats."
Business travel is still ailing. But leisure travel is outpacing pre-pandemic levels — despite a 10.7% increase in airline fares from February to March. |
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| 5. Weekly map: COVID rises again |
 Data: N.Y. Times. Cartogram: Kavya Beheraj/Axios After two months of plummeting COVID cases across the U.S., the virus is on the rise again, with the Northeast accounting for many of the new cases. - We knew this was coming.
- Now it's just a matter of seeing how big an impact this surge of the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron has in the U.S., Axios' Tina Reed and Kavya Beheraj write.
The CDC yesterday announced a two-week extension of the mask requirement on planes, trains and buses. - The mandate had been due to expire on Monday.
Cases are on the rise from two weeks ago in 27 states, plus D.C. - There were about 530 deaths a day, down 24% from about 700 deaths a day two weeks ago.
But hospitalizations remain low. |
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| 6. Eco-preneurs: Privatizing climate change |
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| Cover: TIME |
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| Companies are now at the center of the climate fight, TIME's Justin Worland writes. - Why it matters: "[I]nvestors and corporate executives have become more aware of the threat climate change poses to their business and open to working to address its causes."
👀 What we're watching: "Companies have an incentive to make big commitments, but they need a credible system to set the rules of the road and ensure that those pledges can be scrutinized." - "Even then, corporate progress is unlikely to add up to enough without clear policy that incentivizes good behavior and punishes bad behavior."
Get a free 14-day trial of our new Axios Pro: Climate Deals newsletter. |
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| 7. Fox News says it didn't authorize account on Trump network |
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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
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| A verified account for Fox News appeared on former President Trump's social media app, Truth Social, but a Fox News spokesperson says the network has nothing to do with the account, Axios' Dan Primack and Sara Fischer report. - Why it matters: Investors would have viewed Fox News' participation as a boon for the struggling app.
Shares of the blank-check company taking Truth Social public spiked on Tuesday afternoon, after an Axios reporter tweeted about the existence of the verified account. - That tweet, which has since been deleted, was prompted not only by the verification symbol on a Truth Social account bearing Fox News' name and logo, but also by a message from Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes that read: "Great to have RSS feed for @FoxNews now LIVE here on TRUTH! This adds to @OAN and @NewsMax."
- But the Fox News spokesperson tells Axios: "We aren't on Truth Social."
Devin Nunes didn't return a request for comment. |
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| 8. 📷 Parting shot |
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| Photo: Lisi Niesner/Reuters |
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| Fatou, believed to be the world's oldest gorilla, eats a rice cake with fruit at the Berlin zoo on her 65th birthday yesterday. |
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| A message from Google |
| Google is helping small businesses like Junk Platoon grow |
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| Todd Temaat owns Junk Platoon, a junk removal service in Oklahoma City. He uses digital tools from Google to help run his business. More than 10% of Junk Platoon's total sales resulted from Google Ads since April 2021. See your state's impact report here. |
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