| | | | | | | Presented By Google | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Apr 15, 2022 | | It's Good Friday, and Passover begins at sundown. - Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,159 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by Zachary Basu.
| | | | | | 1 big thing: Billionaires eye parallel media universe |  | | | Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Britta Pedersen/Pool/Getty Images | | | | Elon Musk and other tech billionaires are pushing a parallel media ecosystem with unfettered speech, fewer rules, more voices and less power for traditional media. - Why it matters: These tech moguls believe America is in the midst of a "free speech" crisis, and are willing to spend big to change the conversation. But so far, they've made more headlines than progress, Axios' Dan Primack and Sara Fischer report.
What's happening: Social media companies are increasingly willing to remove certain types of content — and ban those who post it — after years of casting themselves as neutral platforms. - This change has triggered an opposite reaction by these titans, who prefer the earlier approach.
Between the lines: Most of the brawl revolves around Twitter, where so many tech moguls, politicians and journalists spend their time. - Musk doesn't seem to have much of a vision for how to actually run Twitter if his takeover bid succeeds.
- Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has repeatedly tweaked Twitter and some of its users over the past month, and leads a firm that has invested millions of dollars in paid newsletter platform Substack and audio app Clubhouse.
Conservative billionaires are backing versions of their own Twitter-like platforms — Parler, Gettr and President Trump's Truth Social. But those apps are tiny compared to mainstream platforms. - Thiel, who for years has sat on Facebook's board with Andreessen, has put money behind "free speech" YouTube alternative Rumble.
Left-leaning billionaires Reid Hoffman and George Soros are among those who recently backed a new public benefit corporation that aims to tackle disinformation by funding left-leaning local news sites. - Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff and Laurene Powell Jobs have bought up venerable, established media properties.
The bottom line: Controlling a major social media platform takes more than money. 👀 Go deeper: Later today, our Axios Pro: Media Deals newsletter will feature a Deal Deep Dive with new Twitter/Musk angles. Start your free trial here. |     | | | | | | 2. Historic blow to Russian navy | | Photo: Ukrainian government Ukraine's postal service is selling stamps (above) commemorating the defenders of Snake Island, who gave a verbal middle finger to a Russian warship — now at the bottom of the sea — on the first day of the war. - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promoted the stamps on his Instagram account, telling people to remember that the Russian warship "travels only in one direction" — down.
⚡ Russia's defense ministry acknowledged that the flagship of its Black Sea fleet sank in "choppy seas" while being towed back to port, after damage from a fire it says was caused by an ammunition explosion. - It's still unclear whether the Moskva was damaged by anti-ship missiles, as Ukraine claims.
- The 610-foot vessel is the largest Russian warship to be sunk in action since World War II, according to the BBC.
Powerful explosions were heard in Kyiv after news broke of the Moskva's demise — the biggest blasts since Russian forces pulled back from the capital to prepare for a massive offensive in eastern Ukraine. | | | | | | | | 3. ☢️ CIA chief warns on Putin nukes | | People look at a crater from an explosion in the village of Horodnya, Ukraine, yesterday. Photo: George Ivanchenko/AP CIA Director William Burns, speaking yesterday at Georgia Tech: - "[G]iven the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they've faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons."
- "[W]hile we've seen some rhetorical posturing on the part of the Kremlin, about moving to higher nuclear alert levels, so far we haven't seen a lot of practical evidence of the kind of deployments or military dispositions that would reinforce that concern."
🧠 Between the lines: "Tactical weapons are sometimes called 'battlefield nukes,' smaller weapons that can be shot out of a mortar or even exploded like a mine," the N.Y. Times notes, "as opposed to 'strategic' weapons that are put on intercontinental ballistic missiles. Russia has a large arsenal of tactical weapons; the United States keeps comparatively few." | | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Google is connecting American businesses and customers online | | |  | | | | Google is helping American small businesses increase site traffic and sales by connecting them with more customers online. Every month in 2021, Google helped drive over 2.4 billion direct connections, including phone calls, bookings, and more. View the 2022 Google Economic Impact Report. | | | | | | 4. 📷 1,000 words | | Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Check out the thickness of the doors on President Biden's Cadillac limo, "The Beast," seen here yesterday as he waved to the media before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. - The presidential limo interior is sealed against chemical attack.
| | | | | | | | 5. 🇨🇳 Defiance grows over China lockdowns | | A Shanghai resident, behind barriers sealing off an area under COVID lockdown. Photo: Aly Song/Reuters In a society that generally respects authority, Chinese citizens are rebelling against COVID lockdowns that have brought food shortages, family separations and lost wages, Reuters reports. - Videos on social media show citizens scuffling with health workers and screaming in anger from their apartment windows.
Arrests and detentions for COVID-related rule-breaking surged in March, according to a search on the Weibo social media platform for police statements, posts by state agencies and state media reports. - Most infractions involve citizens trying to skirt rules such as reporting travel on a health app, falsifying COVID test results, and sneaking out of locked-down neighborhoods.
Assaults on health workers also surged. | | | | | | | | 6. Charted: How Bitcoin moves |  Data: Yahoo Finance. Chart: Baidi Wang and Will Chase/Axios Bitcoin was long touted as a hedge against the wider market because it danced to its own beat. No longer, Brady Dale writes in Axios Crypto. - As you can see above, it goes up and down with stocks.
- But bigger, faster and more — especially if the news is bad.
Why it matters: This reflects the tendency of very-online asset prices to move faster, since so many people in those markets follow each other. | | | | | | | | 7. ⚾ 75 years ago today | | A Jackie Robinson jersey is displayed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. MLB will mark the milestone today in ballparks across the country, Jeff Tracy writes for Axios Sports. - In New York, part of 42nd Street will be temporarily renamed Jackie Robinson Way and the Empire State Building will glow blue and white with his No. 42.
- In Los Angeles, his 99-year-old widow, Rachel, will attend the Dodgers-Reds game.
At every MLB game, as has been tradition since 2009, players, managers and coaches will wear Robinson's iconic No. 42. - For the first time, all teams will sport Dodger-blue "42" jersey numbers, regardless of their team colors. (MLB)
Watch a 2-min. video, "Play, Run, Win, Rise," narrated by actor and singer Leslie Odom Jr. ... Explore MLB's Jackie Robinson Day website. | | | | | | | | 8. 🐣 1 fun thing: Peeps reign supreme |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | An analysis of Amazon's U.S. marketplace by Pattern, an e-commerce firm, reveals these top candies, Axios' Jacque Schrag and Aïda Amer write: - Peeps: 22% of sales.
- Jelly beans: 21%.
- Cadbury Creme Eggs: 14%.
Those top sellers may surprise the chocolate-lovers among us. But the popularity of Peeps is of no surprise to their creators at Just Born Quality Confections. - 81% of Americans say the marshmallow treats remind them of Easter, and 57% associate them with the beginning of spring, according to a press release.
Take an Axios quiz: What if we measured the world in Peeps? | | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Google is helping women-led startups like EyeGage grow | | |  | | | | EyeGage technology in Georgia is one of billions of people and businesses using Google Workspace tools to carry out everyday operations. LaVonda Brown built EyeGage to help prevent fatal accidents by analyzing people's eyes for drugs and alcohol. See your state's impact report here. | | | | 📬 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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