| | | | | | | Presented By Google | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · May 13, 2022 | | Happy Friday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,491 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Zachary Basu. 🇺🇦 Bulletin: Russia is withdrawing forces from around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, in one of its biggest setbacks since retreating from Kyiv, the N.Y. Times reports. | | | | | | 1 big thing — Scoop: New Trump venture |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Former President Trump has found a new way to milk his ex-presidency: - He's hitting the lucrative motivational speaking circuit with more fervor than any other active U.S. politician in history, Axios' Lachlan Markay reports.
Why it matters: Trump is building support for a possible 2024 presidential bid, while potentially pocketing large speaking fees as many of his iconic properties struggle. At events hosted by an outfit called the American Freedom Tour, Trump is whipping up arena-sized crowds resembling his campaign rallies. - It's privately run — and, according to organizers, driving huge audiences.
How it works: Trump headlines a rally-type event with a third party footing the bill, and stands to get a hefty payout. - AFT founder Chris Widener told Axios that "most all of our speakers get paid an honorarium for the event," but declined to name Trump's fee.
Top-tier options for seeing Trump in Austin tomorrow, via American Freedom TourTrump's next stop will be in Austin tomorrow. There are a dozen different ticket options, each with different access: - Ticket prices start at $9, for the Satellite tier. That includes a spot in an overflow room at the venue to watch the program on a TV screen.
- Presidential tier tickets cost $4,995. That includes early access to the event, admission to a reception and a photo-op with Don Jr. — and premium seating to watch Trump speak in person.
- No price is listed for the top Patriot tier. Interested parties are instructed to email for information. That tier includes a roundtable and photo-op with the former president, and a roundtable with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Other AFT events this year have featured MAGA stars including Don Jr., Pompeo, Candace Owens and Dinesh D'Souza. |     | | | | | | 2. ⚡ Musk's dawn shock |  | | | Via Twitter | | | | There's been speculation for weeks that Elon Musk might walk away from his Twitter deal. He just took a giant step. - At 5:44 a.m. ET, Musk made the stunning announcement to his 92.7 million followers: "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."
Context: The estimate, which Reuters reported from a Twitter filing on May 2, came days after Musk tweeted that one of his priorities would be to remove "spam bots" from the platform. The big picture: Musk's takeover bid has been fraught with so many twists and turns that Wall Street is skeptical it will even happen, Axios' Sara Fischer and Dan Primack report. - For Musk to liquidate a significant amount of his Tesla stake and to wrangle bankers into giving him billions of dollars in financing — only to backtrack due to a single article — shows how manic the entire takeover process has been.
The tweet comes a day after Twitter's CEO ousted two of the company's top execs and paused hiring, in an effort to be more fiscally responsible. - Sources say the changes were made outside of Musk's purview. But there's no question the deal is pressuring the company to become more innovative and profitable.
Axios latest. | | | | | | | | 3. Crack-up in plain sight |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | In this great market crack-up of 2022, a dramatic fire sale is engulfing stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies and nearly everything in between. - This collapse was easy to see coming, writes Javier E. David, Axios managing editor for business.
Workers who watched in awe as their 401Ks soared are now facing the harsh reality that stimulus from Uncle Sam couldn't last forever. And it came at a cost —namely, soaring inflation. - Fiscal stimulus and loose monetary policy from the Fed helped grease the wheels of the market's breathtaking recovery in 2021. As the central bank moves to tighten that up, the party has crashed to a halt.
Overly bullish buyers drove an ultimately unsustainable bubble in cryptocurrencies, culminating in last year's record highs. 🧠 Our thought bubble: Just as markets display irrational exuberance on the upswing, they can display excessive pessimism on the way down. - The current fire sale is a buying opportunity for longer-term investors.
Share this story. | | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Strengthening American cybersecurity | | |  | | | | Widespread cyber attacks continue to threaten the private information of people, organizations, and governments around the world. That's why Google is investing $10 billion to expand zero-trust programs, help secure the software supply chain, and enhance open-source security. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. 📷 Marking 1 million | | Photo: Susan Walsh/AP With the U.S. nearing 1 million lives lost to COVID, the flag flies at half-staff at the White House to commemorate what President Biden called "irreplaceable losses, each leaving behind a family, a community forever changed because of this pandemic." Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Led by Speaker Pelosi, Democratic House members observe a moment of silence on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol yesterday to mark the coming milestone. | | | | | | | | 5. 🎢 Not looking like a bottom |  Data: Yahoo Finance. Chart: Thomas Oide/Axios A surprising lack of market panic, as measured by Wall Street's "fear gauge," is keeping investors from calling a bottom, Reuters reports. - The VIX — the Cboe Volatility Index — has hit an average level of 37 at market bottoms since 1990. It's currently around 32.
Why it matters: That suggests stocks are yet to see the crescendo of fearful selling that has often accompanied past market bottoms. - Since January's record high, the S&P 500 has fallen nearly 20% — the level that would confirm a bear market.
The fine print: The VIX isn't an infallible indicator. There are some tentative hopes the market is coming off the boil. 💭 "What you have now is people hanging on and hoping for a bounce," said Patrick Kaser, portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management. - But Kaser said that to mark the bottom, the market needs "a moment of high-profile failure and pain."
| | | | | | | | 6. "Always on" surveillance |  | | | Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios | | | | Some big tech companies are starting to try to limit how much data their products collect. But the industry keeps rolling out devices that scoop up even more info, Axios' Ina Fried writes in her weekly tech column, Signal Boost. - And any trove of data will sooner or later end up at the other end of a law-enforcement demand.
Why it matters: The newest generation of gear, including autonomous vehicles and always-on cameras, could provide the state with a persistent and omnipresent method of surveillance. The big picture: "Data minimization" is an ethical guideline, encoded in the European Union's GDPR privacy framework and other regulations, urging organizations to collect only the data they actually need and to keep it only as long as they need it. - Google has taken steps in this direction, including processing more data on devices rather than in the cloud, and allowing users to set information to be deleted automatically.
- Apple has made data privacy a core principle, encrypting messaging data and limiting access to some other types of data so that only the user with the device can access it.
But broader shifts in computing threaten to overshadow those efforts with new classes of products that depend on massive collection of data. - One big trend is devices around sensors and cameras that are always recording, including doorbell cameras and autonomous vehicles.
- Machine-learning algorithms, which underlie everything from search engines to speech recognition, only work when trained on mountains of data — creating another incentive for companies to build info stockpiles.
This week, Vice reported details of the San Francisco Police Department seeking footage from GM-owned Cruise, one of several autonomous car companies whose vehicles are constantly riding the streets of the city. - The SFPD acknowledged to Axios that it makes requests for footage to investigate specific crimes, but denied it wants to use them for ongoing surveillance.
These newer technologies are also sweeping up tons of data about bystanders and third parties. - With a doorbell camera, the homeowner or renter buys the device. But the video can capture anyone who passes by.
- Autonomous vehicles owned by large tech companies, including Cruise and Waymo, are capturing footage of anyone in their path.
Share this column. | | | | | | | | 7. 🔎 Abortion benefits under scrutiny |  | | | Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios | | | | Corporate America is facing a flurry of questions over health benefits following the leaked Supreme Court draft, Axios' Tina Reed writes. - Why it matters: Some businesses hope to use reproductive health benefits to help recruit and retain employees. But they must be careful not to run afoul of state laws.
What's happening: Some big companies — including Amazon, Apple and Lyft — have already announced plans to provide workarounds in those states with abortion restrictions. 11 states restrict insurance coverage of abortion in all private insurance plans written in the state, according to the Guttmacher Institute. - Six states require abortion coverage in private health insurance plans.
Between the lines: An immediate question is what kind of employer-sponsored abortion coverage might create legal liability in states that ban abortion. | | | | | | | | 8. 🤖 Parting shot | | Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images In Turin, Italy, the humanoid robot R1 — designed by the Italian Institute of Technology to promote 5G technology — is a virtual tour guide at the Palazzo Madama museum. - The robot can describe the works and answer questions about the author and historical period.
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