Thursday, June 30, 2022

☕ Another enemy

R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years...
June 30, 2022 View Online | Sign Up | Shop

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Good morning. Today, the Supreme Court will issue the final two rulings of this historic term, then proceed to make even more history: Ketanji Brown Jackson will be sworn in as the first Black woman to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court at noon ET. Nominated by President Biden, Jackson will replace the left-leaning Justice Stephen Breyer, which isn't expected to change the balance of the conservative-dominated court.

Jamie Wilde, Matty Merritt, Neal Freyman

MARKETS

Nasdaq

11,177.89

S&P

3,818.83

Dow

31,029.31

10-Year

3.096%

Bitcoin

$20,289.61

BB&B

$4.99

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 1:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: After another blah trading session, stocks can't wait for the whistle to sound on the first half of 2022—which will come at 4pm ET today. The carnage you see from Bed Bath & Beyond is a result of the company reporting a big sales decline from the previous year and politely showing its CEO Mark Tritton the door.
  • Economy: Fed Chair Jerome Powell and two other central bank chiefs spoke about their inflation-combating efforts at a conference in Portugal. All three acknowledged that recent economic shocks (Covid, the war in Ukraine) have upended how inflation was understood for decades. "I think we now understand better how little we understand on inflation," Powell said.

MUSIC

Platforms face the R. Kelly music

A woman with a #MuteRKelly shirt stands outside the courthouse Timothy A. Clary/Getty Images

R. Kelly, onetime R&B chart-topper, was sentenced to 30 years in prison yesterday for sexually and psychologically abusing multiple victims, many of whom were minors at the time of his offenses. His conviction is the culmination of decades of accusations that first got widespread attention during the peak of the #MeToo movement in 2017.

Another movement became vocal around the same time: #MuteRKelly, whose supporters pressured radio stations and online platforms to stop streaming the artist's songs. But while you're unlikely to hear "Ignition" on the radio these days, online platforms haven't fully washed their hands of R. Kelly.

Here are some reactions:

  • Spotify scrubbed his music from its curated and algorithmically generated playlists, and stopped promoting his work in 2018.
  • YouTube shut down two of R. Kelly's official accounts last year, but his songs are still available on YouTube Music.
  • Some artists voluntarily removed songs that were produced in collaboration with R. Kelly, such as Chance the Rapper's "Somewhere in Paradise."

But platforms have stopped short of removing his music, and in the years since his conviction, R. Kelly's fans have continued to listen to it. In 2017, he averaged about 5.4 million weekly streams and in 2021, 6.4 million. After he was found guilty in September of last year, his audio streams jumped 22% compared to the previous week, and album sales spiked 517%.

Where's the line between moderation and censorship?

Platforms are grappling with this question for a range of creators who have been accused of offenses that range widely in severity. Earlier this year, Joe Rogan's podcast—which Spotify acquired the exclusive rights to—was engulfed in controversy for spreading Covid misinformation and featuring racial slurs. Spotify stood by Rogan, and he took down 70 of his 1,800+ episodes.

To help it deal with these kinds of moderation decisions going forward, Spotify announced earlier this month that it's creating a Safety Advisory Council, similar to the Oversight Board that Meta formed in 2020. But advisory groups make recommendations that companies choose to implement or not, and CEO Daniel Ek has signaled the company will have a light touch.—JW

        

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

Squidward frozen in ice SpongeBob SquarePants/Paramount Global via Giphy

Crypto winter claims another victim. Three Arrows Capital, a large cryptocurrency hedge fund, fell into liquidation after not paying up on its debts and getting sued by creditors. It was among the best-known crypto hedge funds, having been founded all the way back in 2012 by Kyle Davies and bitcoin bull Su Zhu. A number of crypto projects have come under immense pressure as cryptocurrency prices have plunged; bitcoin briefly fell below $20,000 yesterday.

Substack cuts 14% of its workforce. The company that lets individual newsletter writers try to become the next Morning Brew laid off 13 of its 94 employees, citing an uncertain macroeconomic environment. Going forward, Substack is intent on using its own revenue to fuel growth rather than raising funds from outside investors. It's raised more than $85 million so far from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and the Chernin Group.

Ben & Jerry's will once again be available across Israel and the West Bank. That's because Unilever is selling its Israeli Ben & Jerry's business to a local licensee, effectively ending a squabble between the consumer goods giant and its subsidiary, Ben & Jerry's. The ice cream brand decided last year to stop selling its products in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and contested East Jerusalem, which miffed parent Unilever and drew criticism from Israeli officials, some American politicians, and investors.

SOCIAL MEDIA

TikTok makes another enemy in DC

Capitol building snapping TikTok logo in half Grant Thomas

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr doesn't care about the newest dancing dairy farmer—he still doesn't trust TikTok. Carr shared a letter that he had sent to Apple and Google last Friday asking those companies to remove TikTok from their app stores over concerns that the Chinese government could access sensitive user data.

The letter was spurred by a BuzzFeed report that revealed nonpublic American user data was being accessed repeatedly by employees in China, where TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered. Shortly before the report, TikTok said all US user data was in its data centers in the US and Singapore and it would eventually be stored in Oracle's cloud servers in the US.

Some US policymakers are concerned that ByteDance is vulnerable to Chinese government interference—specifically, the potential for Chinese intelligence to access US user data or influence the highly curated For You algorithms.

In 2020, former President Trump (who appointed Carr) tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US company and even ban the app, but the whole process turned into a big mess that Biden replaced with a broader executive order to review the app's security risks.

Zoom out: While Carr's demands signify growing concern over data privacy within foreign-controlled apps, dancing Horace and cream-based pasta recipes aren't going anywhere. The FCC doesn't regulate app stores, and TikTok is Apple and Google's most popular app. It has generated about $208 million in fees for the companies, according to SensorTower.—MM

        

TRAVEL

Beds? In this economy class?

bunk beds on a plane Air New Zealand

New Zealand says it doesn't want to be known for its sheep count, but then it does this: Air New Zealand announced this week that passengers in premium and regular economy will be able to book bunk beds to nap in during flights. When the sleeping pod concept, called Skynest, arrives in 2024, it will be a world-first and perhaps the biggest innovation that's ever come to economy class.

There are a few asterisks:

  • It won't be free—booking a bed will cost an additional fee that the airline hasn't disclosed yet.
  • Plus, you won't be able to lie horizontally for the entire flight. You can book the beds for only four hours before handing it off (with new sheets) to another weary passenger.

The beds themselves are stacked three levels high, and their dimensions are generous enough (80″ long and 23″ wide) to comfortably fit three hobbits.

Big picture: Because the country is so far away from…well…everything, Air New Zealand has been forced to come up with features that keep people sane during extremely long flights. Later this year, the airline will launch nonstop flights between Auckland and New York City; at 17 hours, it'll be the world's longest regularly scheduled passenger flight.—NF

        

GRAB BAG

Key performance indicators

Sumter Landing in the Villages Florida Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Stat: The Villages Daily Sun, a newspaper that serves a retirement community in Florida (metro pop. 129,752), is the 23rd largest newspaper by circulation in the US, beating out the leading newspapers in cities like Cleveland (metro pop. 3.6 million), St. Louis (2.9 million), and Charlotte (metro pop. 2.8 million). Print circulation as a whole sagged by another 12% in the year leading up to March, per the Press Gazette.

Quote: "I just want to go sit at the beach and do nothing."

Andrew Formica, the CEO of giant asset manager Jupiter Fund Management, told Bloomberg why he decided to leave the company. Reminder: This does not work for all bank accounts.

Read: Why is life expectancy in the US lower than in other rich countries? (Our World in Data)

BREW'S BETS

Text tones as dance moves: Somehow, these two really pull it off.

Day in the life: A tech employee in Chicago describes her day at "work."

Mental models: To improve your outcomes in life, respond to the world as it is—not as you wish it would be. Check out Mental Models for Better Thinking course.**

Outdoor pizza-party essentials = wicked-cool wicker furniture + a free Gozney Roccbox Pizza Oven. Score early access to Outer's 4th of July event here.*

Automation insights: The revival of American industry is underway, despite labor and supply-chain headwinds. See how automation helps companies achieve more in health care, transportation, and manufacturing industries in this Insider article, sponsored by AT&T Business.*

*This is sponsored advertising content. **This is promotional content from an editorial partner.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • Snapchat debuted its subscription product, Snapchat+, which will cost $3.99 a month.
  • The World Health Organization's leader called the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade a setback in the global shift toward increasing abortion access.
  • Taco Bell is releasing two new menu items centered around a gigantic Cheez-It 16x the size of an original cracker.
  • Venice is gearing up to slap a fee on day-trippers who clog the city's streets but don't spend any money.

FROM THE CREW

Your thoughts on salary transparency

Salary transparency image

We asked Morning Brew readers for their take on salary transparency last week, and there were some eye-opening answers. We found that the more money you make, the less interested you are in salary transparency. Plus: some interesting differences between genders and feelings on salary transparency.

Check out the rest of the findings here.

GAMES

The puzzle section

Brew Mini: "Deer Dads, Farm Females, and Big Island byes" might sound like the name of a new Guy Fieri show, but they're actually each individual clues in today's Mini crossword. Play it here.

Three headlines and a lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than compliments for a pair of platform Crocs. Can you guess the odd one out?

  • Shell is hiring a TikTok manager to reach Gen Z
  • New Wimbledon documentary has interviews with former pros, journalists, and…Dick Cheney
  • Analysts accuse Bed Bath & Beyond of turning off AC in stores to save money as sales plummet
  • Man loses USB flash drive with data on entire city's residents after night out

Check out more from the Brew

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ANSWER

We made up the Wimbledon doc one.

         

Written by Neal Freyman, Jamie Wilde, and Matty Merritt

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