| | | | | | | Presented By Google | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Jul 18, 2022 | | ☕ Good Monday morning. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,467 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. | | | | | | ๐️ 1 big thing: Committee to make case for Trump crimes |  | | | This proposed executive order was shown at last week's hearing. Exhibit: House Select Committee via AP | | | | The House Jan. 6 committee's prime-time hearing later this week will include none-too-subtle signals to the Justice Department about possible illegal activity by President Trump, I'm told by congressional sources. - Why it matters: The committee is continuing its laser focus on Trump and anything he may have done to encourage or prolong the attack on the Capitol. It has assembled a mountain of transcripts and other evidence that could be used in federal prosecutions.
Hearing 8 — Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, and possibly the summer finale — is aimed at showing Trump was derelict in his duty as commander-in-chief by not calling off the mob during the attack, and even fanning the flames. - Committee members previewed the theme on Sunday shows.
The big picture: The Justice Department recently expanded its investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, targeting some of Trump's allies in Washington and around the country, AP reports. - But prosecutors haven't indicated whether they'll bring a case against Trump.
What we're hearing: Look for the committee to continue its strategy of detailing events through the testimony of people who are or were Trump allies. ๐ What we're watching: This is the committee's last scheduled hearing. A final report is planned for this fall. But committee members say evidence continues to come in, and say future hearings are possible. ๐ฎ What's next: In one emerging line of inquiry, the committee on Friday announced a subpoena for United States Secret Service records. - "The Select Committee has been informed that the USSS erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021 as part of a 'device-replacement program,'" Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote to Secret Service director James Murray (who announced July 7 that he'll be retiring July 30).
- The letter quotes a Secret Service statement saying it "began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration. In that process, data resident on some phones was lost."
In a statement Thursday in response to a finding by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, the Secret Service said: "The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false." - Go deeper: See the committee's 2-page letter to the Secret Service.
|     | | | | | | 2. ๐ Where we're growing |  Data: Census Bureau. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios In census data out this month, Axios' Erin Davis noticed a massive boom in suburban homebuilding, especially in Texas. - Why it matters: You can see the rings around major cities, where the city itself hasn't seen much growth but the surrounding counties are going crazy.
You can also spot a boom around Atlanta and Nashville, and statewide in Utah. ๐ก Get Axios Local: Daily newsletters in 20+ cities. | | | | | | | | 3. Twitter's next troubles |  | | | Illustration: Aรฏda Amer/Axios | | | | Twitter, weakened and distracted by months of conflict, faces a raft of global problems with or without Elon Musk, Axios' Ashley Gold writes. - Why it matters: Whoever ends up owning it, Twitter remains the world's nervous system for news. Its policies on elections, extremism, misinformation, harassment and censorship affect billions.
Twitter's to-do list includes: - Showdown with Indian government: Earlier this month, Twitter sued the Indian government, calling its orders to take down certain content and accounts "arbitrary" and "disproportionate," according to a filing seen by the WashPost.
- Strict new content rules in Japan, Russia, Turkey and South Korea.
- Foreign manipulation: State-sponsored information operations meant to boost certain candidates, or inflame certain causes, are still a problem on Twitter, Jared Holt, a senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told Axios.
- World leaders and elected officials spreading misinformation or inciting violence: Twitter's world leaders policy holds politicians to different standards from other users because of the inherent newsworthiness of their statements.
- New rules in Europe and a fragmented global internet: The EU's Digital Services Act, which sets new rules for tech platforms on taking down illegal or otherwise harmful content, goes into effect this fall.
- Harassment: Twitter has made notable attempts to limit harassment. But the problem — which often plagues women, journalists and people from any marginalized groups around the world — isn't anywhere close to going away.
Twitter spokesperson Elizabeth Busby said Twitter "continues to focus on our work to keep people safe online, and to protect and promote a free and open internet ... Protecting the health of the public conversation remains our top priority." ๐ What we're watching: If Republicans win the House, they'll likely pressure Twitter to reinstate former President Trump and loosen content rules. | | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Google eliminates entire classes of cybersecurity threats | | |  | | | | Chrome OS, which powers Chromebooks, is secure by default and automatically protects against ransomware and other types of cybersecurity threats. Recently, Google disrupted the Glupteba botnet that infected over 1 million devices, and not a single one of them was running Chrome OS. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. ⚓ Superyacht tsunami | | The Palm Beach International Boat Show in March. Photo: Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post via Reuters The New Yorker's intrepid Evan Osnos takes us inside the "greatest boom in the yacht business that's ever existed," fueled by the pandemic and "the widening imbalance of wealth": - "The boats have grown so vast," Osnos reports, "that some owners place unique works of art outside the elevator on each deck, so that lost guests don't barge into the wrong stateroom."
At a Palm Beach yacht show in March (photo above), Osnos "lingered in front of a gracious vessel called Namastรฉ, until I was dissuaded by a wooden placard: 'Private yacht, no boarding, no paparazzi.'" In a nearby berth was a two-hundred-and-eighty-foot superyacht called Bold, which was styled like a warship, with its own helicopter hangar, three Sea-Doos, two sailboats, and a color scheme of gunmetal gray. The rugged look is a trend; "explorer" vessels, equipped to handle remote journeys, are the sport-utility vehicles of yachting. Why it matters: The outrageously luxurious vessels are attracting more political scrutiny, and often "dwell beyond the reach of ordinary law enforcement." - "They cruise in international waters," Osnos writes, "and, when they dock, local cops tend to give them a wide berth; the boats often have private security, and their owners may well be friends with the Prime Minister."
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | 5. System fails Uvalde kids | | Bodycam footage shows police deploying in a hallway after the gunman entered Robb Elementary School. Photo: Uvalde P.D. via Reuters Bodycam video shows Uvalde Staff Sgt. Eduardo Canales, the city's SWAT commander, saying: "Dude, we gotta get in there. We gotta get in there — he just keeps shooting. We gotta get in there." - 72 minutes later, officers finally breach the classrooms and kill the shooter.
Nearly 400 officers were on hand during the May mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. "[S]ystemic failures and egregiously poor decision making" resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman was confronted and killed after taking 21 lives, AP writes from a damning report by the Texas House. - Why it matters: The report criticizes both state and federal law enforcement — not just local authorities in the South Texas town — for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers.
What we know: - The 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials.
- No one assumed command.
- The commander of a Border Patrol tactical team waited for a bullet-proof shield and master key, which may not have been needed. No one bothered to see if the classroom doors were locked.
"There was an overall lackadaisical approach by law enforcement at the scene," the report says. | | | | | | | | 6. America's monkeypox failure |  | | | Line for monkeypox vaccine in Brooklyn yesterday. Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images | | | | The U.S. failed to contain the monkeypox outbreak and is "at the cusp" of seeing the virus become endemic, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS' "Face the Nation." New York and D.C. began offering limited monkeypox vaccines last month, but quickly maxed out on appointments. | | | | | | | | 7. Britain faces hottest day ever |  | | | Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios | | | | A record heat wave in western Europe is likely to topple all-time temperature records in Britain, Axios Generate co-author Andrew Freedman writes. - Why it matters: This is a climate change-related public health emergency that could potentially kill several thousand people.
The big picture: The U.K. Met Office is forecasting the country will hit 104°F for the first time. - Britain's temperature record stands at 101.66°F, set in 2019.
Hundreds are dead from heat-related causes in Portugal and Spain. | | | | | | | | 8. ๐ 1 pet thing: AI litter boxes |  | | | Illustration: Victoria Ellis/Axios | | | | There's a big-dollar arms race in high-tech cat waste "solutions," from color-changing litter that can detect diseases to AI tech that tracks Fluffy's habits, Jennifer A. Kingson writes in Axios What's Next. - Why it matters: As COVID-era cat ownership has surged, companies large and small have flooded the market with products aimed at improving pet health and reducing the top reason people return cats to shelters — litter box unpleasantness.
The ballooning "pet tech" category includes the $700 Litter-Robot, which makes scooping obsolete and will soon come with a health-monitoring app. - Surging sales of pet-care products have translated into squads of researchers studying the tastes of cats and consumers — developing litter that dissolves in water, is made from tofu and has good "paw feel."
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Google is countering online threats in Eastern Europe | | |  | | | | Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) is a team that investigates threat actors and combats cyber crime to help keep everyone safe online, including high-risk users, by increasing protections based on attacker techniques and through regular updates to the security community. Learn more. | | | | ๐ฌ Invite your friends to sign up here for their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. |  | | Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | | |
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