Good morning. This year's One Successful Movie continues to pop off—Top Gun: Maverick just passed Titanic and Jurassic Park to become the seventh highest-grossing film ever at the domestic box office. While inflation and mustaches being in have probably played a big role in its $663 million (and growing) North American haul, audiences clearly like it a lot. Congratulations, Tom Cruise, sir, it looks like you finally reached the danger zone. :) —Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, Abby Rubenstein, Matty Merritt | | | |  | Nasdaq | 12,644.46 | | | | | S&P | 4,140.06 | | |  | Dow | 32,832.54 | | | | | 10-Year | 2.758% | | | | | Bitcoin | $23,858.17 | | | | | Nvidia | $177.93 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 10:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks closed mostly flat yesterday when a rally in tech shares was snuffed out by Nvidia, which revealed weak revenue thanks to a slowdown in gaming.
- Economy: Ahead of the big inflation report tomorrow morning, the Fed got some heartening news in its fight to bring down prices. Consumer expectations for inflation dropped considerably in July, possibly because everyone has been watching gas prices plummet.
| | | | John Nacion/Getty Images The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, former President Trump's resort home in Palm Beach, FL, yesterday, a remarkable development that we first learned of from Trump himself. In a lengthy statement released in the evening, Trump said that his "beautiful home" is "currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents." "They even broke into my safe!" he said while at Trump Tower in New York City. What was the raid about? According to multiple news outlets, it was connected to Trump's mishandling of classified documents (both the FBI and the Department of Justice declined to comment). In January, the National Archives and Records Administration traveled to Palm Beach and retrieved 15 boxes of documents that Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House. Some of those documents were labeled classified and others were considered "top secret," according to the Washington Post. - A "top secret" designation means that the documents "could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security" if leaked to the public, the Archives's Information Security Oversight Office says.
In April, the DOJ reportedly began taking steps to investigate Trump over these documents, since the Presidential Records Act of 1978 requires the White House to hand over all official communications to the National Archives. But Trump never appeared interested in keeping paper around. Officials said he frequently ripped up documents that later had to be taped back together. As his former Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham confirmed to CNN last night, "I watched him go through documents, throw some away, rip some up, and put some in his pocket." Conservatives are irate: Some top Republicans called the raid a politically motivated attempt by the DOJ and FBI to undermine Trump, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Attorney General Merrick Garland to "preserve your documents and clear your calendar," suggesting he wants to investigate the DOJ should the GOP take back the House this fall. Others warned of potential political violence in the streets over the raid. Bottom line: No one willingly goes to South Florida in August, so federal investigators must have felt a sense of urgency in their probe. In order to obtain a search warrant, the FBI had to convince a federal judge that there was "probable cause" a crime was committed, and that proof could be found at that particular location.—NF | | | Despite all the ~not-so-fun tasks~ essential to growing your biz, it's important to keep your cool. Solving an IT issue should be a picnic, not cause for panic. Electric can help you keep cool and upgrade your company's IT strategy. With streamlined security standardization and employee on/offboarding, Electric's on-demand, lightning-fast chat support saves you time and money on IT-related tasks—we're talkin' an over 50% reduction in IT costs. For IT decision-makers at US-based companies with 10–500 employees, Electric will gift you a free YETI Hopper Flip 8 Soft Cooler when you take a qualified meeting by 8/31.* Book your meeting today. | | Scott Barbour/Getty Images  Grease star Olivia Newton-John dies at 73: The British-Australian pop star and actress Olivia Newton-John, best known for her performance as Sandy Olsson in Grease and her hit song "Physical," died Monday at her Southern California ranch. Over five decades releasing music, Newton-John had close to 40 entries on the Billboard Hot 100, many of which came during the peak of her stardom in the '70s and '80s. She became an advocate for breast cancer survivors following her initial diagnosis in 1992. After 25 years in remission, Newton-John announced in 2017 that the disease had spread to her lower back.
 UN calls attacks on Ukraine nuclear plant "suicidal." After rocket strikes near Europe's largest nuclear power plant over the weekend stoked fears of a potential catastrophe, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said "the risk of nuclear confrontation is back" and called for international inspectors to be allowed in to assess the damage. Russia and Ukraine each blame the other for the shelling, which reportedly forced the shutdown of one of the plant's reactors. Russian forces seized the plant in March, but Ukrainian staff remain responsible for operating it.
 SoftBank lost $23 billion…in a single quarter. Imagine investing in the Roman empire in 400 AD. That's essentially what SoftBank did when its ginormous bets on the tech sector went way south in Q2, leading to the company's biggest loss ever. CEO Masayoshi Son blamed himself for partying too hard during the stock market upswing. "When we were turning out big profits, I became somewhat delirious, and looking back at myself now, I am quite embarrassed and remorseful," he said at a press conference.
| | Francis Scialabba Axios, perhaps the only company with more newsletters than Morning Brew, struck a deal yesterday to sell to Cox Enterprises for $525 million. Known for its trademark "Smart Brevity" style of news writing, Axios (who we've always considered to be a close personal friend and who we'd totally give money to if the shoe were on the other foot, actually) was founded in 2017 by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz after the trio left Politico. Politico, which was also co-founded by VandeHei, was bought by Axel Springer for $1 billion last October. The three founders will stay on at Axios in their present roles. What's next: Cox and Axios say this is the right fit due to a shared interest in local journalism. Axios Local, a segment of the company that provides local newsletters in 22 cities across the US, reached 1 million subscribers this summer and plans to expand. The deal will give Cox a 70% stake in the company, while the half-a-billion valuation—about five times Axios's projected 2022 revenue—will give early investors a big ol' return. HQ, the communications software division of Axios, isn't part of the sale and will spin off into its own company.—MK Note: Axel Springer is the parent company of Insider, which acquired a majority stake in Morning Brew in 2020. | | Education Images/Getty Images Qantas, Australia's largest airline, asked its executive staff yesterday to volunteer as baggage handlers. The company is struggling to fill even a fraction of the 8,000+ roles it cut or outsourced in 2020 now that air travel is returning to pre-pandemic levels. The airline's COO Colin Hughes wants 100 managers and other high-level employees to take a break from Slacking memes and ignoring emails to unload bags and drive luggage carts at least three days per week for the next three months. Qantas is desperate; last month, a baggage handler told the Guardian that as many as one in 10 pieces of luggage per day aren't loaded onto Qantas domestic flights at Sydney airport. Big picture: Qantas isn't the only airline scrambling to fill open positions. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes told the BBC yesterday that he has to "over-hire" to keep up with high attrition. Still, if the bar for airline service is currently the ground, Qantas has somehow managed to hit Hell. In June, it became Australia's least reliable airline after canceling 8.1% of all domestic flights.—MM | | Netflix Stat: Less than 1% of Netflix subscribers are playing games on the service, according to CNBC's analysis of Apptopia data, showing that people would rather watch Stranger Things than actually complete missions around a pixelated Hawkins. Netflix launched Netflix Games last year and has added more than 25 games to its mobile app, but just 1.7 million users are playing them daily, compared to Netflix's subscriber base of 221 million. Quote: "A threat to US national security." The US Treasury banned Americans from using the crypto-mixing service Tornado Cash, calling it a preferred tool for criminals looking to launder money. Tornado Cash has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of crypto since it was created in 2019, including more than $455 million by the North Korean-backed hacking group, Lazarus. Watch: Is nuclear power green? This video offers an excellent breakdown. (Sabine Hossenfelder) | | | A collab we're nuts about: Best-selling sneaker brand Cariuma teamed up with Peanuts for 7 limited-edition designs featuring everyone's fave characters. Plus, they just restocked the comfy and versatile OCA Low Canvas style that comes in 15+ colors. Save 20% with code MBAUG20 before they sell out. | | - Greg and Travis McMichael were sentenced to life in prison for the second time for committing a federal hate crime in murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man.
- The US said it'll send another $1 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine—its largest direct delivery of weapons since the war started.
- David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of beloved history books, died at 89.
- Jake Paul and his business partner Joey Levy raised $50 million for their sports betting and media company, Betr.
| | Envato Elements | Have you ever had an amazing idea get knocked down because decision-makers didn't trust the ROI? Forecast, model, and visualize data to get buy-in for projects and make data-driven decisions with the Brew's Business Analytics Accelerator. It starts on Sept. 6, so don't miss your chance to run circles around the finance team. | | Brew Mini: From Lizzo to The Beatles, today's Mini asks you to get musical. Play it here. Building trivia Take a look at the following buildings: - The Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi
- White Hall on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie, Wyoming
- The West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston, West Virginia
- 99 Hudson Street in Jersey City, New Jersey
What do they have in common? | | In this episode of Street Value, we go through five rounds of "This or That" related to dating and finances. Eye-opening. Watch now. Check out more from the Brew: Is "growth at all costs" dead? Nora chats with the CEO of Crunchbase on the latest Business Casual episode about why some companies that raised at massive valuations last year are running into trouble. Listen or watch now.  Stuck on how to navigate your career? The Brew's Leadership Accelerator sets you up with exec coaching and more so you can plan your next step.
| | | They're the tallest building in their state. | | |
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