| | | | | | | Presented By Instagram | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Dec 16, 2022 | | Happy Friday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,493 words ... 5½ minutes. Edited by Noah Bressner. 📨 Please join Axios' Astrid Galván and Russell Contreras today at 12:30 p.m. ET for a virtual event, "Axios Latino: Las Noticias del Día," featuring Latino voices on top news. Register here. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Peak flu |  Data: CDC. Chart: Sara Wise/Axios The U.S. has been pummeled by respiratory illness, including a harsher flu season than we've seen in years. But new data indicates the outbreak may be peaking, Axios' Tina Reed reports. - Why it matters: This flu season has defied expectations, with the highest number of cases and hospitalizations in more than a decade.
👀 What we're watching: Experts believe the nationwide trend may be close to peaking. But they predict the outbreak will morph into regional waves of illness into early spring that could stress health systems and collide with COVID. - "The concern is: The viruses have been so weird this year, we don't know," Sarah Ash Combs, an emergency department physician at Children's National Hospital, told Axios.
- "Whereas we can typically predictively say, 'OK that was the peak, we're now on the down spike.' We don't know: Is there going to be a second spike? A January, a February, a March spike?"
🧠 What you can do: If you haven't gotten a flu shot yet, get one! - The flu is still expected to spread for some time, leaving those who haven't yet gotten it highly vulnerable.
The CDC recently reported that it appears the flu shot is a good match for the strain that's circulating this year. |     | | | | | | 2. 🐦 Musk vs. media | | Last night's suspension of several journalists from Twitter set off a firestorm, Axios Media Trends expert Sara Fischer reports: - The mainstream media sees an attempt by Elon Musk to silence his critics.
- Right-wing voices argue the liberal media finally got a taste of its own medicine.
Sally Buzbee, executive editor of The Washington Post, said in a tweeted statement that the suspension of tech reporter Drew Harwell's Twitter feed "directly undermines Elon Musk's claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech." - CNN said in a tweeted statement that it will "reevaluate" its relationship with Twitter, based on the platform's response to CNN's request for an explanation of the suspension of correspondent Donie O'Sullivan, who covers the intersection of politics and technology.
- But Fox News tweeted, "TABLES HAVE TURNED: Elon Musk suspends CNN, NYT, WaPo journalists, reminding them the rules also apply to them."
Musk confirmed that reporters were suspended for linking to a Mastodon account that actively tracked Musk's private jet. Musk suspended a similar Twitter account on Wednesday. - He asserted that by posting links to the account, those journalists "doxxed" him, and doxxing is a violation of Twitter's policies.
- Doxxing is typically defined as publishing private or personally identifying information about someone online.
Musk later joined a Twitter Spaces audio discussion among journalists, including some of those who were banned, where he doubled down on his decision. - "Everyone's gonna be treated the same," Musk said, according to Mediaite. "You're not special because you're a journalist. You're a citizen. ... You doxx, you get suspended. End of story."
The bottom line: Musk's long-held frustration with the mainstream media has put him at odds with one of Twitter's most active user groups. | | | | | | | | 3. 🇺🇳 Biden's big promotion for Cindy McCain | | Cindy McCain accepts the Presidential Medal of Freedom — awarded posthumously to her husband, Sen. John McCain — from President Biden in July. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP President Biden is working to elevate Cindy McCain, 68, the U.S. ambassador to the World Food Program, to be executive director of the Rome-based United Nations agency, Axios' Hans Nichols reports. - Why it matters: With Russia's war in Ukraine disrupting the food supply, and drought in the Horn of Africa, the WFP needs a dynamic leader to raise billions of dollars — then deliver it in hostile territory.
The WFP, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, relies on donations from industrialized and wealthy countries to help fight global hunger. The U.S. is the biggest contributor. - That dynamic puts a premium on the fundraising abilities of the executive director — who will need to convince Congress, including a GOP-controlled House, to meet the agency's growing needs.
Share this story. | | | | | | | | A message from Instagram | | Explore 30+ Instagram tools helping teens have positive experiences | | |  | | | | Instagram's tools can help parents keep their teens safe on social media, help teens see less sensitive content and help them spend less time on our platform. Because teens' experiences on Instagram should be positive and supportive. Explore our tools and set them up today. | | | | | | 4. 🎓 Harvard's new history | | Claudine Gay. Photo: Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard via AP Harvard announced yesterday that Claudine Gay — a scholar of democracy and political participation — will be its next president. - Why it matters: She'll be the first Black person, and second woman, to hold the position in the school's 386-year history.
Between the lines: The appointment comes as Harvard is "embroiled in a battle over affirmative action in admissions that is being litigated at the Supreme Court, and as it confronts its historical ties to slavery," The Boston Globe writes. - Gay, 52, has been the dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 2018.
| | | | | | | | 5. 🔎 Why Secretary Pete wants to be investigated | | Pete Buttigieg (right) and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, attend this week's White House signing ceremony for the Respect for Marriage Act. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has this message for Republican investigators lining up to grill him on climate change and electric vehicles: Bring it on. - Why it matters: Next year's GOP hearings will give him the very thing he needs — attention — to raise his profile for a future presidential run, Axios' Sophia Cai and Hans Nichols report.
Buttigieg is the rare Democrat who not only appears on Fox News, but actually appears to enjoy it. The hearings will give him another platform he's eager to use. - "I'm absolutely ready to take our case to the Hill," Buttigieg told a small group of reporters, previewing his hearing strategy.
Between the lines: Buttigieg is trying to establish terms for debate, and won't necessarily agree to appear before every committee. - He said he's willing to engage "where there is a contest over what's the right thing to do, where people object to our efforts to reduce the impact of transportation on the climate, or where people have a problem with us trying to make sure that this round of infrastructure investment is equitable."
🖼️ The big picture: Buttigieg joins a small handful of administration officials — including Anthony Fauci and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky — who have publicly indicated they'll comply with GOP investigations — at least to the extent that they are "in good faith," Fauci said. | | | | | | | | 6. 🏛️ Crypto's "digital assets policy agenda" |  | | | The yellow diamond is the Binance logo. Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | Crypto exchange Binance.US is beefing up its D.C. lobbying operation as erstwhile competitor FTX comes under regulatory and criminal scrutiny, Axios' Lachlan Markay scoops. - "Binance.US is strengthening and expanding our Washington team to center the digital assets policy agenda on our customers' interests," the company told Axios.
- Palo Alto-based Binance.US is legally independent from Binance, the Caymans-based crypto giant. The U.S. firm licenses Binance tech, and is chaired and partially owned by its CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
Binance.US is hiring three D.C. firms to expand P.R. and government relations. - Binance.US previously hired B.J. Kang, a veteran FBI financial crimes investigator, to lead a new "investigations unit."
| | | | | | | | 7. 🎯 GOP targets ESG |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Republicans are starting an all-out assault on ESG investing (environmental, social, and governance) by targeting a Biden administration rule for retirement plan fiduciaries, Axios' Alayna Treene reports. - Why it matters: The plans are already gaining support from conservative groups eager to sink their teeth into the ESG fight.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) are attempting to dismantle a new Labor Department rule that allows retirement plan fiduciaries to consider climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors in investment decisions. - The DOL rule, issued Nov. 22, followed an executive order, signed by President Biden last year, that directed federal agencies to consider ESG policies.
- Braun and Barr are introducing a joint Congressional Review Act that would nullify the DOL rule and prevent future, similar rules.
💡 Between the lines: The legislation won't pass in a divided Congress, or with President Biden in office. Instead, it's designed to raise the issue's profile — and force lawmakers to go on the record. | | | | | | | | 8. 🎞️ Biggest box-office test since COVID |  Data: The Numbers. Chart: Axios Visuals The highly anticipated Avatar sequel, "Avatar: The Way of Water," hits theaters today, 13 years after James Cameron's original "Avatar" debuted in December 2009, Axios' Sara Fischer and Tim Baysinger report. - Why it matters: This may be the biggest box-office litmus test of the COVID era. The science-fiction fantasy film "is under tremendous pressure to deliver the goods, reinvigorate late-year moviegoing," Comscore's Paul Dergarabedian said.
The original "Avatar" was the highest-grossing film in history worldwide (chart above). - Cameron plans as many as three additional sequels. But he has admitted the franchise's success will be determined by the performance of "The Way of Water."
"This is exactly the kind of movie that demands to be seen in a theater with a communal experience," said Boxoffice Pro analyst Shawn Robbins. - There's little competition heading into the holiday season. The third installation of Disney's "Ant-Man" doesn't debut until February.
🎥 The big picture: Cinemas are still struggling to recover from COVID. - The box office is down 34% from this time in 2019. But analysts are hopeful it will improve next year and beyond.
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