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Good morning. Can't wait to take our first sip of Milk, Pumpkin Spice Sauce [Sugar, Condensed Skim Milk, Pumpkin Puree, Contains 2 Or Less Of Fruit And Vegetable Juice For Color, Natural Flavors, Annatto, Salt, Potassium Sorbate], Brewed Espresso, Whipped Cream [Cream (Cream, Mono And Diglycerides, Carageenan), Vanilla Syrup (Sugar, Water, Natural Flavors, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid)], Pumpkin Spice Topping [Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Clove, Sulfiting Agents] this season. Starbucks's PSL is officially back.

MARKETS NASDAQ 11,379.72 + 0.60% S&P 3,431.41 + 1.01% DJIA 28,309.08 + 1.36% GOLD 1,933.30 - 0.70% 10-YR 0.655% + 1.90 bps OIL 42.42 + 0.19% *As of market close COVID-19 update: New cases in the U.S. are on a clear downward trajectory, hitting their lowest level in more than two months. Hong Kong reported the world’s first confirmed case of reinfection, though experts are debating the significance of the finding. Markets: Airlines soared, cruise lines...cruised, and the S&P and Nasdaq once again hit all-time highs.

ENERGY Laissez les Mal Temps Rouler Francis Scialabba After crashing through Caribbean, two major storms are expected to hit Louisiana within 48 hours of each other. First up is Marco, which made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River yesterday.  Close behind is Laura, a tropical storm that’s expected to morph into a Category 2 hurricane before thrashing Louisiana in the coming days.  Back-to-back storms are as far on the freak weather event spectrum as fire tornadoes, and their arrival in the middle of a pandemic spells trouble for one of the U.S.’ most important oil and gas regions.  The Gulf is home to almost half of U.S. refining operations. When Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017, about a quarter of the country's refining capacity was paused, sending gas prices soaring. This time around, oil and gas companies shut down roughly 82% of offshore oil production and almost half of natural gas output.  But a price spike hasn’t followed The U.S. oil benchmark was up <1% Monday afternoon. While Marco and Laura will disrupt production, refiners were already running under capacity as the pandemic cramped demand and excess supplies neared record highs.  Zoom out: It’s revealing that a historic dual-storm event in the Gulf Coast doesn't appear to be enough to muster a rally in gasoline and diesel prices.  Then again, it’s been a topsy turvy year The international crude oil benchmark was down last week after major producers said recovery from COVID-19’s suckerpunch has been “slower than anticipated.”   Two things to blame are rising cases in Europe, which is hurting demand, and OPEC+ producers relaxing this summer's output cuts, which is boosting supplies. Big picture: Marco and Laura could do some serious damage in Louisiana. But 2020’s potpourri of unexpected macroeconomic conditions means the impact to supplies and prices should be limited.

MARKETS Major Shakeup at the Dow Mr. Krabs is confused and so are we Who’s in: Salesforce, the biotech Amgen, and manufacturing heavyweight Honeywell Who’s out: Exxon Mobil, pharma giant Pfizer, and defense company Raytheon The 30-stock index best known for being quoted by dads at breakfast tables is getting its biggest makeover in seven years...and it’s all Tim Cook’s fault. Last month, Apple said it would split its stock 4-to-1, which means its influence (and the role of the information technology sector as whole) would be significantly reduced in the Dow’s calculations, which gives companies with higher share prices more weight. The Dow’s overseers believe that weighting wouldn’t accurately reflect the composition of the American economy (which, you know, runs on a lot of tech), so they decided to bring the likes of Salesforce on board.  This is a big facepalm moment for Exxon, which was the world’s biggest company less than a decade ago and has been a proud Dow member for nearly 100 years. Looking ahead…the changes will go into effect next Monday.

EDUCATION Zoom Gets the First Day Jitters The de facto communication tool of pandemic life experienced widespread outages in the U.S. yesterday morning, disrupting remote learning sessions as students across the country logged on to start the new academic year.   The outages spanned both coasts and even some spots overseas. The Atlanta public school system, Penn State, Howard University, and many more institutions were hit.   With great bandwidth comes great responsibility What was once an enterprise communications platform is now being tasked with helping teach America’s youth. While there are no official figures around how many schools are using Zoom this fall, yesterday's disruption shows the platform is already an integral part of the country's educational infrastructure.  At the college level: In a Morning Brew survey, 64% of students said their schools are implementing a hybrid model of both in-person and online learning this fall. 32% are going fully remote. Bottom line: Zoom was up and running by noon yesterday, but with more schools still to open and competitors galore, the pressure is on to perform.

SPONSORED BY BRIGHT CELLARS Off Da Vine Divine Vino there are a bunch of delivery services out there these days, but trust us: Bright Cellars is made of different grapes.  Founded by two wine-crazed MIT grads, Bright Cellars is the monthly wine club that uses serious science to match you with wine you’ll love. You take their palate quiz, creating your own unique taste profile in Bright Cellars’ online wine laboratory. Then—in true MIT fashion—Bright Cellars’s algorithm takes your taste profile, picks out a bunch of wines you’ll love, and sends those bottles your way. But when you sign up for Bright Cellars, you’re not just adding a gaggle of genius wine scientists to your entourage; you’re getting an all-out wine education. With wines from all over the world and tasting cards to explain them, you’ll be on your way to wine-scientist status yourself. Start sippin’ with $45 off your first 6-bottle box here.

VIDEOGAMES Start. Your. Videogame Engines. Unity While Fortnite creator Epic Games was going toe-to-toe with a $2.2 trillion Apple over its App Store fees, one of its chief rivals, Unity Software, was gearing up for an IPO. Yesterday, Unity filed to go public on the NYSE.  What does Unity do? Imagine if Tesla started selling its batteries and software systems to other car manufacturers. Unity does something similar, licensing out its software so game developers can...develop games.  And boy do a lot of developers use it: Unity estimates more than half of the 1,000 most popular games on Google’s and Apple’s app marketplaces last year, including Pokémon Go and Call of Duty: Mobile, were built with its platform.  Epic Games’s version of Unity is called Unreal Engine. If Epic continues to escalate its feud, Apple could disable Epic's developer account, leaving other gamemakers unable to use Unreal Engine for iOS and Mac apps.  Bottom line: Unity timed its public filing to perfection. If Apple says Unreal Engine has to go, Unity could stand to benefit the most, capturing the engineless developers caught in the Epic crossfire. + While we're here: Something's in the air, because software startups Snowflake and Asana also filed to go public yesterday.

FOOD & BEV Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Frozen Margaritas At least 33 states and Washington, D.C., now allow cocktails to-go because of the pandemic, the AP reports. The number before that? Just two—Florida and Mississippi.  What’s going on: Starting in March, local and state lawmakers relaxed rules on carryout G&Ts to give restaurants and bars a lifeline after they were forced to close indoor seating areas. Did it work? One survey from May found that 78% of restaurants and bars selling booze to-go brought back laid off employees, higher than the 62% overall rate. Despite the economic benefit, lawmakers are trying to make sure Main Street doesn’t turn into Bourbon Street. Officials in many areas mandated lids/seals and required that food be purchased with drinks, among other regulations. Looking ahead: Each jurisdiction has its own timeline for when these relaxations sunset...or not. Iowa has extended its to-go cocktail rules permanently, and other states could follow.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING The Wisconsin Justice Department is investigating the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, as he was getting into his car with his children in the backseat. A cellphone video of the shooting went viral Sunday night, sparking protests.  TikTok officially sued the Trump administration over an executive order that would effectively ban the app in the U.S. Jerry Falwell Jr., the president and chancellor of Liberty University, denied reports that he resigned. More than half of U.S. states are now approved to distribute an extra $300/week in federal unemployment benefits.  New York’s attorney general is investigating whether the Trump Organization inflated asset values to obtain financial and tax benefits. Disney’s direct-to-consumer revenue (which includes Disney+) will generate an estimated 19% of its total sales this year, per Macquarie Research.

BREW'S BETS Let’s talk crypto. Specifically, The What, Why (and WTF?) Of Crypto Investing. This live, virtual event, hosted by our own Kinsey Grant and presented by Grayscale Investments, is your chance to learn about crypto investing from the experts. The convo starts soon, so secure your spot here.* Make money while doing nothing? Sounds great. Unfortunately, the investments that can yield big-time passive income, like high-end art, require big-time savings. Until now: Masterworks lets you invest in art by Banksy and Kaws at a cost everyone can afford. Skip the waitlist.* COVID-19 testing: The best place to find a local testing site is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s official index. You can also scan your state for drive-thru testing sites using this extensive list from GoodRx. The sweatpants economy: It's big and it's only getting bigger. Check out the 10 fastest-growing athleisure brands by online traffic, via Retail Brew.  Tech Tip Tuesday: Take stickers off your laptop using tea tree oil, magic erasers, or the ultimate cure-all, Windex. Here are other ideas about how to remove stubborn sticker residue, plus a guide on properly cleaning “your filthy, disgusting laptop” from the NYT. (You can replace your old stickers with Morning Brew ones by getting five friends to sign up for this newsletter.) *This is sponsored advertising content. See Masterworks' important disclaimer.

FROM THE CREW Own the Morning: Pro Soccer Player Eric Dier Richard Heathcote/Getty Images Today's Own the Morning participant is English Premier League soccer player and recent app developer Eric Dier. A quick bio for the less soccer-obsessed Brew readers out there:  He's made 40 appearances for England's national team and is a do-it-all defender for the English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur. He's developed a location-based food/drink recommendation app with his brother called Spotlas. We slid into Eric's DMs to ask him how he owns the morning, what life is like as a professional soccer player, and a little bit about his new app. 3 things you do in the morning that are essential to starting your day off right. Cold shower. I started trying cold showers about a year ago and I can’t imagine having a hot shower anymore.  Making my bed. I had to do it as a kid and now I need to do it to start my day. Mate, a South American drink that I was introduced to by my Argentinian teammates and I have it in the car on the way to training. 1 thing you do in the morning that other people definitely don’t do: I don’t think cold showers are very popular in the morning!  1 thing about your industry no one outside of it understands: The discipline it requires from a very young age, mainly saying “no” to many things.  1 thing that you are snobby about: Socks. I’m not proud of it, but if you ask the kit men at Tottenham they will tell you I’m a nightmare when it comes to socks!  Which is harder: Building an app or playing in the Premier League? The Premier League is the most competitive football league in the world, but I’m just at the beginning of my journey in tech and I’m sure it’s very competitive too. Building an app is something that was completely out of my comfort zone, so it’s presented challenges that my brother Patrick, Zoe, and I [the founders] are confronting for the first time. Everyone goes to restaurants, bars, and hotels, but before Spotlas there wasn’t an interactive social app custom-built for sharing and discovering recommendations. We’re trying to solve that.

MICROSOFT TRIVIA Windows 95 turned 25 years old yesterday. Here’s a trivia question to mark the occasion: Under the “Accessories” tab, what were the four games you could play?

MICROSOFT TRIVIA ANSWER Solitaire, FreeCell, Minesweeper, and Hearts

Columnists What Are We to Do with These ‘GOP for Biden’ Traitors? Matt Vespa Democrats and the Great ‘Mailbox Conspiracy’ Derek Hunter A Demagogue Named Barack Obama: His DNC Speech Dennis Prager Middle School Lesson Portrays Police Officers as KKK Members Todd Starnes Excerpt: Abuse and Power—How an Innocent American Was Framed in an Attempted Coup Against the President Carter Page This Election Is About Your Security Marc Lotter Democrats Ignore John Lewis's Non-violence Message at Their Electoral Peril Brad Slager Four Reasons I'm Not Going Postal Jeff Jacoby It's a Long Life -- Right, Joe? Bill Murchison ADVERTISEMENT Optimism vs. Pessimism Cal Thomas President Trump's Growing List of Foreign Policy Successes Martha Boneta Wrecking the Suburbs on Purpose Robert Knight Devastated Farmers and the School Lunch Program May Be the Key to Control of the Senate and White House Steve Sherman Excerpt: Life Is Winning – Inside the Fight for Unborn Children and Their Mothers Marjorie Dannenfelser Truth Behind Justice Angela Stanton-King Team Evers Threatens Salon Owner With Unlawful Investigation M.D. Kittle Donald Trump’s Real Opponent in 2020 Wallace Henley Video Gov. Evers: Saying Abortionists 'Execute Babies' Is 'Blasphemy' Trump blasts Schiff as 'political hack' Pelosi's condescension offers some laughs Pelosi open to border infrastructure INVESTING First Black Woman Released Under Prison Reform Thanks God And President Trump Why Are People Still Socialists? Tipsheet Really? That's How a Gross Smear Against Nikki Haley Got Posted to a Fox News Liberal's Twitter Account Matt Vespa Kenosha War Zone: As National Guard Arrives, BLM Rioters Caught Torching Trucks Matt Vespa Here's What Happened When a Kenosha Rioter Pulled a Gun on a Reporter Beth Baumann Frank Luntz Has Some Good News About General Election Polling Trends Leah Barkoukis 'From Cotton to Congress': Tim Scott Describes His American Dream In a Powerful Speech at the RNC Ellie Bufkin Donald Trump Jr. Shreds Dems, Biden, and Their Pro-Mayhem Agenda Matt Vespa Trump Surprises RNC by Honoring Freed Hostages at the White House Katie Pavlich St. Louis Couple Who Warded Off Leftist Mob Offer a Simple Reason Why Trump Must Be Re-Elected Matt Vespa RNC Speaker Shines a Light on Historic 'Right to Try' Legislation Signed into Law by President Trump Reagan McCarthy Nikki Haley Drags the Obama-Biden Foreign Policy in Her RNC Speech Cortney O'Brien ADVERTISEMENT Political Cartoons Bearing Arms NYPD Commissioner Blames Shootings On "Knuckleheads With Guns" | Cam Edwards Riots, Election Among Reasons Many Women Are Buying Guns | Tom Knighton Teen Arrested After Using A Dating App To Target Gay Men In Shootings | Cam Edwards Wake County, NC Issues More Than 5,100 Permits Over Two Weeks | Tom Knighton Why A Ban On Online Private Gun Sales Is Nearly Impossible To Enforce | Cam Edwards

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1930 Sean Connery British actor 1958 Tim Burton American director 1919 George Wallace American politician 1530 Ivan the Terrible tsar of Russia 1954 Elvis Costello British singer-songwriter 1934 Regis Philbin American television personality SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY August 25 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Sean Connery READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1944 Paris liberated READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2018: American politician John McCain—who developed a reputation as a political maverick while serving in Congress for some 35 years and during his failed bid for the presidency in 2008—died at age 81. [Test your knowledge of American politics.] 2012: U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong—who was the first person to set foot on the Moon, an event he described as “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”—died at age 82. [ Take our quiz about famous astronauts and cosmonauts.] 2009: American politician Ted Kennedy, who was a prominent figure in the Democratic Party and the last surviving brother of President John F. Kennedy, died at age 77. [ Read our list of 10 Democrats who made history.] 1919: George C. Wallace—a four-time governor of Alabama (1962–66, 1970–78, 1982–86) who led the American South in a fight, eventually abandoned, against federal orders to end racial segregation —was born in Clio, Alabama. [ Take our Republican or Democrat quiz.] 1916: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the “Organic Act,” which established the National Park Service. [Test your knowledge of national parks and landmarks.] 1835: New York's The Sun began running a series of news accounts that falsely claimed British astronomer John Herschel had observed all sorts of life on the Moon, including winged human creatures about four feet tall; it became known as the Great Moon Hoax, though The Sun never retracted the stories. [ Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about the Moon.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY State Department Emails Show Dossier Author Christopher Steele’s Close Relationship with State Department Judicial Watch Judicial Watch released State Department documents revealing that Jonathan Winer facilitated dossier author Christopher Steele’s access to top government officials and prominent international business executives. Winer was even approached by a movie producer about making a movie about the Russiagate targeting of President Trump. READ MORE State Department Official ‘Destroyed’ Records at Foreign Agent’s Request The Daily Signal Jonathan Winer disclosed that he destroyed reports that Steele had sent him over the years. A Senate report also says that Winer failed to reveal when asked in his first interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had arranged a meeting for Steele at the State Department months earlier. READ MORE FARRELL: FBI Director Christopher Wray Is Only Interested In Damage Control The Daily Caller FBI Director Christopher Wray is only interested in damage control and institutional preservation for the disgraced and compromised FBI. Rather than cleaning house and reforming the Bureau, Wray is acting as a legal obstructionist, fighting tooth and nail to keep the full story of the corrupt “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation of President Trump and his associates from the American people. READ MORE President Trump Highlights Judicial Watch's Work on Cleaning Up Dirty Voter Rolls across America! WATCH NOW Los Angeles Mayor Defunds Police--Previously Traveled w/ Personal Security Detail from LAPD! WATCH NOW CLINTON EMAIL SCANDAL UPDATE: Special Treatment for Hillary by Appeals Court? WATCH NOW CLIPS FBI Director Wray Should Testify IMMEDIATELY on Crossfire Hurricane #Obamagate Revelations CLINTON UPDATE: Appeals Court Overturned Hillary Deposition Order--"TERRIBLE for Rule of Law!" TWEETS Stacey Abrams/other leftists peddle false info about voter "suppression" even as they likely suppress the vote by using #coronavirus to scare Americans from voting securely in person. I challenged her directly when we testified on same panel to Congress. 9:35 AM · Aug 19, 2020 Leftists promoting violence and communist revolution to overthrow government if @RealDonaldTrump wins -- in @NYTIMES.  10:34 AM · Aug 19, 2020 Today's Top Stories Voter Fraud: Man Arrested in L.A. for Voting 3 Times as His Dead Mother A man from Norwalk, California, in Los Angeles County was arrested and charged last month for voting three times as his dead mother, as well as voting for himself, the Los Angeles District Attorney announced in a statement on Tuesday. READ MORE Hunter Biden Took HUNDREDS of Trips to Foreign Countries with Secret Service Judicial Watch received records from the U.S. Secret Service showing that, for the first five and a half years of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden traveled extensively while receiving a Secret Service protective detail. READ MORE FARRELL: VOA’s Much Needed Shake-Up Why would American taxpayers pay for anti-U.S. propaganda to be broadcast and published around the world? READ MORE State Department Official ‘Destroyed’ Records at Foreign Agent’s Request Jonathan Winer disclosed that he destroyed reports that Steele had sent him over the years. A Senate report also says that Winer failed to reveal when asked in his first interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had arranged a meeting for Steele at the State Department months earlier. READ MORE Read More Kenosha protesters, police clash in second night of unrest, ‘massive fires’ reported Pure Fun: Will Falwell Speak at the Convention? Will we meet the pool boy (Trump did as the photo shows) Read More   Russian opposition critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned, German doctors say Read More   More Top Stories     Breaking News     Coronavirus a Second Time? This is Turning Into a Crapshoot – Veterans Today   Hong Kong reports Reinfection of COVID-19 for 33 year old   In Hong Kong, researchers reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection in a 33-year-old man. The virus sequenced from his two infections didn’t match, indicat[...]   Read More