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Good morning. Have you ever watched a late-night show and thought..."I could do that?" Now's your chance. Morning Brew is launching a new talk show-style podcast, so new it doesn't even have a name yet, that will riff on the latest business news. You can apply to be a host here. And now that you mention it...we're also hiring for a bunch of other positions. Check 'em out.

MARKETS NASDAQ 10,941.17 + 0.35% S&P 3,306.61 + 0.36% DJIA 26,830.04 + 0.62% GOLD 2,030.00 + 2.20% 10-YR 0.505% - 5.40 bps OIL 41.57 + 1.37% *As of market close COVID-19 update: With the U.S. closing in on 5 million total cases and recording more than 155,000 deaths, the pandemic remains a clear and present danger. Officials have identified social gatherings like birthday parties, weddings, and camps as sources of many outbreaks. Stocks: Yawner of a day on Wall St. as investors await stimulus news.

AUTO We've Come a Long Way Since Ben Franklin's Kite

Nikola Tesla is still racing laps around the rest of the electric vehicle (EV) field, but the competition is in hot, and of course silent, pursuit.  China’s Nio and Phoenix-based Nikola have matched or surpassed Tesla's 240% stock rally this year. This week, Nio reported July deliveries were up 322% compared to 2019. Nikola went public this summer through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Yesterday, it reported its first earnings...or lack thereof. Shares fell on its greater-than-expected loss of nearly $87 million, but remember—Nikola hasn’t actually sold a single vehicle yet.  It has sold a lot of shares. Its market cap is up near $14 billion.  Not looking to miss the party is Lordstown Motors, which this week said it’s also going public through a reverse merger with another SPAC, DiamondPeak Holdings. The deal values Lordstown at $1.6 billion and will help fund production of its commercial Endurance EV, set to launch next year.  Jerry Seinfeld voice...what's the deal with all the SPACs? Mergers with these “blank check companies” are becoming an increasingly popular option for EV companies to go public and skirt the paperwork of an IPO. Fisker, another EV maker, announced plans last month to go public via SPAC.  Electric dreams aren't just for newcomers Yesterday, one of America's more iconic automakers announced a surprise pit stop on its EV journey. Ford CEO Jim Hackett will be replaced by COO Jim Farley, the automaker's fourth CEO shuffle in the last 14 years.  Ford's undergoing an $11 billion restructuring, which has pruned off products including sedans to focus on successful lines like the F-Series and its big bets on electric and autonomous vehicles. That has yet to pay off—shares have fallen around 40% during Hackett’s tenure and nearly 30% this year.  Farley takes over with some momentum from Ford's recent announcements of the new Bronco and its first fully electric SUV, the Mustang Mach-E.

INTERNATIONAL Explosion Devastates Beirut

STR/AFP via Getty Images Yesterday, a massive explosion shook Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. As of last night, at least 78 people had been reported killed and thousands injured. Neighborhoods around the port, where the blast occurred, were leveled—including the port itself.  Authorities said the explosion came from a warehouse where highly explosive material (ammonium nitrate) was being stored. The city’s governor, Marwan Abboud, called it a “national catastrophe.”  Zoom out: In addition to dealing with the pandemic, Lebanon is in its worst economic tailspin in many years. Decades of corruption plus a reckless central bank have combined to push almost half the population into poverty, the value of the lira (Lebanon’s currency) down over 70%, and the entire country into hyperinflation, a first for the region.

ENTERTAINMENT Disney’s Feeling Short on Pixie Dust

Francis Scialabba With fiscal Q3 revenue dropping 42% annually to $11.8 billion, Disney earnings show what happens to a global entertainment giant when people can't leave their homes. It's not all bad?  But much of it is definitely bad. If it were a movie, Disney’s parks business would be Thor: The Dark World. With parks closed because of the pandemic, Disney swallowed a $3.5 billion hit to its onetime profit engine. Revenue fell 85% from last year. Studio entertainment revenue also fell 55% to $1.7 billion. This quarter a year ago, Disney released the highest-grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame, which by itself brought in $2.8 billion at the box office.  But Disney's big dive into streaming last year is paying off in ways it could never have imagined. The company has collected 100 million paid subscribers across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, and revenue was up 2% to $4 billion.  Most importantly, it allows Disney to do things like this: It's releasing Mulan directly to Disney+ next month for an extra $29.99. The remake was originally scheduled to open March 27 in a magical place called a "movie theater." Disney also announced it's planning another streaming option for international markets under its Star brand. Bottom line: Without Disney+, Disney would be in a much worse place.

SPONSORED BY PAYCOM Changing What HR Stands For For time immemorial, HR has stood for Human Resources. But as business and HR leaders, you know that incredibly vague title barely covers it. It’s more like HRAEETMIAC (Human Resources And Everything Else That Matters In A Company). Paycom gets that. Which is why their innovative and comprehensive HR tech empowers employees to enter and manage their own data.  Basically, it’s smart tech that helps you get more done. And when fully utilized, Paycom pays for itself.  But how does Paycom make it simple for you and your employees? For starters, employees enter their own info (birthday, address, dependents, etc.) one time, and one time only, into a single simple system.  Plus, employees have 24/7 access to their own data. Paycom also helps remove redundancy and improve business performance so you can focus on success. Thanks to Paycom, HR now stands for “How Revolutionary.” Learn more here.

WORK Some Work From Home Truths Prepare yourself for the awkwardness of a Zoom office holiday party. Yesterday, Uber said employees don’t have to come back to the office through June of 2021. 200,000 Googlers also won’t return to the office until next summer. As the pandemic persists in the U.S., we can expect more WFH extensions to follow.  So what do we know about employee productivity during lockdowns? Researchers at Harvard and NYU collected data across three continents to find out. The main takeaways: The average workday increased by 48.5 minutes, as did the number of meetings (up 13%) and the number of emails sent to colleagues (+1.4).  But the length of those meetings was much shorter, meaning overall we’re actually spending less time in meetings than before COVID-19.  One more interesting finding: The researchers say that changes in communication patterns occurred, on average, about one week before formal lockdowns in the 16 cities they explored. So workers seemed to anticipate policy changes before they happened.

ENVIRONMENT Trump Writes Mother Nature a Check

Neal Freyman Yesterday, President Trump signed a bill to earmark a Rocky mountain of cash for the U.S.’ natural spaces.  Called the Great American Outdoors Act, the law will 1) provide up to $9.5 billion over the next five years for park maintenance and 2) guarantee $900 million/year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)...in perpetuity.  This is an extremely large deal. Anyone who’s used a national park bathroom knows the system is in desperate need of maintenance. And the government has been dipping into the LWCF for non-land and water uses ever since it was created in 1964.  The economic angle: National parks breathe life (and $$$) into their local communities. Local officials say Grand Canyon National Park provides 12,000 jobs for AZ’s Coconino County. And the pandemic, while decimating big cities, has supercharged tourism in other park jumping-off points, such as Jackson Hole, WY. The political angle: The bill was sponsored by several vulnerable members of Trump’s Republican party who hail from outdoorsy states, including Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Sen. Steve Daines of Montana. + P.S.: Bonus points if you can name the national park in the pic above. Answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of a Waymo/Uber self-driving dispute, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trade secret theft.
• Activision Blizzard crushed earnings, confirming it's a great time to be a videogame company. 
• President Trump was interviewed by Axios's Jonathan Swan, and 1 million memes were born. 
• Novavax reported promising results from two preliminary studies of its potential coronavirus vaccine. 
• The SEC is looking into potential shenanigans concerning Kodak's government loan announcement and subsequent stock surge, the WSJ reports.
• Tropical Storm Isaias drenched the I-95 corridor yesterday, causing tornadoes, floods, and fires.

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1930 Neil Armstrong American astronaut 1968 Marine Le Pen French politician 1862 Joseph Merrick British medical patient 1964 Adam Nathaniel Yauch American musician and rapper 1906 John Huston American director, writer, and actor 1850 Guy de Maupassant French writer SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY August 05 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Marilyn Monroe READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1960 Independence declared by Upper Volta READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2019: American writer Toni Morrison, who earned a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 for novels that examine the Black experience (particularly Black female experience) within the Black community, died at age 88. [ Test your knowledge of Nobel laureates in literature.] 2019: Continued antigovernment protests and a general strike brought Hong Kong to a near standstill; among the demonstrators' demands were universal suffrage and investigations into allegations of police brutality. 2011: Thai businesswoman and politician Yingluck Shinawatra was elected prime minister of Thailand, becoming the first woman to hold that post. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Thailand.] 2010: Thirty-three workers became trapped after a mine in the Atacama Desert of Chile collapsed, and the resulting rescue took 69 days, attracting international attention. [ Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Chile.] 1981: U.S. President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who were on strike. [Take our quiz about U.S. presidents.] 1957: Dick Clark's American Bandstand, a TV show in which performers lip-synched their latest songs and the teenage audience danced, began airing nationally. [Test your knowledge of pop culture.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY Columnists The State of the Race Right Now. And Also Burgers. Kurt Schlichter When the Counterculture Becomes the Culture Ben Shapiro The Leftist Effort to Revise American History Walter E. Williams More Juice! John Stossel Amid Cancel Culture, Now Academics Have Their Next Target: Pickup Trucks Brad Slager Unmasking Obama: A New Portrait of an Opaque President William Marshall Herman Cain’s Life Is a Model For Us All Pastor Darrell Scott There He Goes Again: Obama’s Insane Funeral Speech Susan Stamper Brown The Collapse of the Traditional American Family Star Parker ADVERTISEMENT The Woke Chokehold Katie Kieffer Biden Backers Terrified of Debates Tim Graham Ilhan Omar Wants to Transfer Wealth -- But to Whom? Terry Jeffrey COVID-19 Lies Go Viral Betsy McCaughey Assessing Desert Shield's Power Cocktail 30 Years on Austin Bay If Teachers Won’t Teach, Follow Ronald Reagan’s Example and Fire Them Bob Barr Wuhan Virus Takes Life of Herman Cain John and Andy Schlafly Americans Are Annoyed with Going to the Post Office and for Good Reason Peter Mihalick Then They Burned the Bibles Michael Brown Statues Falling: The Cultural Revolution and How to Win the Counterrevolution Ralph Benko Smart Postal Reform Can Help Agency Thrive for Decades Jesse Grady Bipartisan Bribery Scandals Show Need to Hold Public Officials Accountable Johnny Kampis 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 What Jesus Said About ‘Mask Wearers’ Jesus vs. The Judeans, Not Jesus vs. The Jews Leftists Destroy Schools, Churches And Next, The Whole Country Wealth Redistribution: The Gateway To Socialism What It Will Take To Win The Cold War With China AOC’s Dumb Economics And Dangerous Politics Tipsheet The Explosive July Gun Sales Figure Also Revealed Another Benchmark Was Clinched For 2020 Matt Vespa Roger Marshall Defeats Kris Kobach in Controversial GOP Senate Primary in Kansas Reagan McCarthy Seattle 'Protestors' Have New Demands and They're Going to Court to Make It Happen Beth Baumann Karen Bass Praised the Church of Scientology and Leah Remini Stepped in to School Her Beth Baumann NBA Player's Jersey Sales Surge After He Stands for National Anthem Madeline Peltzer Michigan Governor Attends National Guard Ceremony Despite Banning Gatherings Madeline Peltzer Fan-Free Stadiums and Woke Anthem Protests Will Kill Professional Sports Ellie Bufkin No Surprise: De Blasio Admits He Pulled Strings for Black Lives Matter Beth Baumann Did the FBI Really Just Say That After Reviewing FISA Spy Warrant Process? Matt Vespa Bernie Sanders Wants Free College, Healthcare, and Now Masks For All Alex Corey ADVERTISEMENT Political Cartoons Bearing Arms MI Man Protesting Violence By His Lonesome | Tom Knighton Another Virginia County Passes "No Local Gun Control" Law | Tom Knighton Guns Siezed In VA's First "Red Flag" Case | Tom Knighton Federal Judge Calls For More Privacy Following Son's Murder | Tom Knighton Younger Voters No Longer Focused On Guns | Tom Knighton