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Good morning. July 15 happens to be a momentous day in Twitter history. In 2006, it was launched as Twttr by parent company Odeo. And exactly one year ago, a 17-year-old orchestrated a massive Twitter hack that compromised the accounts of 130 of the most prominent people in the world, including Barack Obama and Elon Musk. This year, Twitter decided to make a big move on July 14. Read about it below...

MARKETS Nasdaq 14,644.95 -0.22% S&P 4,374.30 +0.12% Dow 34,933.23 +0.13% Bitcoin $32,863.77 +0.48% 10-Year 1.345% -7.8 bps AMC $33.43 -15.04% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. Markets: After plunging another 15% yesterday, AMC stock has fallen to half of its record high; fellow meme stock companies, such as GameStop, are also down big in July. Economy: Of course Jerome Powell was going to be asked about inflation during testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday. What did he say? More of the same—that inflation will be higher for a few months then recede to more typical levels.

ECONOMY When the New Child Tax Credit Hits Giphy In the biggest win for parents since the invention of the iPad, the IRS will send supersized checks for the expanded child tax credit (CTC) beginning today.  As part of the coronavirus stimulus package passed in March, the Biden administration set aside $105 billion to hike the child tax credit up to $1,600 per child. It’s one of the White House’s most ambitious economic policies.  Here’s why: The expanded child tax credit is expected to cut child poverty by nearly half, according to a study from Columbia University. Almost 90% of the US’ 74 million children will qualify for the program. Some details:  The standard credit increased to $3,600/child under 6 and $3,000/child between ages 6 and 17, compared to the existing $2,000 per child under 17.  The CTC is now fully refundable, meaning low-income families who don’t owe federal taxes can feel the credit’s full effect for the first time in recent history. Will it stick around? The current expansion will expire after one year, but President Biden asked for a four-year extension in his American Families Plan. Some Democrats, including senators New Jersey’s Cory Booker and Colorado's Michael Bennet, want to make it permanent, citing its profound impact on working families. “It’s the most transformative policy coming out of Washington since the days of FDR,” Booker claims. That’ll receive pushback from lawmakers who argue the program is too costly and will disincentivize parents from finding work. What it means for business: Cowen called the expanded CTC an “underappreciated stimulus” that will boost sales for retailers like Walmart, Target, and Nike. For more: Our personal finance writer Ryan Lasker put together a cheat sheet for the child tax credit that’ll help you figure out if you qualify, how much you’re eligible for, and whether you should opt out. Read it here.

SOCIAL MEDIA Not All Stories Have a Happy Ending It turns out Twitter’s Fleets feature was here for a good time, not a long time. The social media platform said yesterday it’s shutting down the Instagram Stories-esque feature that allowed users to post content that would disappear in 24 hours. Why? Eight months in, it just wasn’t that popular. Twitter’s VP of product said, “In the time since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped.” Moral of the story: Copying Snapchat’s ephemeral feature worked for Instagram, but platforms are learning that just because something clicks in one setting doesn’t mean it will work everywhere. Bottom line: Twitter hopes other new product releases, like its Clubhouse competitor, Spaces, will be less fleeting.

HEALTH Fatal Drug Overdoses Surged Along With Pandemic Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30% nationwide in 2020 to a record of 93,331, according to preliminary federal data. The surge is pronounced on the West Coast; in San Francisco for instance, about 64% more people died of drug overdoses last year than from Covid-19. What’s going on? Rates of joblessness and homelessness rose in 2020, and with them, stress and trauma. Plus, business shutdowns extended to treatment centers and other mental health resources. After being a scourge on the East Coast, fentanyl, an illegal drug that’s 50 times as powerful as heroin, spread to the West. Plus, the best prevention for Covid-19 (isolation) was disastrous for drug users. “Isolation is also the thing that puts people at the absolute highest risk of overdose death,” Kristen Marshall, manager of the overdose prevention program DOPE Project, said to the WSJ. Zoom out: These overdose numbers reveal a rising death toll from the pandemic that extends beyond those who succumbed to the virus itself.

SPONSORED BY FIDELITY How Green Is Your Portfolio? Everyone wants a portfolio that performs well. But one that’s good for the environment and potentially good for your wallet? Even better. That’s what you get with the Fidelity Climate Action Fund. The fund enables investors to support companies that are working to remove, reduce, or mitigate the effects of climate change. But this is about more than good intentions, as a post-pandemic “green boom” could potentially bring a lot of value to investors. For instance: In the next decade, the US utility industry’s capacity to generate wind and solar energy could grow from 14% to 39%. The utilities industry is projected to spend $130 billion annually on renewable sources of energy in 2021, 2022, and potentially longer—up 50% from a decade ago. Fueled by insights from the Fidelity research team, the Fidelity Climate Action fund helps you invest in opportunities presented by the green transition.  Learn more about the Fidelity Climate Action Fund here.

GRAB BAG Key Performance Indicators Francis Scialabba Stat: TikTok became the first non-Facebook app to hit 3 billion downloads globally, according to Sensor Tower. It was the most downloaded and highest grossing non-game app in the world in H1 2021. Quote: “The medals will not be given around the neck. They will be presented to the athlete on a tray and then the athlete will take the medal him or herself.” When it seemed the Tokyo Olympics couldn’t get any weirder, IOC President Thomas Bach said hold my medal. Literally. Olympic winners must place the medals on themselves to preserve a contactless experience. Read: How fintech is eating the world. (No Mercy/No Malice)

SPORTS You’ve Never Seen This Before NBA 2K Chicago Sky star Candace Parker will grace the cover of a special edition of NBA 2K22, becoming the first woman to appear on the video game’s cover. Parker’s appearance is meant to create more buzz for the WNBA, now in its 25th season. Three years ago, the bestselling 2K franchise didn’t feature any women players—now it lets users play as a woman in career mode or manage a WNBA franchise.  Bottom line, via Parker: “Being able to see women on the cover, visible in leadership positions, it helps not just in sport but also just in the boardroom, in business, or everything,” she told Bloomberg.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING The EU and China both launched ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Facebook will pay $1 billion to creators through 2022. Delta (the airline, not the Covid variant) posted its first profitable quarter since the pandemic hit. Over 150 companies, including Target and Amazon, asked Congress to pass voting rights legislation.  Personalized advertising’s performance is a mixed bag, per a new study. Coca-Cola is rebranding Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and switching up the taste. Did it not learn from the New Coke debacle?

BREW'S BETS Bike shorts aren’t the only thing trending this summer. Burglaries also spike when the temps rise. Make sure your home is secure with SimpliSafe Home Security. Get 24/7 protection for every window, room, and door today.* One-stop crypto. Bitwise equips long-term investors with the products, education, and relationships they need to access crypto opportunities. Bitwise’s product suite includes the world’s largest crypto index fund (OTCQX: BITW) and the index behind the first crypto industry ETF. Risk disclosures at bitwiseinvestments.com.* Holy edits: Watch this guy fall and turn into random objects.  Three “how to”s: 1) How to use a TikTok video template 2) how to download podcasts and 3) how to navigate the new National Park reservation system *This is sponsored advertising content

GAMES The Puzzle Section Brew mini: Today’s puzzle is very special because it contains exactly 0 black squares. That means if you’re up for a bit of a challenge, give it a try.  Three Headlines and a Lie  Here are some headlines that will surely stress you out more than Kraft’s mac-and-cheese ice cream. See if you can guess which one is faker than the powder in the little blue box:  Muskegon County man unearths more than 150 bowling balls during renovations Apple’s weather app won’t say it’s 69 degrees California town asks residents to donate backyard pools for fish mating during drought Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro hospitalized after 10 days of hiccups

SHARE THE BREW We think you should share the Brew. Not only is it a smart thing to do for your friends, it’s also the smartest way to get showered in free Brew swag and exclusive content. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others: morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=a17a7110

ANSWER We made up the fish mating one. But if you have any pools you'd like to donate for human use...give us a call.

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2006: Cofounders Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone publicly launched their online microblogging service Twitter, and within the following decade it had more than 300 million users. [Test your knowledge of tech companies.]

1997: Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. [Read our list of infamous serial killers.]

1988: The thriller Die Hard was first released in U.S. theatres, launching a hugely popular series and helping establish Bruce Willis as an action star. [Take our quiz about movies.]

1922: Leon Max Lederman, who was a corecipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physics for research on neutrinos, was born in New York City. [Take our quiz about the Nobel Prize.]

1978: American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan performed in England before 200,000 people. [Test your knowledge of songwriters.]

1912: American Jim Thorpe won a gold medal for the decathlon at the Olympics in Stockholm; he also captured a gold medal for the pentathlon. [Test your knowledge of the Olympics.]

SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1946 Linda Ronstadt American singer

1939 Ali Khamenei rahbar of Iran

1951 Jesse Ventura American professional wrestler, actor, and politician

1606 Rembrandt Dutch artist

1946 Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Muʿizzaddin Waddaulah sultan of Brunei

1930 Jacques Derrida French philosopher

SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY

 

July 15

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Born On This Day Rembrandt van Rijn Dutch artist READ MORE

FEATURED EVENT 1965 Close-up pictures of Mars provided by Mariner 4

READ MORE

 

Today's Headlines...

Blackburn RIPS Biden’s message on Cuba: It’s about freedom not COVID

Burgess Owens slams ‘cultural Marxists’ as ‘Godless’

Ben Carson: The American people are waking up

Trump’s Favorite “USA” Hat is Available at the Lowest Price EVER! (SPONSOR)

Americans on whether ‘wokeness’ belongs in the US military

1 big thing: Massive trust gap splits America

Data: Gallup. Chart: Axios Visuals Americans' trust in all big institutions has cratered, but look at the massive gap in who we do trust: New Gallup polling finds a 45-point split in trust of police — 76% of Republicans vs. 31% of Democrats. Confidence in the church or organized religion — twice as many Rs as Ds, 51% to 26%. So who do Democrats trust instead? With President Biden in the White House, 62% of Ds said they trust the presidency vs. 13% of Rs. That's a 49-point delta — the biggest in the survey. No surprise here: Blue America trusts the media by double digits more than red America does. But this is interesting: Twice as many Democrats trust public schools as do Republicans, 43% to 20%. The big picture: Overall trust in key U.S. institutions has dropped 10 points in the past decade, according to Gallup, which began tracking the question during the Watergate year of 1973. The police (51%) are one of just three institutions in which a majority of Americans express confidence. The others — small business (70%) and the military (69%) — have consistently led the list. At the other end of the spectrum, Gallup reports, are Congress, TV news, big business, the criminal justice system and newspapers — each with a confidence rating at or below 21%. Congress (12%) and big business (18%) have ranked at the bottom of the list since 2007. Gallup found a big racial difference in trust of police: 56% of white adults trusted police vs. 27% of Black adults. That's up from 19% of Black adults in 2020, right after the killing of George Floyd. Confidence among whites was unchanged. Go deeper: Read the Gallup report. ... Police breakout ... Institution-by-institution data back to 1973. Share this story.

2. CEOs sound alarm on inflation

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

CEOs are speaking up about what we’ve seen in the government data: inflation. And some of them warn elevated levels of inflation could persist, Sam Ro writes in Axios Markets. Why it matters: Companies are directly exposed to rising costs for raw materials and labor. And they’re setting the prices we pay. "The inflation could be worse than people think," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on an earnings call Tuesday. "I think it'll be a little bit worse than what the Fed thinks. I don't think it's only temporary." BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told CNBC yesterday that policymakers "are saying jobs are more important than consumerism. ... That is going to probably lead to systematically more inflation." Executives are explicitly saying that they're raising prices. "Is there somewhat more inflation out there? There is,” PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnston said on an earnings call Tuesday. “Are we going to be pricing to deal with it? We certainly are."

3. Green drain: Climate solutions bring own problems

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

World leaders are increasingly spotting downsides to the unprecedented moves they're making to combat global warming, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes. Why it matters: The changes will be needed to avoid the most dire climate scenarios. But there are environmental, human rights and geopolitical risks to shifting how we get around, the way the grid operates, and how cement is made and buildings are built. The best-known problem companies and countries are facing is how to source the critical minerals needed for batteries that will be used to power electric cars, planes, energy storage devices, and more. Mining for these minerals — including cobalt, lithium, manganese and graphite — can cause pollution and are often unsafe. In some places, like in China and the Congo, it can involve forced or child labor. Other technologies threaten biodiversity by extracting resources and taking up large amounts of land. Keep reading.

A message from Facebook

The internet has changed a lot since 1996 - internet regulations should too

It's been 25 years since comprehensive internet regulations passed. See why we support updated regulations on key issues, including: Protecting people’s privacy. Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms. Preventing election interference. Reforming Section 230.

4. Pic du jour: D.C.'s own Statue of Liberty

Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images A replica of the Statue of Liberty was unveiled yesterday at Résidence de France — the Washington residence of Ambassador Philippe Étienne. France, which gave the Statue of Liberty as a gift of friendship in 1885, calls this "Washington D.C.'s own Statue of Liberty." Secretary of State Tony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian took part in the Bastille Day ceremony, which was followed by a Champagne reception.

5. Scoop: 30% of immigrants in ICE custody refuse vaccine

A prisoner shines a torch from the main ICE detention center in downtown Los Angeles. Photo: Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

Three in 10 immigrants in U.S. detention centers are saying no to the COVID-19 vaccine, Axios' Stef Kight has learned. Why it matters: Vaccine hesitancy among detained immigrants has added an unlikely twist to the challenges of a pandemic-era increase in border migration. ICE didn't provide the exact number of immigrants who were offered the shot but declined. The 30% figure has been shared internally. One ICE official said immigrants have refused the shot for many of the same reasons as Americans do, including fear of the unknown. The context: Some Democrats have been urging the Biden administration to do more to ensure that migrants who cross the border, and other immigrants in government custody, get the shot. Share this story.

6. Netflix to add video games

Netflix plans to add video games as an incentive for subscribers, Axios Gaming co-author Stephen Totilo reports. Netflix, in its biggest move beyond TV shows and films, said yesterday that it had hired Oculus/EA/Zynga vet Mike Verdu as V.P. of game development, Bloomberg reported.

7. Selling cities: New marketing art

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

Chicago touts a diverse workforce. Morgantown, West Virginia, promises outdoor activities galore. Savannah, Georgia, advertises its historic charm. Indianapolis is proud of its small-town feel. Instead of trying to attract big companies with tax incentives, city leaders are looking for the "micro-talent" — the individual who already has a job somewhere else but is looking for a better place to live, Axios' Kim Hart reports. Colleges that advertise their title teams to potential applicants, and pro sports teams winning championships, both help keep cities on the radars of people who might be relocating. Keep reading.

8. Bezos gives Smithsonian's biggest gift ever

Jeff Bezos announces Blue Moon, a lunar landing vehicle for the Moon, during a Blue Origin event in Washington in 2019. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images The Smithsonian says a $200 million donation from Jeff Bezos is the institution's largest since the founding gift from James Smithson in 1846.  $70 million will go to renovating the National Air and Space Museum. $130 million will launch a new education center there.

9. Coming attractions: Obama for teens

Cover: Delacorte Press

President Obama's bestselling memoir of his childhood and young adult years, "Dreams from My Father" — a journey through family, race and identity that was originally published in 1995 — will be out Oct. 5 in an edition adapted for young adults (ages 12+). The Young Adult edition includes a family tree, Delacorte Press and Random House Children's Books announced. Obama writes in the new edition: "If you’re lucky, life provides you with a good long arc. I hope that my story will encourage you to think about telling your story, and to value the stories of others around you."

10. We've been tweeting for 15 years

Twitter's official birthday is March 21, 2006, when CEO @Jack Dorsey first tweeted ("just setting up my twttr"). But today is the 15th anniversary of public tweets, and historian Michael Beschloss marks the occasion with this L.A. Times throwback:

A message from Facebook

Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations

2021 is the 25th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the last major update to internet regulation. It’s time for an update to set clear rules for addressing today's toughest challenges. See how we’re taking action on key issues and why we support updated internet regulations.

Please invite your friends, family, colleagues to sign up here for Axios AM and Axios PM.

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L.A. Sheriff Says Drug Cartels Took Over Large Tracts Of The Desert During Pandemic To Grow Illegal Pot By Jeffrey Cawood Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva appeared on Fox & Friends Weekend early Saturday morning to discuss his goal of eliminating illegal marijuana farms operated by drug cartels that set up shop in the desert during the pandemic. Even though recreational cannabis sales became legal in California in 2018, high taxes and strict regulations have resulted in a thriving black market.   Villanueva announced earlier this week that law enforcement had seized more than 16 tons of illegal pot during a 10-day operation that had an estimated street value of nearly $1.2 billion. The effort targeted the Antelope Valley in northern L.A. County, which is part of the Mojave Desert. During a press conference on Wednesday, the sheriff said he wanted to “send a clear message to the cartels and anyone doing illegal operations in the High Desert: your days are over, and we are coming for you.” He also said Asian and Armenian organized crime rings were involved in unlawful harvests in that area. This article is a Reader's Pass exclusive. Daily Wire members get access to tons of member-only articles including interviews, opinion and analysis, and an ad-free reading experience for just $4/month. Click "Continue Reading" to sign up or keep scrolling to get today's other headlines. CONTINUE READING George Floyd Mural Blown Apart By Lightning Strike, Officials Say Read now >> Trump Scores Win On First Amendment Grounds In Case Over ‘Fake News’ Meme Read now >> Texas Senate Passes Voter Integrity Bill As Democrats Flee State To Subvert Democracy Read now >>

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