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Good morning. The organizers of Bonnaroo, an iconic music festival in Tennessee set to start Thursday, canceled the event at the last minute—not because of Covid but because heavy rains over the past two weeks have drenched the area, making it unsafe. It's a bummer, but the good news is you can wait in line for a porta potty anywhere. —Neal Freyman, Sherry Qin, Matty Merritt

MARKETS Nasdaq 15,259.24 -0.04% S&P 4,522.68 -0.13% Dow 35,360.73 -0.11% Bitcoin $46,994.26 -2.62% 10-Year 1.308% +2.8 bps Oil $68.69 -0.01% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. Markets: The S&P 500 tied a bow on its seventh straight month in the green—its longest winning streak since 2017. Investors are closely watching oil prices after Ida knocked out at least 94% of offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production. Afghanistan: President Biden defended his Afghanistan exit strategy against heavy criticism, calling it an “extraordinary success” after helping airlift more than 120,000 people from the country. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that more than 100 Americans remain in Afghanistan, and he’s working on getting them out.

RETAIL Allbirds Takes Flight Back in 2017, direct-to-consumer startups flooded your Instagram feed with pastel colors and pledges to “cut out the middleman.” Now, they’ve put on dress slacks and are marching toward Wall Street. Allbirds, the maker of footwear that’s graced the soles of many a tech bro, filed to go public yesterday. The company has made sustainability its core focus, and it plans to continue that mission by putting a green twist on the traditional IPO. The company is conducting what it calls a Sustainable Public Equity Offering, which means it’s holding itself accountable to hit certain environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets.  Allbirds says its supply chain has been carbon neutral since 2019, and that the carbon footprint of its standard sneakers is 30% less than those of its rivals.  But as it tries to steal business from those bigger rivals—namely, Nike and Adidas—it’s worth noting that Allbirds hasn’t made money since it was founded, nor does it envision becoming profitable in the near future.  Sounds familiar In that way, and in many others, it’s similar to Warby Parker, the e-commerce eyewear seller that filed to go public last week. Warby is also ditching the classic IPO playbook by going public via direct listing, which means it’s not actually going to raise any money in the process.  Both Allbirds and Warby Parker successfully leveraged online channels to attract urban millennials comfortable with buying apparel on the internet. Allbirds’s online sales revenue grew 74% from 2018–2020, and Warby’s total sales jumped 44% over the same period. But as they’ve matured, these brands have found that brick-and-mortar locations are a necessary complement to online shopping. Warby has opened 145 retail stores as of June 30. Allbirds has 27 and is planning on opening hundreds more.  Zoom out: Allbirds and Warby Parker are just a couple wildebeests in a bigger stampede of consumer-facing companies headed to the public markets. Chobani, Sweetgreen, and Roger Federer-backed On Running are all reportedly planning IPOs of their own, hoping to cash in on the strength of the US shopper. – NF

ENERGY Hurricane Ida’s Perils Are Just Beginning Power outages in Southern Louisiana via Entergy Since Ida made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, it’s left 1 million homes and businesses on the Gulf Coast without power. Southern Louisiana (pictured above) in particular is reeling from massive outages; it could be weeks before power is back. What happened: The storm crushed the transmission system that provides most of the energy along the coast. Entergy, a New Orleans-based energy utility, said that as of Monday, 2,000 miles of its transmission lines were out of service, and the Department of Energy said it could take up to three days to fully assess the damage and even begin to repair them. It’s not just phone batteries at 1% scaring officials. Without power, homes, businesses, and hospitals in Mississippi and southern Louisiana don’t have safe drinking water, working fridges, or the ability to run air conditioning in the brutal 100-degree heat. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards told residents who evacuated before the storm to stay where they are—the state’s emergency systems just can’t handle them right now. Tulane University began evacuating its students to Houston yesterday. How you can help: Donate to national orgs like All Hands and Hearts, or local charities like Another Gulf is Possible and Feed the Second Line. – MM

TECH Zoom’s 40 Minutes of Fame Could Be Over Zoom’s plunging sales growth is the latest sign that pandemic winners could be hitting a wall.  In its earnings call Monday, Zoom said revenue grew 54% to hit $1 billion in Q2. While that’s impressive, the company reported 191% sales growth in Q1, and 369% the quarter before that.  Big picture: When everyone was cooped up at home last year, Zoom provided a crucial lifeline for remote work, remote school, and—most cringingly—remote happy hours. But apparently, nothing can beat the delicious awkwardness of trying to end a conversation in person. Like other pandemic-boosted companies such as Peloton, Zoom has started to lose momentum as offices reopen and people socialize IRL. “What we’re seeing...is headwinds in our mass markets,” Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg told CNBC. “People are taking vacations again, they’re going to happy hours in person.” Zoom’s stock fell 17% yesterday after investors got a peek into the company's post-pandemic life. Looking ahead...to sustain growth, Zoom plans to turn its software into a “destination app” that offers everything from group planning to document editing. – SQ

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GRAB BAG Key Performance Indicators Stat: Since announcing its $200 surcharge on the health-care plans of unvaccinated employees, Delta Air Lines says it went from 11 workers/day receiving vaccines to 55. For the sake of debate, here’s an interesting take on why Delta’s policy is a bad idea.  Quote: “They have the drive and work ethic. They get the technology. They catch on really quickly.” Heather Coleman, the operator of a McDonald’s in Medford, Oregon, wants to hire your teenager. Faced with a severe labor crunch, her location is hiring 14 and 15-year-old workers (yes, it’s legal), and these coachable employees have been a “blessing in disguise,” she told Insider.  Read: Why are hyperlinks blue? (Mozilla)

SPORTS The Curious Case of the Bishop Sycamore Football Team If you heard a bunch of people making Bishop Sycamore references yesterday, here's a quick rundown of the wacky story so you can participate. In a high school football game televised on ESPN on Sunday, IMG Academy walloped Bishop Sycamore 58–0. Blowouts happen at all levels of competition...but this one has completely enraptured the sports industry because it was clear to everyone involved that Bishop Sycamore had no business playing a nationally televised game against IMG, one of the top HS football programs in the country.  So how did they end up on ESPN? The game was booked by Paragon Marketing, a firm that partners with ESPN to schedule high school sports broadcasts. According to ESPN’s commentators for the game, Bishop Sycamore said it had several D-1 prospects on its roster, but those claims couldn’t be verified. So it appears Paragon was duped into thinking this was a high-caliber team, and ESPN allowed the game to proceed despite a number of red flags. What makes this episode particularly concerning is that putting overmatched athletes on a football field could lead to serious injuries. So many questions remain, particularly about conditions at Bishop Sycamore, a “school” in the loosest sense of the term. Aaron Boyd, a former Bishop athlete, told Complex that players slept in a hotel for five months and “had to go rob Meijers, Krogers, Walmart because that’s the only way we can eat.”  + For more: Read this deep dive into what is one of the wildest sports stories of the year. – NF

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING South Korea’s National Assembly passed a first-of-its-kind bill that will require Google and Apple to allow alternative payment systems to be used in their app stores. Google is delaying its return-to-office plans...again...to January 2022. Windows 11, Microsoft’s first major operating system in six years, has a release date: October 5. Jeopardy! saga update: Mike Richards is out as executive producer of both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune after inappropriate comments from years ago surfaced two weeks ago.

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GAMES The Puzzle Section Word Search: Is that an Oscar or an Emmy? See how well you can identify famous awards in today's Word Search.  Extinct but Not Forgotten On this day in 1914, the last member of this species, a female named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Can you name it?

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ANSWER The passenger pigeon

September 01 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Born On This Day Carlo Gambino American crime boss READ MORE FEATURED EVENT 1939 German invasion of Poland READ MORE Advertisement Advertisement MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2004: Chechen rebels seized a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia; the siege, which ended two days later, resulted in the deaths of more than 330 people, the majority of them children. [Test your knowledge of Russian history.] 1980: Due to poor health, Canadian activist Terry Fox, who had part of his leg amputated because of cancer, was forced to end his Marathon of Hope, a run across Canada to raise money for cancer research; it was later discovered that the cancer had spread to his lungs, and he died in 1981. [Take our quiz about diseases and human health.] 1972: Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the first native-born American to hold the title of world chess champion. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about chess.] 1954: The thriller Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, opened in American theatres, and it became a film classic. [Take our movie quiz.] 1952: Life magazine published Ernest Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, his last major work of fiction; it was also released as a book, and in 1953 it won a Pulitzer Prize. [Test your knowledge of famous novels.] 1907: Dominican lawyer, writer, and diplomat Joaquín Balaguer, who served as president of the Dominican Republic (1960–62; 1966–78; 1986–96), was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about the Caribbean.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1923 Rocky Marciano American athlete 1950 Phil McGraw American psychologist 1938 Alan Dershowitz American lawyer 1875 Edgar Rice Burroughs American novelist 1902 Carlo Gambino American crime boss 1935 Seiji Ozawa Japanese American conductor SEE ALL BIOS 1 big thing: Mission-driven employees Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   A majority of employees around the world say they're choosing jobs based not just on salaries and benefits, but also social impact and personal beliefs, Axios' Sara Fischer writes from exclusive data. Why it matters: A focus on "higher purpose" is now a vital factor in recruiting and retention. That seismic shift intensified during the pandemic. People no longer work to live — they live for their work, we see vividly in an Edelman Trust Barometer special report, "The Belief-Driven Employee": In the U.S. and across several other large economies — including China, the U.K., Brazil, India, Germany and Japan — a vast majority of people (76%) say they have higher expectations for a prospective employer now than they did three years ago. Most people globally (76%) say they feel more empowered to take action within their organization — either by working within the system or taking issues public via whistleblowing, strikes or leaks. These shifts have commanded employers' attention. In light of the pandemic, many now say their workers — not customers or clients — are their most important stakeholder. Most employers surveyed (60%) say their employees have more power and leverage now than they had before the pandemic. As a result, more companies are taking positions on social issues, including climate change and racial equity. What to watch: Employees are more likely to stay at a company that shares their values. Share this story.     2. First person: Drop-off hell Parents wait in line to pick up preschoolers from a New Mexico school under strict, lengthy COVID protocols. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios   Virus protocols can add hours to school pickups, Axios' Russell Contreras writes in this dispatch from New Mexico: In my daughters' first three weeks back, I've found drop-offs and pickups can take three hours each day. Why it matters: Restrictions on how students enter and leave campuses are forcing parents to plan how to navigate long car lines — and often maskless crowds. In line, parents Zoom in their cars. Those who have to get back to restaurant jobs or other shift work look nervously at the time. Ava, 7, attends a new elementary school in Rio Rancho, N.M., where parents aren't allowed past the gate because of virus restrictions. You can pick up via a car or stand in the hot desert to wait for a child to walk out. Elena, 4, attends a public preschool in Bernalillo, N.M., that only allows parents to drop off and pick up children in their cars under strict rules. IDs are checked. Teachers use walkie-talkies to radio that a parent has arrived. Russ' tricks: To avoid the long car line at the Rio Rancho school, which can grow to more than a quarter of a mile, I park on a dirt road near the school and walk Ava to school or wait for her outside the gate. Keep reading.     3. Scoop — GOP's new foil: The Taliban A Taliban fighter takes a picture of a damaged Afghan Air Forces helicopter at Kabul airport yesterday. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images   House Republicans today will use the markup of the defense spending bill to fight U.S. recognition of the Taliban, Axios' Alayna Treene learned. Why it matters: The amendments will fail. But the votes are the tip of a GOP plan for a years-long attack on President Biden and Democrats over the Afghanistan withdrawal, members and aides tell Axios. Republicans plan to make unease over the pullout a defining issue for regaining House power. Republicans will demand an accounting of weapons, mineral wealth and other funds the Taliban obtained following the U.S. withdrawal. The other side: Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Monday that "any engagement with a Taliban-led government in Kabul will be driven by one thing only — our vital national interests." "Any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned," Blinken added. Share this story. Go deeper: Biden points to new threats as he defiantly defends his Afghanistan withdrawal — our lead of Axios PM. Read his speech on ending the war: "I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit."     A message from AT&T We are connecting communities to their American Dream     We’re making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable, so low-income families like the ones Kamal works with have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more.     4. Pic du jour Photo: Isaiah Garrido/MedicCorps.org, via AP Residents flee rising floodwaters from Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, La., on Monday. Hundreds of thousands in Louisiana are without power or water, AP reports. Thousands of line workers are toiling to restore electricity.     5. Primack: Ditch "unicorns" for "dragons" Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   When Aileen Lee coined "unicorn" for startups in late 2013, she was describing 39 "U.S.-based software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion," Axios Pro Rata author Dan Primack writes. The term got redefined in early 2015 by Primack and Erin Griffith, in a Fortune cover story, as any privately-held startup valued at $1 billion or more. There were 80. That was the definition that stuck. Last week, the tally topped 800, per CB Insights. Why it matters: $1 billion just isn't that cool anymore. It's not rare or mythical if there are over 800 of them. Plus, there are a flurry of startups whose valuations have been inflated by investment dollars. We need a new term: Dragons. Dragons are bigger, stronger and more awe-inspiring than unicorns. They destroy whatever's in their path. Their own destruction is viewed as catastrophic. The fine print: To qualify, a company must be valued at $12 billion or more, net of venture funding. Yes, it's a somewhat arbitrary figure. But it reflects the >10x "unicorn" growth since the Fortune piece. There are 19 dragons. Nine are based in the U.S: Stripe, SpaceX, Instacart, Epic Games, Databricks, Rivian, Chime, Fanatics and Plaid. Breathe fire into "dragon."     6. Exclusive: Rice, McMaster push for orphan extractions Taliban fighters take over Kabul's airport. Photo: Kathy Gannon/AP Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster are appealing to top U.S. and UN officials to extract orphans from Afghanistan before they're taken by the Taliban, Axios' Noah Bressner and Margaret Talev report. The two call it not just a humanitarian matter but a "critical issue of national security": "We are extremely concerned that a lack of action on this matter could result in a new generation of individuals committed to waging war against the United States." Rice and McMaster make their case in a letter, obtained by Axios, to Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Harris, the U.S. secretaries of State and Defense, congressional leaders in both parties, the executive director of UNICEF and UN Secretary-General António Guterres: Reached by phone last night, McMaster told Axios he would have preferred for the letter to remain private, but signed it to highlight "the Taliban's record of child abuse on an industrial scale." Share this story.     7. Two Texas-sized laws Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) gavels in votes yesterday. Photo: Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via AP A law banning abortion after six weeks, including in cases of rape and incest — one of the most restrictive in the U.S. — went into effect in Texas at midnight. Details. Despite Democrats' efforts to break quorum, a wave of changes to Texas elections is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. (Texas Tribune)     8. Time capsule Photo: Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Twitter     9. Plea to firefighters Photo: Terry Chea/AP Tod Johnson spray-painted this message to firefighters before evacuating his house in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., because of the fast-growing Caldor Fire.     10. Schools ban birthday cake Classroom birthdays can still be celebrated amid COVID — as long as the kids sing through their masks, Axios' Russell Contreras notes in his dispatch about drop-off hell: Cakes are banned, but students can bring packages of Goldfish, bags of M&Ms or other wrapped treats that can be served individually. Keep reading.     A message from AT&T We are connecting communities to their American Dream     We’re making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable, so low-income families like the ones Kamal works with have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more.

Sen. Ron Johnson: Afghanistan ‘Jaw-Dropping, Abysmal Failure’ Special: New 8-Pound Solar Generator Is Here McCarthy: GOP Will Remember Firms That Turn Over Info to 1/6 Panel

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Columnists I Cannot Handle All the Not Winning Kurt Schlichter The Max Boot Defense of Biden’s Afghanistan Debacle Has Arrived Brad Slager Mandate Vaccine? John Stossel The Ugly End We All Saw Coming Byron York Enhancing the Aura of Antifa Tim Graham Corporate Social Justice Programs Don't Work Star Parker Singer Shares 3 Positive Abortion Stories: ‘My Favorite Traumatic Topic of All Time!’ Katie Yoder Neither Biden Nor His Speechwriters Can Do Simple Math on the Afghan Pullout John R. Lott, Jr. Al-Qaida and ISIS Still in Afghanistan Terry Jeffrey		Tipsheet Matt Gaetz Exonerated From 'Pile of Lies' After Man Charged With Extortion. Katie Pavlich NBC News Reporter Was There to Deliver a Final Kill Shot to a Biden Promise About Afghanistan Matt Vespa Psaki Says Afghanistan Departure was Moved Up from 9/11 Because Military Only Needed 120 Days Landon Mion House Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Raise Visa Cap for Afghan Allies by 10K Landon Mion HHS Just Announced Creation of New Office...And It's a Liberal's Dream Leah Barkoukis Texas Legislature Sends GOP-Backed Election Bill to Gov. Abbott's Desk Landon Mion Despite Judge's Ruling, Florida Hands Out Financial Penalties to 2 School Districts Over Mask Mandates Landon Mion
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CDC's Mission Confusion Betsy McCaughey As Biden Administration Wages a War of Lies, Al-Qaida Returns to Afghanistan Austin Bay Here's Everything the War in Afghanistan Should Have Taught Us Rachel Marsden Biden Keeps Pushing Dubious Arguments for CDC Supremacy Jacob Sullum Can Education’s Race to the Bottom Be Stopped? Bob Barr America's Slow Suicide Ben Shapiro Excerpt: What to Say When Shawn Carney It is Far More Sinister Than You Think David McGrath What Biden Left Behind John and Andy Schlafly Observations on the Road Through Conservative America Loyd Pettegrew		Psaki Refuses to Explain Biden's Watch-Checking, Defends Entrusting Taliban with American Lives Spencer Brown Marine Officer Who Called for Accountability Over Afghanistan Submits His Resignation from the Corps Julio Rosas GOP Rep Advocates for Residual Force in Region following American Withdrawal from Afghanistan Madeline Leesman Political Cartoons Bearing Arms Seattle Violent Crime Up, While Police Staffing Dwindles | Cam Edwards Losing A Loved One Doesn't Make You An Authority On Guns | Tom Knighton West Virginia Gave Away Custom Guns As Vaccine Incentive. Did It Work? | Cam Edwards Cleveland Official Jumps On Shooting To Push Anti-Gun Agenda | Tom Knighton Gun Control Activists Downplay Chicago Gang Violence | Cam Edwards
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Ilhan Omar had this sick response to ISIS killing American troops in Afghanistan 

ISIS suicide bombers murdered 13 American service members at Kabul Airport. The carnage represented the catastrophic failure of the Biden administration. And Ilhan Omar had this sick response to ISIS killing American troops in Afghanistan.

 
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