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Good morning and Happy Labor Day, a holiday which, in addition to symbolizing the unofficial end of summer, celebrates the social and economic accomplishments of the American worker. If that's you, . —Neal Freyman

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE Nasdaq 15,363.52 +19.21% S&P 4,535.43 +20.75% Dow 35,369.09 +15.56% Bitcoin $51,700.70 +78.27% 10-Year 1.326% +40.7 bps Oil $69.03 +42.27% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean. Markets: The US stock market is closed for Labor Day. Covid: Dr. Fauci said that Moderna’s vaccine may not be ready in time for the planned September 20 rollout of booster shots, but will be available at most a couple weeks later. The booster program will likely start with just those who received Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine at least eight months earlier.

LABOR On Labor Day, a New Reality for the Unemployed Francis Scialabba One of the largest—and certainly the most divisive—of all the pandemic-era relief programs ends today. Almost 3 million people will lose their extra $300/week in benefits provided by the federal government. 25 states had already wound down the program over the summer, arguing it was keeping potential workers on the sidelines and fueling a historic labor shortage. The backstory: In March 2020, as the US was shedding almost 1 million jobs per day, Congress authorized an extra $600/week in unemployment benefits on top of what states offered to keep jobless Americans afloat (the $600/week was later reduced to $300 in August 2020). Around the same time, the government also expanded the number of workers eligible for unemployment insurance (UI) by including people like gig workers and the self-employed. That program, which comprised 40% of all UI claims during the pandemic, also expires today.  In all, the US government has spent $680 billion on unemployment benefits since last March, the second-highest amount among Covid stimulus programs behind only the Paycheck Protection Program ($835 billion). It’s split the US more than Laurel and Yanny Critics of letting the extra benefits expire say it’s too early to rip out support for millions of Americans who are still without work because of the pandemic, especially as the Delta variant thwacks the labor market. The economy added only 235,000 jobs in August, much lower than expectations. But many Republicans and business leaders say letting the extra benefits expire is long overdue. They’ve argued that the additional money disincentives people to look for work and has created an impossible situation for businesses desperate to hire. While it’s still early to fully analyze the effects of the enhanced benefits on the labor market, preliminary studies show that removing extra UI has a modest, if any, impact on job growth. Economists point to other factors, such as health concerns over Covid and a lack of childcare options, as more meaningful drivers of the worker shortage.  Looking ahead...the expiration of the unemployment programs could lead to $8 billion in reduced consumer spending in September and October, UMass economist Arindrajit Dube estimates.

SNAPSHOT Weekend Camera Roll

Bilal Guler/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Passengers board the first domestic flight from Kabul’s airport since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. Ariana Afghan Airlines has resumed some commercial flights between Kabul and regional cities, and a Taliban spokesperson said international flights will start "very soon."  

John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images

The Tokyo Paralympic Games closed this weekend with the US earning 37 gold medals, including in men’s wheelchair basketball and women’s sitting volleyball. China topped the gold medal leaderboard, followed by Great Britain and the US.

 

Anthony Pham/via Getty Images The legend himself, Harry Styles, opened his North American tour at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas Saturday night. All attendees for his performances are required to be vaccinated or present a negative Covid test to enter.

DEFENSE For the Defense Industry, 9/11 Changed Everything US Army Leading up to the anniversary of the September 11 attacks this Saturday, we’ll feature stories that explore the economic impact of 9/11, 20 years later. Up first: The WSJ described the dramatic rise of the homeland security-industrial complex that sprang up following the attacks. Did you know? Before September 11, 2001, the US had been cutting military spending. At the time of the attacks, spending on the military as a share of GDP had declined to less than one-third of what it was during the peak of the Vietnam War.  But 9/11 “changed the dynamic,” retired Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle, now the CEO of a major defense trade group, told the WSJ. Here are a few stats that illustrate the change. Military spending doubled to $700 billion in the decade following 9/11, to about 20% of total government spending. In 2001, the Defense Department had about $181 billion in contract obligations to 46,000 companies. In 2011, it had $375 billion in obligations to 110,000+ contractors. Increased military spending by the government turned the Washington, DC, area into the country’s hottest regional economy from 2001–2011. Bottom line: US military spending as a share of GDP has shrunk since peaking in 2011, but the booming homeland security industry it helped create remains a permanent fixture of the economy.

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GRAB BAG Key Performance Indicators Spencer Platt/Getty Images Stat: Nearly a third of Americans live in a county or state that has been declared a disaster area by FEMA this summer, according to a Washington Post analysis. Quote: “I feel like for me, recently, when I win, I don’t feel happy, I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad. I don’t think that’s normal.”  Tennis star Naomi Osaka gave a devastating press conference after losing in an early round match at the US Open. The world’s highest-paid female athlete said she’s going to take a break from the sport for a while.  Read: The viral social network that looks like nothing you’ve ever seen. (The Verge)

CALENDAR The Week Ahead Gary Hershorn/Getty Images 9/11 anniversary: As we mentioned earlier, Saturday will mark 20 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. El Salvador dives into crypto: On Tuesday, El Salvador will become the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. More on that wild move in tomorrow’s newsletter.  Earnings: Lululemon and GameStop headline a quiet week for earnings. NFL opener: The Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers kick off the NFL season Thursday night. It’s the first featuring an expanded 17-game regular season schedule, which means yesterday will be the last football-less Sunday until February 20, 2022. Everything else:  Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins this evening. The FDA will decide by Thursday whether Juul’s devices and nicotine pods can stay on the market. Saturday, September 11, also marks 18 months since the WHO declared Covid-19 a global pandemic.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING Lyft and Uber will pay the legal fees of their drivers who get sued under Texas’s new abortion law. Marvel’s Shang-Chi earned an estimated $71.4 million at the domestic box office this weekend, good for the second-best pandemic opening after Black Widow. The UAE is looking for $150 billion in foreign investment as it tries to position itself as a global finance hub. Next Digital, the Hong Kong media company owned by jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, said it was liquidating due to China's recent crackdown.

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GAMES The Puzzle Section Kriss Kross: Grab popcorn and a large soda before solving today's puzzle. Sweet Tooth Can you identify the following candy bars from their cross-sections?

Scandy Bars

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 1. Butterfinger 2. 100 Grand 3. Snickers 4. Baby Ruth 5. Rolo 6. Almond Joy

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Columnists The New Rules Bite Libs Right in the Uterus Kurt Schlichter Liberal Groups Care Deeply…About Getting People’s Money Derek Hunter Is Joe Biden Senile or Just Dumb? Derek Hunter Yes, Let’s Call a “Sex Strike!” Kevin McCullough Donors, Alumni Enraged by University of Kansas Student Government’s 'Death to America' Message Todd Starnes ‘If It Saves One Life’ Is Their Dumbest Argument Yet, But They Continue To Trot It Out Scott Morefield This Labor Day, Stand With 59M American Freelancers Gabriella Hoffman Joe Biden's Culture of Death Tom Tradup The Government and CDC Are Lying About COVID-19 Vaccine and Ivermectin; The Question Is Why? Wayne Allyn Root		Tipsheet Human Rights Campaign President Has Weighed in on If He'll Resign Over Ties to Cuomo Rebecca Downs A Real Kind of Women's March Takes Place in Kabul as Women There Demand Role in Government Rebecca Downs Poll: Majority Believe Getting Vaccinated Against COVID is 'Personal Choice' Rebecca Downs Report: Taliban Executed Pregnant Cop in Front of Her Family Landon Mion Sunday Morning Show Takeaway: Democrats Are the Ones Obsessed with Abortion Rebecca Downs WH Chief of Staff Estimates Around 100 Americans Remain in Afghanistan but 'Many of Them Want to Stay' Landon Mion Texas Rep. Says the Taliban is Holding Americans Hostage at Afghanistan Airport Landon Mion
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A Quick, Compelling Bible Study Vol. 77: What the Bible Says About Work Myra Kahn Adams Supreme Court’s Texas Abortion Decision Could Spell Doom for Roe v. Wade Thomas Glessner The Left is Doing While We're Complaining and Entertaining Rachel Alexander The Real Attack Against Our Children Michael Brown Beware America’s Failing Political Aristocracy Loyd Pettegrew What About the American Hostages? Jeff Crouere Iran’s Air Defense, an Empty Bluff! Cyrus Yaqubi We Need a Hero – and This Book Delivers Robert “Buzz” Patterson What to Believe? Rob Jenkins		Gen. Milley Says a Civil War in Afghanistan Is 'Likely' Landon Mion California Families Have Returned Home from Afghanistan, But It Wasn't Easy Rebecca Downs This Online Pollster Shows Just How Bad It Looks for Biden in 2022 Rebecca Downs Political Cartoons Bearing Arms Canadian First Nations People Not Fond Of Gun Control | Tom Knighton SC Man's Gun Stolen By Gunmen | Tom Knighton Two Plead Guilty For Trying To Smuggle Guns Into Barbados | Tom Knighton Unarmed Uber Drivers Targeted In Chicago Carjackings | Cam Edwards David Frum To Gun Owners: "All Y’all Look Alike!" | Ranjit Singh
Amid some bright flashes, Hollywood's hopes for a huge 2021 recovery look doomed, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer reports. Disney's new Marvel hit "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is expected to break records at the box office this weekend, giving the theater industry a glimmer of hope heading into the fall. But Delta has crushed this year's recovery dreams, with studios starting to pull major movies off the fall and winter release schedule. A few recent box office hits — "Candyman," Disney's "Free Guy" — prove that consumers are still willing to go to the theater despite the Delta variant. But the box office is still pacing far behind 2019 totals, and likely won't be able to recover meaningfully until 2022. Ticket sales are down 74% year-to-date vs. 2019. Projections show "Shang-Chi," the first Asian-led superhero flick, obliterating the previous Labor Day record — MGM's "Halloween" in 2007. "Shang-Chi" will be on Disney+ after a shortened, 45-day exclusive run on the big screen. Photo: Joann Muller/Axios Axios' Joann Muller sent us these pics from The Big House at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which always announces "the largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America today." Photo: Joann Muller/Axios After last year's letdown, college football powerhouses brought back massive, often maskless crowds — even tailgating — for Week 1. Photo: Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun via Reuters University of Florida fans clipped the Florida Atlantic Owls yesterday in The Swamp — Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. 1 big thing: Hollywood's Delta horror Meng'er Zhang, Simu Liu and Awkwafina in "Shang-Chi." Photo: Marvel Studios via AP What we're watching: The pandemic-fueled shift to streaming means movie studios will continue experimenting with hybrid releases. Some studios are streaming films for free, or for a premier access fee, at the same day that they debut in theaters. Others are making movies available on streaming after a shortened theatrical window. What's next: While the vast majority of movie theaters in the U.S. are open, studios are still trying to figure out whether they should delay hits. Paramount is pushing "Top Gun: Maverick" from November to May 2022, and "Mission: Impossible 7" from May to September 2022. Watch the trailer ... Share this graphic.     2. Milley: Afghan civil war "likely" Image: Fox News   The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said at Ramstein Air Base in Germany yesterday a "resurgence of terrorism" out of the Afghanistan region is "very likely" in the next one to three years. Fox News' Jennifer Griffin asked: "Is the U.S. safer today since the U.S. has withdrawn from Afghanistan?" The general said his "military estimate" is that "the conditions are likely to develop, of a civil war." "I don't know if the Taliban is going to be able to consolidate power and establish governance," Milley continued. "They may be, maybe not. But I think there's at least a very good probability of a broader civil war — and that will then in turn lead to conditions that could, in fact, lead to a reconstitution of al-Qaeda or a growth of ISIS or other myriad of terrorist groups." "The conditions are very likely, in my opinion that — I've testified this and I've said it in public — that you could see a resurgence of terrorism coming out of that general region within 12, 24, 36 months." Between the lines: This is America's top general saying his assessment is that President Biden's biggest foreign policy decision to date could make the U.S. less safe. What to watch: The next time Milley testifies on Capitol Hill, it's likely to be uncomfortable viewing for the White House. Watch the video.     3. 1 in 3 Americans lived through a weather disaster this summer A motorist confronts a flooded expressway in Brooklyn early Thursday. Photo: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images   32% of Americans live in a county or state that declared a federal disaster area in the past three months, the WashPost calculates. The equivalent for 2016 was 11% ... 2017: 7% ... 2018: 5% ... 2019: 12% ... 2020: 28%. 64% live in places that experienced a multi-day heat wave. Why it matters: "The expanding reach of climate-fueled disasters ... shows the extent to which a warming planet has already transformed Americans' lives," The Post reports. At least 388 people in the U.S. died this summer due to hurricane, flood, heat wave or wildfire.     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. College football roars back Photo: Matt Gentry/The Roanoke Times via AP Virginia Tech's Hokies brought UNC to heel Friday night in Blacksburg, Va.     5. Stat of the day In Dulac, La. — 70 miles southwest of New Orleans — Starlin Billiot Sr. washes himself off beside the home where he has been living without power or running water. Photo: John Locher/AP   70% of electric customers in New Orleans had no power yesterday, for the sixth day in a row. (N.Y. Times)     6. What the Taliban means for the neighbors China Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's political leader, in Tianjin, China, on July 28. Photo: Li Ran/Xinhua via Getty Images   The Taliban’s neighbors are vying for influence while preparing for instability, refugee flows and the threat of a terrorist safe haven, Axios World author Dave Lawler writes. The Taliban's return is largely a strategic victory for Pakistan, which has harbored Taliban leaders, and a defeat for India, which invested heavily in an Afghan state that has now collapsed. For China, it’s both a source of concern and of opportunity. The Taliban has made clear it will depend on close relations with Beijing. Iran and the Taliban were bitter foes in the 1990s, but they have built ties gradually. The Taliban's insistence that it will protect Afghanistan's Shia minority is at least partially designed for Tehran's consumption. America’s humbling exit from Afghanistan provided a propaganda coup for China. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson scolded that the U.S. military intervention, justified on the grounds of "democracy" and "human rights," ended in “turmoil, division, and destruction.” Beijing will have few qualms with the Taliban’s record on human rights. A Taliban spokesman said that, with western assistance drying up, the new government would rely on China to "invest and rebuild." China has kept its embassy open in a signal that it’s ready to deal with the incoming government. Share this story.     7. Remembering Willard Scott Willard Scott in 1980. Photo: NBC Willard Scott, who once delivered the "Today" show forecast in a top hat, using a brush as a pointer to promote a chimney-sweep event (video), died in Virginia's hunt country at 87. Al Roker, his successor in your neck of the woods in 1996, wrote on Instagram: "He was truly my second dad and am where I am today because of his generous spirit. Willard was a man of his times, the ultimate broadcaster. There will never be anyone quite like him." Katie Couric, a partner in crime on the No. 1 show, tweeted a pic of her with Willard, who was in an NBC letterman jacket: "He played such an outsized role in my life & was as warm & loving & generous off camera as he was on. Willard, you didn’t make it to the front of the Smucker’s jar, but you changed so many lives for the better." Scott, — known for his toupées and boutonnières — began his career as a page at WRC, the NBC affiliate in Washington. He played Bozo the Clown in the 1960s and Ronald McDonald in commercials in the D.C. area, then joined "Today" in 1980. Willard saluted birthdays of 100-year-olds on a popular segment sponsored by Smucker's jelly. "You know how to live right — and a long time, too," he'd say. Turns out ... so did he. Go deeper.     8. Tweet for the road Via Twitter     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. September 06 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY John Dalton British scientist READ MORE FEATURED EVENT 1901 U.S. President William McKinley fatally shot READ MORE Advertisement Advertisement MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2019: Zimbabwean politician Robert Mugabe—who was the longtime ruler of Zimbabwe, first as prime minister (1980–87), then as president (1987–2017)—died at age 95. [Test your knowledge of African leaders.] 2007: Italian operatic lyric tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who was considered one of the finest bel canto opera singers of the 20th century, died at age 71. [Take our opera quiz.] 1997: About a week after her death in a car accident, a funeral was held for Princess Diana, and an estimated 2.5 billion watched the televised ceremony, which included a performance by Elton John. [How much do you know about Princess Diana?] 1995: American professional baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr., played in his 2,131st consecutive game, surpassing Lou Gehrig's record, which had stood for more than 56 years. [Test your knowledge of baseball.] 1991: The Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. [How much do you know about European history?] 1966: South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, who rigorously developed and applied the policy of apartheid, was stabbed to death by a temporary parliamentary messenger who was later ruled insane. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about South Africa.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1954 Carly Fiorina American business executive and politician 1962 Chris Christie American politician 1757 Marquis de Lafayette French noble 1888 Joseph P. Kennedy American businessman 1860 Jane Addams American social reformer 1963 Geert Wilders Dutch politician SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY

 

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