| Axios AM
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By
Mike Allen
·Sep 16, 2021
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Good Thursday morning. Wishing you an easy fast on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement — the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. - Smart Brevity™ count: 1,185 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.
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1 big thing: Afghan refugees head for 46 states
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Data: White House. Chart: Jared Whalen/Axios California is projected
to receive the largest number of Afghan refugees (5,255) who are coming
to America, followed by Texas (4,481), according to State Department
data obtained by Axios' Stef Kight. - Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming are the only states not slated to receive anyone from the first group of evacuees, plus Washington, D.C.
What's happening:
The Biden administration notified governors and mayors yesterday of the
number of Afghan evacuees their state is expected to receive in the
coming weeks. - An initial group of 37,000 Afghans will soon be headed to states across the country, many after harrowing journeys from Afghanistan.
What's next: More evacuees are waiting in third countries. - The administration
has requested funding from Congress to help resettle 65,000 Afghans in
the U.S. by the end of this month and 95,000 by September 2022, AP reports.
Share this story.
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2. First all-amateur space crew blasts off
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Photo: SpaceX via AP This image from a SpaceX video shows the crew during blastoff.  Watch the launch: Countdown starts at 4:17:15.
 Hear it here
... Axios' "How It Happened: The Next Astronauts" podcast docu-series
goes inside the Inspiration4 crew's selection and training.
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3. Inside Facebook's files
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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
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Facebook employs hundreds of researchers, many with
Ph.D.s. They have found some shocking patterns, including how Facebook
makes users angrier and girls deeply insecure, according to an ongoing
Wall Street Journal series, "The Facebook Files" (subscription). - The series is
based on a trove of internal Facebook research reports and slide decks +
online employee discussions. The Journal says at least some of the
documents have been turned over to the SEC and Congress "by a person
seeking federal whistleblower protection."
The hardest-hitting installment so far, "Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show," reports: - "Repeatedly, the
company’s researchers found that [Facebook-owned] Instagram is harmful
for a sizable percentage of [young users], most notably teenage girls."
- "Facebook's researchers identified the over-sexualization of girls as something that weighs on the mental health of the app's users."
In response, Karina Newton, Instagram's head of public policy, wrote in a blog post:
"We're proud that our app can give voice to those who have been
marginalized, that it can help friends and families stay connected from
all corners of the world, that it can prompt societal change; but we
also know it can be a place where people have negative experiences." - Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, tweeted
about the Journal account of research into young people's experiences
on his platform: "We stand by this work and believe more companies
should be doing the same."
The third and latest installment,
"Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier
Instead," reports on the effects of a major overhaul of the News Feed
algorithm in 2018: - Facebook researchers
"concluded that the new algorithm's heavy weighting of reshared material
... made the angry voices louder. 'Misinformation, toxicity, and
violent content are inordinately prevalent among reshares,' researchers
noted in internal memos."
Go deeper: Journal synopses of Parts 1-3.
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A message from Amazon
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Amazon to pay full college tuition for front-line employees
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More than 750,000 Amazon operations employees in the U.S. are eligible for fully funded college tuition including high school diplomas, GEDs and more.
Why it’s important: Amazon investing in free skills training can have a huge impact for hundreds of thousands of families across the country.
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4. Our weekly map: Cases fall but deaths rise
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Data: N.Y. Times. Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios The pace of
new COVID infections in the U.S. is beginning to slow — a potential
sign that the states hit hardest by the Delta wave are starting to turn
things around, Axios' Sam Baker writes. - But deaths are still rising, and it's still too early to know whether schools might drive cases back up again.
An average of about 150,000 Americans are contracting COVID each day. That number has fallen by 8% over the past two weeks. - The virus is now killing 1,888 Americans per day, on average — a 33% jump over the past two weeks.
Share this map.
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5. Gymnasts win FBI apology
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U.S.
Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman, Simone Biles and McKayla Maroney, and
NCAA and world champion Maggie Nichols, finish testifying. Photo: Saul
Loeb/AFP via Getty Images Simone Biles, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the FBI's mishandling of reports of sexual abuse by Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar: - "I blame Larry Nassar, and
I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetuated his abuse.
... This is the largest case of sexual abuse in the history of American
sport."
FBI Director Chris Wray, appearing at the same hearing, began with a statement he titled, "Dereliction of Duty": - "On behalf of the entire FBI, ... I want to offer my apologies, sympathy, and support to the survivors and their families."
Read more from the gymnasts' testimony, which was the lead of Axios PM.
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6. The future of 911
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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
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Next-generation 911 will allow the nation's 6,000 911 centers to accept texts, videos and photos, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill reports. - U.S. emergency communications have remained analog. But Congress is taking a new run at dragging 911 into the digital age.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.),
co-chair of the Senate Next Generation 9-1-1 Caucus, and Sen. Catherine
Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) today will unveil a bill to create a $10 billion
federal grant program for 911 upgrades.
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7. Businesses embrace vax mandate
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President Biden meets with business leaders yesterday. Photo: Oliver Contreras/Getty Images
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Molly Moon Neitzel, founder and CEO of Seattle-based
Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, told Axios after meeting with
President Biden yesterday that she likes his vaccine mandate for her 180
employees. - 96% of Neitzel's employees are vaccinated, Axios business editor Kate Marino writes. But the seasonality of ice cream means she will hire another 100 or so workers in the new year.
- "I'm thankful that this mandate will be in place, so I can just make it a requirement of the job," Neitzel said.
After yesterday's White House meeting, several CEOs said they'd been looking for stronger federal guidance to lean on.
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8. Sneak peek: Biden promise to "deal everyone in"
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President
Biden talks infrastructure at the Flatirons campus of the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory in Arvada, Colo., on Tuesday. Photo: Evan
Vucci/AP In East Room remarks this afternoon
on leveling the economic playing field, President Biden will argue that
his Build Back Better plan will "deal everyone in." - A White House official tells
me that Biden will argue that the nation has reached an inflection
point — whether or not to perpetuate an economy where the wealthiest
taxpayers and biggest corporations play by a set of rules they've
written for themselves.
 First look: 15 winners of the Nobel Prize in economics winners, including Joseph Stiglitz, write in an open letter
that Biden's agenda will reduce long-term inflationary pressure,
provide inclusive economic growth and make the tax system more
equitable:
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9. New overnight: Capitol fences back
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Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Workers temporarily re-install security fencing around the Capitol ahead of a rally Saturday exalting the Jan. 6 rioters.
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10.  Mapped: America's Tesla hubs
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Data: IHS Markit. Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios This graphic comes from Axios Denver — America's 15th-largest Tesla magnet, with 14,000 Musk-mobiles in the metro area.
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A message from Amazon
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Amazon expands fully paid education benefits for employees
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Amazon will fund full college tuition as well as high school diplomas, GEDs and English as a Second Language proficiency certifications for its front-line employees.
More info: More than 750,000 employees are eligible including those who have been at the company for as little as three months. |
︎ A Note From Fidelity Investments
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