# Test Post - 26May2021 Axios https://api.axios.com/feed/top ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Biggest U.S. bank CEOs grilled over profits and priorities The CEOs of the six biggest U.S. banks gathered before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday for the first time since the financial crisis to face questions over their institutions' roles in American life. Why it matters: Banks' record profits during the past year came as many Americans suffered job loss and economic and health insecurity. Along partisan lines, senators shared glimpses into very different responsibilities of banking in the U.S. economy and society. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Context: In 2008, Congress grilled bank execs over the risky lending practices that led to the financial system's meltdown. * This time their record profits during the pandemic put them in Democrats' crosshairs -- while Republicans took aim at what they see as banks caving to social pressures. A few senators on both sides of the aisle sought cooperation from the banks on priorities like rebuilding infrastructure and protecting against cyberattacks. Most GOP senators took aim at "stakeholder capitalism" broadly, for shifting the focus away from profits (shareholders) and to a broader set of priorities (employees, communities and the environment). * "If there is a highly charged social or political issue, like access to voting or election security, that ought to be left to elected lawmakers," said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He also assailed the idea of institutions not lending to whole industries that are legal, like coal or other fossil fuels. * Several GOP lines of questioning generally probed CEOs on whether they make credit decisions based on social or political pressure, rather than financial considerations. * The CEOs were for the most part vague, saying that many considerations -- including credit, market and reputational risks -- go into lending decisions. The other side: Democrats came out swinging at the banks' big stock buyback plans -- amid what they characterized as low employee wages and not enough progress on lending and investing in underserved communities. * "Your own compensation is stratospheric. The workers are getting a smaller and smaller share of the wealth they create... We have a racial wealth and income gap that's barely budged since we passed the Civil Rights Act," said Committee chair Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). * "Your banks are the ones that largely built that system," he added. The testiest exchange came when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) singled out JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon for the $1.5 billion in overdraft fees she said his bank collected during the pandemic. * The Fed had waived overdraft fees for the banks themselves and recommended banks do the same with their customers, she said. * Dimon disputed the figure and said that anyone who asked for it received a waiver. The bottom line: The CEOs were all largely aligned on several issues, including: * Working with clients to avoid foreclosures. * Helping clients transition to carbon-neutral. * Expanding banking services to un-banked and under-banked communities. Wed, 26 May 2021 20:35:28 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ In blow to Exxon management, climate activists install two new board members Exxon shareholders, bucking company management, voted to install at least two new members to the oil giant's board in a push to make Exxon more aggressive on addressing climate change and more disciplined in its oil investments. Why it matters: Exxon management campaigned strongly against the entire slate of four people nominated by Engine No. 1, the activist investment group whose campaign was backed by several major pension funds. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * The election of two of the four would avoid what could have been a categorical rebuke of the oil giant's strategy, but it still represents significant investor dissent. * The vote in favor of the two new board members shows that many investors see Exxon, which has had a rocky financial performance in recent years, as poorly positioned for the future. Driving the news: Shareholders voted to add Gregory Goff and Kaisa Hietala at the oil giant's annual meeting Wednesday, Exxon said at the conclusion of voting. Tabulations on other candidates are still pending, though one of the Engine No. 1 candidates was voted down, Exxon stated in a press release. It's possible that one other activist candidate will still prevail. * Hietala is a a former renewables executive with the refining company Neste and Goff is the former CEO of the refiner Andeavor. What they're saying: Charlie Penner, one of Engine No. 1's leaders, told shareholders at the meeting that Exxon management is "determined to fight off the future for as long as possible," but added: "change is coming." The big picture: The battle over replacing members of Exxon's 13-person board comes amid increasing pressure on oil majors to do more on climate change. * European-based multinational giants are diversifying more widely and vowing long-term transformations to "net-zero" emissions companies by 2050. * Engine No. 1 also says Exxon lacks "any serious diversification efforts" that will prepare it to thrive in a low-carbon world. The group says Exxon needs a more cautious investment approach around oil and gas. * Engine No. 1's candidates won the backing of some of the company's largest shareholders, including BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street. Yes, but: Exxon says it's in step with the evolving energy mix, citing growing emphasis on carbon capture and large market opportunities there, and efforts on hydrogen and biofuels. * Exxon also argues its adjusted capital strategy will deliver strong returns in oil and gas, which it notes will remain huge markets for decades despite low-carbon energy growth. * The company recently set new near- and medium-term targets to cut emissions intensity (that is, emissions per unit of output), but has eschewed the long-term carbon neutrality vows of its European peers. * "ExxonMobil is in a strong position to create differentiating value throughout the energy transition," CEO Darren Woods said, touting Exxon's oil-and-gas portfolio and its investment in climate technologies. * "We welcome the new directors Gregory Goff in Kaisha Hietala to the board and look forward to working with them constructively and collectively on behalf of all shareholders," Woods said. Go deeper: The intensifying battle for Exxon's future Wed, 26 May 2021 19:22:17 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Coronavirus dashboard: Catch up fast 1. Health: A faster way to track COVID variants -- CDC: "Breakthrough" COVID-19 cases are rare -- Health companies get into the school reopening business. 2. Vaccines: New York will raffle off scholarships to kids who get vaccinated -- Children and teens are next in line for COVID vaccine -- Black and Hispanic Americans seeing higher COVID case rates as vaccinations lag. 3. Politics: Biden asks intelligence community to intensify investigation of COVID origins -- HHS chief calls for follow-up investigation into COVID origins. 4. Economy: 2021 Axios Harris Poll: "A good year for science" in brand reputations -- Index: Inequality in job losses low as pandemic more under control 5. World: Former Boris Johnson aide gives scathing testimony on U.K.'s early COVID response -- Scientists: Canceling Tokyo Olympics "may be the safest option" -- Dozens of countries face severe oxygen shortages due to COVID surges. 6. Variant tracker: Where different strains are spreading. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Cases: 1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 2:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday: 168,000,961 -- Total deaths: 3,488,625 -- Total vaccine doses administered: 1,732,091,992 -- Map 2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 2:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday: 33,172,607 -- Total deaths: 591,17 -- Total tests: 460,952,396 -- Map What should I do? Axios asked the experts: * When you can be around others after contracting the coronavirus * Traveling, asthma, dishes, disinfectants and being contagious * Masks, lending books and self-isolating * Exercise, laundry, what counts as soap * Pets, moving and personal health * Answers about the virus from Axios experts * What to know about social distancing * How to minimize your risk Other resources: * What to do if you get it * The right mask to wear Download our app and follow the Coronavirus channel to get the latest news. Editor's note: Johns Hopkins University stopped reporting U.S. COVID-19 recoveries on its dashboard on Dec. 15, citing a Coronavirus Tracking Project post that explained the national data is incomplete since several states do not keep records of recovered patients. It stopped reporting global recoveries and began reporting doses administered in May. Wed, 26 May 2021 18:53:21 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ At least 9 dead after mass shooting at San Jose rail yard A gunman at a transit station in San Jose, California, on Wednesday morning opened fire, killing at least eight victims, local authorities confirmed, noting the suspect was also dead. What we know: Authorities emphasized the investigation is "fluid and active" and the number of victims could change. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The county sheriff's spokesperson Deputy Russell Davis said the assailant was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the biggest county in the Bay Area. How the shooter died remains undetermined according to County Sheriff Laurie Smith, per AP. * The shooting took place around 6:30 a.m. local time at the VTA, a "transit control center that stores trains and has a maintenance yard," per AP. It is not yet known whether the attack took place in or outdoors. * Both the suspected shooter and several victims were VTA employees, local officials said. * The shooter's motive, as well as the type of weapon used, are not yet known, officials said. * Davis explained that explosives were found on the scene after the shooting and a bomb squad is investigating. Smith added that the area has been "cordoned off" and doesn't currently pose a threat to the public. * VTA confirmed that a family reunification center has been set up for employees and families where grief counseling will be available. What they're saying: "A horrible tragedy has happened today, and our thoughts and love go out to the VTA family," VTA Chairman Glenn Hendricks said at a news conference. * "This is a horrific day for our city, and it's a tragic day for the VTA family," San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said at a press conference. * "These folks were heroes during COVID 19, the buses never stopped running, VTA didn't stop running. They just kept at work, and now we're really calling on them to be heroes a second time to survive such a terrible, terrible tragedy," Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County Supervisor said. This is a breaking story. Please check back for more details. Wed, 26 May 2021 18:31:36 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Biden's Gaza reconstruction plan faces major roadblocks The Biden administration wants to push ahead with humanitarian aid and rebuilding in Gaza. That's easier said than done. Why it matters: President Biden says he wants to coordinate those efforts with the Palestinian Authority, which has no influence in Gaza, and exclude Hamas, which controls the territory. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * Israel's strict controls on the entry of goods and building materials into Gaza are a major barrier, as is the reluctance of the international community to invest in the reconstruction of an area that has been repeatedly bombed. What they're saying: In his meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah this week, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said the relief and reconstruction process would be led by the UN with the participation of the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Israel. * The U.S. wants the Palestinian Authority to have a role in the channeling of aid into Gaza so that it gains influence and goodwill in Gaza, U.S. officials say. * The U.S. also wants to establish a strong international monitoring mechanism, led by the UN, to ensure that the aid benefits the people of Gaza and not Hamas. Yes, but: Israeli officials told Blinken that while they are ready to help in getting immediate humanitarian assistance into Gaza -- water, food, medical supplies -- several conditions will have to be met before they'll allow the reconstruction effort to begin. * One is a monitoring system that's much stronger than previous ones that allowed Hamas to repurpose building materials for its own purposes, Israeli officials tell me. * They also want the Biden administration to press Egypt to monitor its border crossing with Gaza and prevent the entry of dual-use items that could bolster Hamas' military industry. * Lastly, Israeli officials told Blinken that any meaningful reconstruction of Gaza is conditioned on progress toward the recovery of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and the release of Israeli citizens held by Hamas in Gaza. The other side: Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, claimed in a statement today that Hamas would not interfere with international reconstruction efforts. * "We will make the task easier for everyone, and we will make sure that the process is transparent and fair, and let everyone be sure that no penny [of the money for reconstruction] will go to Hamas." The state of play: 86 education or health facilities were damaged during the fighting in Gaza, urgent repairs are required to restore water and sanitation infrastructure, and food and fuel are also needed, per the UN. What's next: During his visit, Blinken announced more than $100 million in additional U.S. aid to the Palestinians. * It won't go directly to the Palestinian Authority but through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees and various humanitarian and development projects in Gaza. * Sources familiar with the issue said this was done to deal with "donor fatigue" and set an example to other donor countries that raised reservations about giving more money to Gaza. * Blinken also announced the U.S. would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem as soon as possible to engage with Palestinian officials and civil society and support the humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in Gaza. Wed, 26 May 2021 17:38:21 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Biden asks intelligence community to intensify investigation of COVID origins President Biden announced Wednesday he has asked the U.S. intelligence community to "redouble their efforts" to investigate the origins of the coronavirus and provide a report within 90 days that "could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion." Why it matters: The debate over the origins of COVID-19 has been reinvigorated in recent days by previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill enough to be hospitalized in November 2019. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The state of play: Biden said in a statement that the U.S. intelligence community had "coalesced around two likely scenarios" for the origins of the virus -- one, that it emerged from human contact with an infected and animal, and two, that it was the result of an accidental laboratory leak. * A joint team from the World Health Organization and China issued an inconclusive report in March that described the so-called lab-leak theory as "extremely unlikely." * But the report has been criticized by the U.S. and WHO leadership for its methodology and lack of transparency from the Chinese government, and top U.S. officials have called for a new investigation. What they're saying: Biden said the U.S. intelligence community's current position is that "while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter - each with low or moderate confidence - the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other." * "I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days," Biden said in a statement. * "As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China. I have also asked that this effort include work by our National Labs and other agencies of our government to augment the Intelligence Community's efforts. And I have asked the Intelligence Community to keep Congress fully apprised of its work." Our thought bubble: Whether COVID-19 ultimately originated in an animal or in a lab, the bulk of the evidence is in China, which limits what the U.S. can find out. But Biden's statement underscores the fact that this debate will not end any time soon, and that the U.S. could ramp up pressure on China to cooperate. Go deeper: The COVID lab-leak theory goes mainstream Wed, 26 May 2021 17:03:40 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Dutch court orders Shell to cut its emissions in landmark ruling In a precedent-setting ruling, a Dutch court ruled Wednesday in favor of environmentalists and more than 17,000 residents of the Netherlands, by ordering Royal Dutch Shell to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases. Why it matters: It's the first court ruling that orders a major oil company to make its emissions plans more consistent with Paris Climate Agreement targets, and it could spur legal action against other oil and gas firms. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Driving the news: The case was brought in April 2019 by Dutch citizens who alleged that Shell's continued oil and gas exploration threatens their human rights by robbing them of a more stable climate. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth also participated in the lawsuit. Details: The Dutch district court in the Hague ordered Shell to cut its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 relative to 2019 levels. The court ruled that the energy company's existing emissions reduction plans, calling for a reduction of emissions intensity of 20% by 2030, were insufficient, and could result in human rights violations. * The ruling includes so-called Scope 3 emissions, which are the greenhouse gases released when Shell's oil and gas is burned for generating energy. * While many court cases have been brought in the U.S. and elsewhere against governments for not acting to rein in planet-warming greenhouse gases, the Shell ruling is part of a wave of challenges from climate activists that target oil and gas companies. * Shell "fully intends to appeal the ruling," the company stated. Between the lines: Shell has established a more aggressive emissions reduction strategy than many other major oil and gas companies, with the goal of reaching net zero "absolute emissions" in 2050. What they're saying: "This is a monumental victory for our planet, for our children, and is a stop towards a livable future for everyone," said Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands, in a statement. * "Urgent action is needed on climate change which is why we have accelerated our efforts to become a net-zero emissions energy company by 2050, in step with society, with short-term targets to track our progress," Shell said in a statement. * We are investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels. We want to grow demand for these products and scale up our new energy businesses even more quickly. We will continue to focus on these efforts and fully expect to appeal today's disappointing court decision," the company stated. Go deeper: Shell CEO: You need us on climate change Wed, 26 May 2021 16:53:09 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Mother of late Capitol Police officer pressures GOP senators on Jan. 6 commission The mother of the late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes and died the day after responding to rioters on Jan. 6, is requesting sit-downs with Republican senators this week to push for an investigation into the Capitol attack, Politico reports. Why it matters: Republicans are set to filibuster the proposal to create a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) brings it for a vote this week, despite some GOP support in the House and initial bipartisan agreement that an investigation is needed. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * The bill to form the commission was crafted by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), the top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, but has been rejected as too "political" by GOP leadership. * At least 10 Senate Republicans are needed to overcome a 60-vote filibuster and move to a final vote. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are the only two GOP senators to express public support for the bill so far. What she's saying: "Not having a January 6 Commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day," Gladys Sicknick said in a statement provided to Politico. * "I suggest that all Congressmen and Senators who are against this Bill visit my son's grave in Arlington National Cemetery and, while there, think about what their hurtful decisions will do to those officers who will be there for them going forward." * "Putting politics aside, wouldn't they want to know the truth of what happened on January 6? If not, they do not deserve to have the jobs they were elected to do," she said. Wed, 26 May 2021 16:33:10 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Ford says it will invest $30 billion in electric vehicles by 2025 Ford announced Wednesday plans to invest $30 billion in vehicle electrification efforts by 2025, and the company said it anticipates that 40% of its global sales by 2030 will be fully electric vehicles, per a news release. Why it matters: Ford CEO Jim Farley said the new initiative -- called "Ford+" -- is the company's largest opportunity for growth since "Henry Ford started to scale the Model T," signaling just how lucrative Ford leaders think the electric vehicle market will become. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * As part of the initiative, Ford plans to invest in battery technology and infrastructure that would allow it to manufacture its own batteries. * It would include the creation of Ford Ion Park, "a global center of battery excellence comprising more than 150 experts in battery chemistries, testing, manufacturing and value-chain management who will boost battery range and lower costs to customers and Ford," the company said. Context: Ford previously announced that it would invest $22 billion in electrification efforts by 2025. What they're saying: "I'm excited about what Ford+ means for our customers, who will get new and better experiences by pairing our iconic, world-class vehicles with connected technology that constantly gets better over time," Ford CEO said. * "We will deliver lower costs, stronger loyalty and greater returns across all our customers. This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T, and we're grabbing it with both hands," he added. The big picture: The announcement comes a week after the company unveiled the Ford F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of America's most popular vehicle model, the Ford F-series pickup truck. * The company said it expects the bulk of its electric vehicle sales by 2030 will come from the F-150 Lightning, the Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit commercial vans. Go deeper: Ford's electric F-150 reveal is a pivotal EV moment Wed, 26 May 2021 15:37:39 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Tech startups going public has become the rule, not the exception Did you read that report about the tech unicorn that's thinking about going public? No, not that one. The other one. No, the other one. Between the lines: A large percentage of VC-backed companies with at least four years and $50 million of annualized revenue under their belts are speaking with bankers about going public. It's the rule, not the exception. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * Caveat No. 1: Bankers are typically initiating these calls. And they often lead with the prospect of going public via SPAC, because bank fees on SPACs are often higher than on IPOs or direct listings. * Caveat No. 2: Just because a company is having banker talks -- even if leaked to the press -- it doesn't mean that a public listing is on the visible horizon. I'm told that "Q4 2022" is a very popular timeframe to discuss, because it's more about optionality than objective. Income statement: Tech startups still need to show $100 million in revenue for a traditional IPO or direct listing, at least if they want to go with a big bank, but it can now be "a path" to $100 million rather than a demonstrated track record of $100 million. Profits remain largely irrelevant. Big picture: 2021 is shaping up to be a banner year for all types of U.S. public listings. On Wednesday alone, three more companies will begin trading (including ZipReality via direct listing). So long as stonks keep stonking, it will continue into 2022 and beyond. The bottom line: Believe everything you read about companies that are considering going public. But don't mark your calendar. Wed, 26 May 2021 13:55:25 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ QAnon is disappearing from online view Specific language about the QAnon conspiracy theory has all but disappeared from mainstream public social media platforms, new research concludes. Driving the news: Researchers from the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Lab found that the volume of QAnon content available online plummeted following major moderation and policy moves from Google, Facebook and Twitter. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Details: Researchers analyzed more than 45 million mentions of QAnon catchphrases and related terms from April 1, 2020 to April 1, 2021 on both mainstream platforms and alternative ones such Gab and Parler. * Terms included popular QAnon phrases including "the storm," "the great awakening," "save the children" and "WWG1WGA (Where we go one we go all)." * Those terms started being used more frequently online in March 2020, peaked in June 2020 around racial justice protests, and spiked again before the January 6 Capitol riot. Other factors contributed to the reduction in QAnon content. * "Q," the shadowy figure whose posts kicked off the conspiracy theory, went silent. * Some participants in the Q world masked their phrases to evade getting moderated. * Trump's election loss dispirited many Q believers. * "Of all factors... reductions correlated most strongly with social media actions taken by Facebook, Twitter, and Google to limit or remove QAnon content," the researchers write. "Actions taken by Twitter after the January 6 attack on the Capitol correlates strongly with a dampening of what remained of traditional QAnon chatter at the time." The intrigue: While the volume of QAnon content on the right-wing-focused Parler and Gab networks did increase in late 2020 and again around the January Capitol attack, the researchers concluded that these sites did not absorb the QAnon conversations that mainstream platforms shut down. * That was at least in part because the alternative sites faced their own cut-offs from back-end service providers like Amazon Web Services and Twilio. Yes, but: The research did not assess the volume of QAnon discussion in private groups or messaging platforms. * Public posts are where fringe groups gain new adherents, but private discussions are where their most dedicated followers end up. What they're saying: "Moderation actions after the Capitol attack were particularly effective in stomping down what remained of QAnon chatter online," said Jared Holt, resident fellow at the Atlantic Council. "The data shows the companies didn't act... until it was exploding off the charts." * "The research is very significant," said Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. "Concerted content moderation works... When they put their minds to it, the mainstream platforms can have a very big effect on marginalizing or eliminating toxic content." The bottom line: Aggressive content moderation aimed at limiting extremist content can work, but "decisions to enforce rules and address threats of extremism are often prompted by tragedy instead of proactive thinking," said Holt. Go deeper: Read the report Wed, 26 May 2021 13:30:34 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Amazon to acquire MGM Studios for $8.5 billion Amazon announced Wednesday it reached a deal to acquire MGM Studios for $8.45 billion, including debt. MGM is the home to several blockbuster franchises, including James Bond. Why it matters: The deal -- Amazon's second-largest acquisition ever, behind the $13.7 billion Whole Foods deal -- represents a major milestone in the tech sector's push into entertainment. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Between the lines: MGM is a logical asset for Amazon to sweep up, given that it's one of the few remaining independent media assets available for purchase, alongside a handful of other studios and networks like Lionsgate and AMC Network. * Other tech giants like Apple and Netflix have reportedly eyed MGM, but ultimately passed on buying it. Tech companies have traditionally been hesitant to buy content companies that they could instead build themselves. * Amazon has already built its own movie studio, but the addition of MGM could strengthen it significantly increase the amount of content it would own and be able to license to other TV networks or streamers. The big picture: The WarnerMedia-Discovery deal announced last week has sparked a frenzy among media companies looking to get even bigger to compete. What to watch: While the Amazon deal is unlikely to face much antitrust scrutiny, policy experts expect it to heighten calls for antitrust legislation. * Some lawmakers already started weighing in amid rumors of the potential deal. * The news comes one day after D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, alleging the e-commerce giant's anticompetitive pricing practices result in higher costs for consumers and less choice in the online retail market. Wed, 26 May 2021 12:46:49 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Inequality decreased for most of 2021 but picked up in May, index shows Data: Morning Consult/Axios Inequality Index; Chart: Axios Visuals The coronavirus pandemic has rocked the U.S.economy in myriad ways. One of the most important has been the impact on economic inequality, which has been spotlighted by top economists, including Fed chair Jerome Powell. Why it matters: It is a growing subject of discussion among everyday Americans and carries weight among economists, namely because persistent or increasing inequality can cast doubt on the fairness of America's economic system and undermine the sustainability of economic growth. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ What it is: Unlike the well-known Gini coefficient, the Morning Consult/Axios Inequality Index does not measure the distribution of income or wealth, it measures the movement of inequality -- how much it has increased or decreased based on four important economic variables detailed below. * The index measures economic outcomes across income groups on a monthly basis to show whether the U.S. is becoming more or less economically equal. What it says: Having tracked data through Morning Consult's daily surveys of 260,000 Americans per month, the index shows that inequality decreased for most of 2021, but picked up in May. What it means: "We had unprecedented stimulus in December and then again in March and over that period of time we've seen the Morning Consult/Axios Inequality Index decrease ... but we're now at a point in May where the sugar high from the second and third stimulus has worn off," Morning Consult chief economist John Leer tells me in an interview. State of play: Following the passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March inflation worries have grown and Congressional Republicans have pushed back against big-spending stimulus measures, even President Biden's infrastructure proposals, which are paid for by fees and increased taxes on the wealthy. * That makes another stimulus package unlikely and could mean that in September when enhanced unemployment benefits and eviction and foreclosure moratoriums expire many of the nation's low-income residents will be on their own and facing major liabilities. Be smart: "The way policymakers had hoped this would play out is we would have the December stimulus and then the American Rescue Plan that would jump-start consumer spending and that would result in an increase in employment, which would be sustained as the economy reopened over the summer," Leer says. * "Given the disappointing jobs report that we saw last month and decreases in retail spending in April as well it's unclear that we're in this self-sustaining economic recovery mode right now." The bottom line: The index is showing that without another lifeline lower-income Americans could be in for a difficult 2021, which would challenge the lofty growth expectations economists and asset managers have laid out for this year. * "We're at another turning point where we had these four months of decreasing inequality and now we can see how the economy responds in the absence of such intense fiscal intervention," Leer adds. Wed, 26 May 2021 11:45:26 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Belarus leader Lukashenko accuses EU of "hybrid war" over response to hijacking Belarus strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko, who diverted a passenger airplane carrying a journalist and government dissident on board this week, defended his actions Wednesday as necessary to quell a bomb threat, AP reports. Why it matters: The incident, which EU leaders have called a "hijacking," has drawn international condemnation and further isolated Lukashenko, who is often referred to as "Europe's last dictator." ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Driving the news: EU nations have banned Belarusian airlines, told European airlines not to fly over the country, and promised more economic sanctions. Lukashenko described the retaliation as a "hybrid war" to "strangle" Belarus. * "Our ill-wishers outside and inside the country have changed their methods of attacking the state," Lukashenko said Wednesday. "That's why they switched from organizing riots to trying to strangle us." * "I acted in a lawful way, protecting people in line with international rules," Lukashenko claimed. Catch up quick: The plane was in Belarusian airspace headed to Lithuania when pilots were told to land in Minsk -- and escorted there by a Belarusian fighter jet -- because of "a potential security threat on board," according a statement from Ryanair. * Journalist Raman Protasevich, a prominent opposition figure living in exile, reportedly told other passengers he was facing the death penalty before he was arrested during the stop. No bomb was found on board. * Lukashenko said it was an "absolute lie" that the fighter jet forced the Ryanair plane to land. * The CEO of Ryanair described the incident as a "state-sponsored hijacking." Go deeper: Biden says U.S. to coordinate with EU on Belarus response Wed, 26 May 2021 11:14:08 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Why Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella isn't moving fast and breaking things Critics argue that the impact of technology has grown so large that society can't afford for companies to release products just because they can, without fully anticipating issues like privacy and security. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella couldn't agree more. What they're saying: "Tech is becoming so pervasive in our lives, in our society and our economy, that when it breaks, it's not just about any one tech breaking or one company breaking," Nadella said in an exclusive interview with Axios. "It impacts us all." ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * Whether it is security or AI ethics, Nadella said the industry needs to be more proactive about anticipating malicious uses of the technology they develop. * "You can't, as a tech provider, platform creator, say, hey, I'll scale this and then worry about the unintended consequences," Nadella said. "That's just not going to be acceptable in society, first. And then regulation, of course, ultimately will catch up." Between the lines: Nadella also said that where once it was Microsoft that may have lacked for competition, now it is other companies that merit close antitrust scrutiny. * "I think it's pretty self-evident, right? I mean, when you look at, broadly, what is happening in the advertising space, what's happening in certain platforms and the restrictions on those platforms, I think it's clear as day where there is competition and where there isn't." My thought bubble: Nadella didn't name names, but if I were Tim Cook or Sundar Pichai, I'd take his comments personally. The big picture: Microsoft, of course, learned all this the hard way. * In the early 2000s it paused work on all its projects to bolster security after its products fell prey to a wave of viruses. * Around the same time, it became more restrained in its business practices after a decade spent fighting antitrust battles in the U.S. and Europe. "There used to be a boss I worked for who said, hey, you should never make the same mistake twice," Nadella said. "And I think it's a good thing for us, as individual companies and as an industry. You can't say, hey, I'm making the same mistake again and again and at greater scale. That just is not good." Wed, 26 May 2021 10:00:50 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ How immigration can power the future of America's heartland Data: Heartland Forward; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios More foreign-born immigrants are moving to the center of the U.S. than in the past, according to a new report by Heartland Forward. Why it matters: With population growth in the U.S. slower than it has been for the last 100 years, both high-skilled and low-skilled industries across America have come to rely more on immigrants to power their workforces. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * Many states' populations would be shrinking if not for immigrants, the New York Times reported last year. * Immigrants' children typically achieve significant upward mobility. A 2016 population survey showed 38% of 2nd-generation immigrants completed college, compared to 32% of 1st-generation immigrants and 33% of native-born Americans. The big picture: The report's findings counter perceptions that immigrants tend to settle on the coasts "because they're not welcome" in the middle of the country, Ross DeVol, president and CEO of Heartland Forward, told Axios. * Heartland Forward is a Bentonville, Arkansas, think tank focused on improving economic performance in the 20-state region it calls the "heartland." By the numbers: The report found the overall foreign-born population who live in that 20-state region has risen from 23.5% in 2010 to 31% in 2019. Zoom in: Both Northwest Arkansas and Des Moines house headquarters for some of America's largest companies -- which require at least a college degree for many positions and have likely recruited talent from outside the country. * In the Northwest Arkansas metropolitan area, the change in foreign-born residents grew by nearly 33% between 2010 and 2019. * And a large portion of immigrants moving to the Des Moines area in the last 20 years were likely recruited and already had a college degree, per DeVol. Data: Heartland Forward. Chart: Axios Visuals Yes, but: Outside of bigger cities, things are more stark for rural areas, which have suffered population losses for decades. * But even there, immigrants have helped stem that tide, thanks to an influx of refugees taking agriculture-focused jobs. What they're saying: Eldon Alik, consul general of the Marshallese Consulate in Springdale, Arkansas, said the community of Marshall Islanders there have been welcomed and largely assimilated into the community. * He attributes this partly to a shared Christian faith. * And Pew Research Center found in 2017 that most Muslims (55%) in the U.S. feel Americans are generally friendly toward them and most (70%) say they can get ahead with hard work. What's next: Heartland America believes that further educating mayors, business leaders and governors about immigration benefits may create a grassroots effort to diversify populations with buy-in from the communities. * "As we go forward, diversity and inclusion are not optional; it's not something nice -- it's fundamental to the economic development of our state," Bryan Slone, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry said for the report. The bottom line: Those invested in the region believe there's a case to be made for attracting immigrants of all skill levels to the country's geographic middle. * "This could be part of the formula for fostering stronger job creation and growth overall in heartland communities," DeVol said. Wed, 26 May 2021 10:00:03 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says tech giant is through being "cool" If software developers don't see Microsoft as the coolest trillion-dollar tech company out there, CEO Satya Nadella is OK with that, he told Axios in an exclusive interview as Microsoft's annual developer conference kicked off Tuesday. Driving the news: "My sales pitch to anybody, whether it's an intern or a college grad joining Microsoft is, hey, if you want to be cool, go join someone else," Nadella said. "If you want to make others cool, join Microsoft." ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Why it matters: With Windows less dominant, and Microsoft having given up on its own smartphone platform, the company is trying to woo developers by embracing rivals' platforms, offering tools that can write programs that run just about anywhere. While Apple, Google and Facebook typically spend a lot of their developer conferences focused on their own products, Microsoft used this week's Build event to focus almost entirely on a bunch of under-the-hood changes that Nadella says will help other companies succeed. * "In fact, you could be building an iOS app or an Android app, or an app for (Google's Cloud) or AWS, and still, you'll want to come to a Microsoft developer conference," Nadella told Axios. Between the lines: Tech giants have always competed for the attention, enthusiasm and labor of independent software makers. * Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used to run around on stage yelling "Developers, developers, developers!" * Nadella says coders remain just as important to today's Microsoft, but he prefers to show his appreciation in other ways. Rather than promoting Microsoft's own image, Nadella aims to paint coders themselves as cool. He has characteried them as "the original creators" and points to Microsoft's transformation of GitHub into a service where programmers can not only share their code, but also get paid. * "The sponsorship program on GitHub is the biggest program for essentially tipping software developers in the open source community," Nadella said. "We have lots of plans to expand that. You can even have organizations supporting our open source projects." Yes, but: One area where Microsoft badly could use some cool points is with Windows, its 35-year-old operating system. * Nadella teased a significant update to Windows, noting during his keynote that he has been testing it in recent months. * He declined to share any further details, but did say he thinks Windows is exiting the pandemic stronger than it was coming in, as many people rediscovered the power of a PC. Context: A number of Microsoft's efforts to modernize Windows have stumbled, including the recently shelved Windows 10X -- the company's latest attempt to create a slimmed-down OS to better compete against Chrome OS and other mobile devices. The big picture: Nadella notes that more software programmers are being hired today in traditional companies than in technology businesses. * "It's not about the West Coast of the U.S. or the East Coast of China, but pretty much every company in the world, in every sector," Nadella said Wed, 26 May 2021 09:45:36 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Americans' divided economic future Americans' native optimism is hard to squelch. Even after more than a year of a brutal pandemic -- with all its attendant ravages on health, employment, and life at home -- we overall retain a positive economic sentiment, according to a major new survey from McKinsey and Ipsos, provided first to Axios. Yes, but: Economic optimism isn't evenly distributed. Men are broadly optimistic, women aren't. Parents see a brighter future than the childless. And naturally the rich have a sunnier outlook than the poor. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * By far the biggest obstacle between Americans and economic optimism is their lack of access to health care and health insurance. The big picture: Overall, Americans are modestly optimistic about their economic futures, according to McKinsey's index -- not dancing in the streets, but more positive than negative. Underneath that mostly positive top line, however. many Americans have some deep reservations. * Women bore the brunt of the extra childcare burden during the pandemic, and also the brunt of the job losses. Both of those have significantly harmed their economic prospects. * Among moms who have stopped looking for work during the pandemic, 14% said they did so in order to look after their family. For dads, the equivalent number is a mere 3%. * Just 43% of moms see childcare as affordable, compared to 64% of dads. By the numbers: Americans in general, and American women in particular, still see real hardship. Only 26% of women think the pay that most people receive allows for a good quality of life, for instance. * 62% of workers in the gig economy would prefer to have permanent employment. * 41% of Hispanic respondents agreed with the statement that "I have had to cut back spending on food or delay medical care over the past 12 months for financial reasons." For white Americans, the equivalent number is 27%. What they're saying: "Rural Americans are at risk of being left behind," notes the report. They are much less willing than their urban counterparts to relocate or to switch industries, and most have no plans to pursue future training or new credentials. * McKinsey partner André Dua tells Axios that "the changing geography of work" -- as we go increasingly hybrid or remote -- could "create the opportunity to link rural Americans to opportunity." The bottom line: The pandemic decimated jobs for women and people of color, while creating massive gains for urban homeowners and the rich. There's still opportunity in America, but the coronavirus has definitely exacerbated inequality. Wed, 26 May 2021 09:30:53 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Republican and Democratic lawmakers actually agree on two areas of climate policy Bills aimed at trapping industrial carbon emissions or pulling CO2 directly from the atmosphere are piling up in Congress -- and instead of the usual gridlock, some of them may actually gain momentum. Why it matters: Scientists say that these emerging technologies, neither of which is economically available at scale, are going to be needed in potentially large amounts in order for the U.S. to go from the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, to a nation that absorbs more carbon than it releases. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Driving the news: Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced on Wednesday morning the Carbon Capture Improvement Act to help power plants and industrial facilities to finance carbon capture and storage equipment as well as more unproven direct air capture projects. How it works: The bill would permit businesses to use private activity bonds, which local and state governments currently have access to, in order to finance a carbon capture project. * These bonds have tax advantages over other financing mechanisms, and have previously been used for installing pollution control systems at power plants, according to a summary from the lawmakers. * The bill would also allow facilities to use an existing tax credit, known as 45Q, for capturing industrial emissions. * "Carbon capture and direct air capture are common-sense technologies that will allow states like Ohio to continue to utilize our natural resources while protecting our environment at the same time," Portman said in a statement. State of play: In addition to these new technologies, climate resilience measures are also gaining bipartisan support. On Tuesday, Bennet introduced a bill called the "Shelter Act," along with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), that would create a disaster mitigation tax credit for Americans to help make their home or business more resilient to extreme weather events. * Due to human-caused climate change, certain types of extreme events, such as heavy precipitation events, heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes are becoming more intense and destructive. * In an interview with Axios Tuesday, Bennet said both bills are about "common sense." * "I'm glad that it's bipartisan," he said of the Shelter Act. "But what's also interesting to me about it is how we how different the regions are here. Bill is doing it because he's freaked out about floods. And I'm doing it because I'm freaked out about fires." The big picture: Bennet says new technologies like direct air capture, which may include everything from synthetic trees to enhancing the ability of natural systems to soak up carbon, are drawing bipartisan interest because they address both climate change and jobs. * "If you believe that climate change is real, that's a reason you want to address it," Bennet said. * "And if you're worried about the potential dislocation of people" working in fossil fuel sectors, that's another reason you want to address it," he added. Context: The Bennet-Portman bill joins a list of pending bills to remove impediments standing in the way of developing new technologies to capture and store carbon or encourage new technologies to enable direct air capture to work. * Also on Tuesday, a bipartisan group of House members introduced a bill known as the the Catch Act, which would make changes to the 45Q tax credits in order to make them available to new types of projects. The bill would also boost the credit levels available. * Another bill with bipartisan backing is the Scale Act, introduced in March by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Cassidy and Reps. Marc Veasy (D-Texas) and David McKinley (R-W. Va.) -- which would help support the buildout of more comprehensive carbon capture infrastructure, to include transporting carbon dioxide from where it is captured to where it could be stored or used in manufacturing. Be smart: Providing incentives for carbon capture has a recent track record, with 45Q in place since 2018. They also don't stir up the same GOP opposition as emissions mandates do. Yes, but: Betting the under on the passage of any particular bipartisan climate legislation is usually a smart play, despite some recent action on super-greenhouse gases in late 2020 and 45Q. * This time around, though, an infrastructure package could become a vehicle for moving some of these bills. Wed, 26 May 2021 09:30:45 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Republicans in 9 states launch blitz against critical race theory in public schools Republicans in at least nine states are moving to limit students' exposure to critical race theory -- a concept that links racial discrimination to the nation's foundations and legal system. Why it matters: A year after George Floyd's killing, how systemic racism is -- or is not -- taught in public schools has become a new fault line in the culture wars, with implications for how the next generation of Americans understands U.S. history. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ * Conservative activists are pressing for less talk about racism and more talk about patriotism. * Civil rights advocates and some educators say banning critical race theory from schools constrains academic freedom and suppresses the experiences of people of color. Driving the news: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill this week banning the teaching of critical race theory in public schools -- over the objections from Black Democrats in the county where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968, WHBQ-TV reported. * Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt recently signed s imilar bans, and lawmakers in Oregon, Arkansas, Utah, Missouri and Arizona are crafting their own versions. * Stitt was kicked off a commission marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre after he signed the bill banning critical race theory from schools. * In Texas last week, the state Senate approved a bill to ban critical race theory in public and open-enrollment charter schools and eliminate requirements to study writings by women and people of color. What we're watching: A political action committee launched this week with ambitions to fill school boards around the country with candidates who oppose teaching critical race theory, as Axios' Stef W. Kight reported. * A forum at a Missouri school district turned heated last month after white parents booed speakers talking about racial discrimination and others denounced critical race theory as propaganda. School administrators reported receiving death threats. What they're saying: Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican who is African American, said local school officials who advocate critical race theory should be fired. * "Fire them. Get rid of them," Owens said during a Saturday appearance on Newsmax. "That ideology is against everything we believe in. We need to fire everyone we can find, and those we will fire later on, we'll figure out a way to get rid of them, too." The other side: Critical race theory "invites us to confront with unflinching honesty how race has operated in our history and our present, and to recognize the deep and ongoing operation of 'structural racism'," deans of the University of California Law Schools said in a joint statement last year. * "What comes next is...what we are going to do about it? That's what is scaring people," said Jeffery Robinson, executive director of The Who We Are Project. Details: Critical race theory is a framework developed in the 1970s, by legal scholars including Derrick Bell and Richard Delgado, that argues white supremacy maintains power through the law and other legal systems. * Critical race theorists -- also known as crits -- dismiss the notion that racism stems from acts of individuals, saying it comes from how the nation formed. Only through attacking routine practices and institutions through color-conscious efforts will racism be dismantled, they say. * They note that the Declaration of Independence refers to Native Americans as "savages" and the U.S. Constitution counted enslaved Black people at a rate of three-fifths. They say such credos gave the U.S. cover to remove Indigenous people and keep Black people as second-class citizens. What's next: President Biden will travel to Tulsa on June 1 to observe the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the White House said Tuesday. * The massacre has become a rallying cry for African Americans seeking reparations from one of the worst acts of racial violence in the nation's history. * City officials and the white mobs who destroyed Tulsa's Black Wall Street and killed 300 innocent people were never brought to justice, and the legal system prevented Black people from seeking redress. Wed, 26 May 2021 09:00:30 +0000 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Page created: Wed, May 26, 2021 - 09:05 PM GMT ```dir 2021/05/26 ```