Axios

There are around half a million independent restaurants in America, but upwards of 85% of them could go out of business without some sort of direct aid from Congress.

Axios Re:Cap digs into whether restaurants will be helped in the next round of economic stimulus. Our guests include Ivy Mix, a renowned bartender, co-owner of Leyenda in Brooklyn and author of "Spirits of Latin America," and Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning film director who owns spirit brand Singani 63.

Pop star Dua Lipa faced backlash on Sunday after tweeting a flag of "Greater Albania," showing Albania expanding its borders to include some portions of Kosovo, Serbia, Greece and North Macedonia.

Why it matters: The flag represents an ultra-nationalist idea that historically ethnic Albanian parts of the Balkans should be returned to Albanian control. Lipa, 24, was born in the U.K., but her parents are Kosovar Albanians — and Kosovo is central to much of the dispute.

The American Federation of Teachers on Monday warned Congress that 1.4 million public education jobs could be at risk if it doesn't move to prioritize funding for state and local governments in its next coronavirus stimulus package.

Why it matters: The call from the nation's second-largest largest teachers' union comes as Congress is set to begin negotiations on its "phase 4" coronavirus relief package — and there's no clear consensus between Democrats and Republicans regarding the inclusion of state and local relief in that bill.

Locusts in swarms the size of Manhattan have been ravaging crops through East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia and could be "a bigger threat in some of these countries than COVID-19," according to Gro Intelligence CEO Sara Menker.

What's happening: The impact of the locusts is starting to eat into the respective countries' GDP and have a devastating effect on local economies.

U.S. airline shares have largely traded in lockstep for most of this year, but diverging attitudes on layoffs, compensation and social distancing could create more stock price separation between the four largest airlines.

Driving the news: During its latest earnings call Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the airline will be extending its policy of leaving middle seats open through at least Sept. 30, touting a new campaign that Delta is "setting the standard for safer travel.''

With the deaths of Presidential Medal of Freedom honorees John Lewis and Cordy Tindell "C.T." Vivian on Friday following the death of honoree Joseph E. Lowery in March, the world has lost three vanguard leaders who conceived and led a revolutionary movement that changed the U.S. forever.

Why it matters: As fewer of these men remain to tell the story of how they engineered the civil rights movement, it's important to remember the economic and strategic vision that fueled it.

Chevron said Monday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Noble Energy, a large independent oil-and-gas producer, in a $5 billion all-stock transaction.

Why it matters: It will expand Chevron's footprint in the U.S. shale patch, where the company is competing with rival Exxon.

Americans' comfort level with returning to their offices for work breaks down along a number of interesting demographic lines, new data from CivicScience shows.

The state of play: Men are 20% more likely than women to prefer returning to in-person work and young people (ages 18–24) are the most likely to prefer returning to the office.

America spent the spring building a bridge to August, spending trillions and shutting down major parts of society. The expanse was to be a bent coronavirus curve, and the other side some semblance of normal, where kids would go to school and their parents to work.

The bottom line: We blew it, building a pier instead.