Axios

Uber announced on Tuesday it will reclassify over 70,000 drivers across the United Kingdom as workers who will receive benefits including a minimum wage, vacation pay and access to pension plans, effective Wednesday,

Why it matters: It's the first time the ride-hailing giant has agreed to classify its drivers accordingly, and it follows a landmark ruling from Britain's Supreme Court last month that said Uber drivers are entitled to greater protections.

Amazon's fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, has become ground zero for the U.S. labor movement, with nearly 6,000 employees asked to vote on unionization by March 29.

Axios Re:Cap digs into what the Alabama situation means for Amazon, its workers and why it's happening now, with Alec MacGillis, author of the new book about Amazon called "Fulfillment, Winning and Losing in One-Click America."

The Senate voted 81-17 on Tuesday to confirm Isabel Guzman, currently the director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate, to lead the Small Business Administration.

Why it matters: The SBA will play a central role in helping small businesses recover from the economic crisis inflicted by the coronavirus, which has caused thousands of them to permanently close their doors.

Elliot Page, best known for his roles in blockbusters "Juno," "X-Men" and "Inception," is the first openly transgender man to feature on the cover of Time Magazine.

The big picture: Page, one of the most high-profile trans people in the world, has been vocal about trans rights and recently condemned several of a record number of state bills aimed at trans kids' ability to transition and play sports with cisgender children.

• A groundswell of Republicans — including former President Trump — have publicly supported banning trans kids from playing on sports teams and in competitions aligning with their gender identity.
• "Extremely influential people are spreading these myths and damaging rhetoric — every day you're seeing our existence debated," Page said. "Transgender people are so very real."

What he's saying: In a late February interview with Time's Katy Steinmetz, Page said it was difficult to talk about the days leading up to his disclosure in December that he is trans.

• When asked how he's feeling now, Page described the "feeling of true excitement and deep gratitude to have made it to this point in my life ... mixed with a lot of fear and anxiety."
• "What I was anticipating was a lot of support and love and a massive amount of hatred and transphobia," he said. "That's essentially what happened."

Page told Time that he was inspired by writers and actresses like Janet Mock and Laverne Cox — icons and trailblazers in the community — and P. Carl's memoir "Becoming a Man."

• Eventually, revelation replaced "shame and discomfort," he said. "I was finally able to embrace being transgender ... and letting myself fully become who I am."

Go deeper: Elliot Page Is Ready for This Moment (Time)

eToro, a London-based no-fee trading app, agreed to go public at an implied $10.4 billion valuation, via acquisition by FinTech Acquisition Corp. V (Nasdaq: FTCV).

Why it matters: This could help set an IPO price range for rival Robinhood, whose filing was temporarily delayed by February's GameStop debacle. eToro, a 13-year-old company that expanded into the U.S. in 2018, claims to have more "registered users" than Robinhood has "customers," but we don't yet have active user comps.

The percentage of female decision-makers at U.S. venture capital firms continues to climb, albeit slowly, according to a new Axios analysis.

By the numbers: 243 of 1,716 decision-makers are women, or nearly 14.2%. Past marks were 12.4% (2020), 9.7% (2019), 8.9% (2018), 7% (2017), and 5.7% (2016).

There's fresh evidence that U.S. oil demand is coming back from the pandemic and "this time it looks like it’s here to stay," Bloomberg reports.

The big picture: "Retail gasoline sales rose last week to just 1% below year-ago levels, just before regional lockdowns brought fuel consumption to a crawl, Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy said on Twitter," Bloomberg writes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is formally asking for input about how companies should disclose climate-related risks in filings with the regulators.

Why it matters: It's the latest sign the commission is moving toward the creation of requirements that go beyond efforts to breathe life into existing 2010 guidance to companies.

The Republican National Committee is planning an aggressive counterprogramming campaign as President Biden prepares to tour the country and promote his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, The Hill reports.

The state of play: While Biden embarks on a "Help is Here" tour to explain how the American Rescue Plan will affect everyday Americans, the RNC's rapid response team will offer real-time reactions, to be broadcast on television and radio at the same time as Biden's public appearances.

Facebook will soon begin testing partnerships with a small group of independent writers for its new publishing platform, sources tell Axios.

Driving the news: The platform, which includes tools for journalists to build actual websites, in addition to newsletters, will be tested with a small group of writers, some of whom Facebook plans to pay to help get the tools off the ground.

Civitech, a public benefit corporation that builds data tools for progressive candidates and causes, has reached an agreement to acquire the data and technology from Alloy, the now-defunct progressive data startup that was backed by Silicon Valley mogul Reid Hoffman.

Why it matters: Alloy was created to help modernize the Democratic Party's data operation by taking the unprecedented step of creating its own voter file. But its efforts collided with those at the Democratic National Committee, which had been working to build its own data exchange since 2019.

"The Volume," a sports podcast network from Colin Cowherd — the veteran sports talk radio host — has struck a comprehensive content deal with the Action Network, a subscription sports betting media company, executives tell Axios.

Why it matters: It's a rare talent partnership between two upstart media companies, both focused on sports. 

Front Office Sports, the sports media company centered around newsletters, expects to be profitable this year on high 7-figures in revenue, its CEO Adam White tells Axios.

Driving the news: The company moving forward lean into the branding "FOS" as it starts to build more newsletter products for general sports consumers, in addition to its core products catered to professional business audiences.

Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Charles Woodson have joined the growing roster of athletes to exclusively partner with Fanatics Authentic, the online retail giant's collectibles and memorabilia arm.

The state of play: Known primarily for apparel, Fanatics also deals in memorabilia, which occupies an important corner of the exploding sports fandom investing complex.

As the auto industry ramps up production of electric vehicles, some big carmakers aren't taking any chances on securing the necessary batteries: they plan to make their own cells.

Why it matters: Efforts to rapidly improve battery technology and make EVs more affordable could be hampered by a shortage of raw materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel. Many automakers are racing to lock up supply chains — and in some cases, to produce batteries themselves.

While the Fed's most recent projections have it holding U.S. rates at near 0% through the end of 2023, investors are ramping up market bets that the central bank will be forced to act sooner.

State of play: Money markets have been moving toward pricing in the beginning of Fed tightening by the end of next year and Eurodollar contracts reflect a full quarter-point hike coming around March 2023 and a 75% chance of a rate hike by December 2022, Bloomberg reports.

The spread between U.S. and German 10-year government bond yields widened to its steepest level since January 2020 on Monday, as European yields tumbled following the European Central Bank's announcement that it will speed up its pace of bond buying.

The big picture: The ECB became the first major central bank to announce an increase in bond buying to stem higher yields.

TSA officers screened more than 1.35 million people at airports on Friday, the highest number of passengers on a single day since March 15, 2020, the latest sign that air travel is making a comeback.

Why it matters: Travel has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, but data show the trend is moving in the right direction for airlines, airport vendors and hopeful wanderers.

The S&P will be getting riskier, as the index's owners announced on Friday they would add Penn National Gaming and Caesars Entertainment to the benchmark equity gauge along with NXP Semiconductors and Generac Holdings.

• Those companies will replace Xerox, Flowserve, SL Green Realty and Vontier, which will move to the S&P MidCap 400, with changes scheduled to happen before the start of trading on March 22.

Tech stocks led the way as U.S. equity indexes finished higher on Monday — the Dow and S&P closed at record highs and the Nasdaq rose 1%, having now reversed half of its correction from mid-February.

Why it matters: Bullish momentum again powered the market higher, as traders continue to put rising COVID-19 cases in Europe, spiking U.S. Treasury yields and a moribund labor market out of mind.

Over the past six months, apps catered to conservatives have hit new milestones, although they are starting to lose some of the traction they gained in the month following the aftermath of the Capitol siege.

Why it matters: Conservatives have long created their own media channels via print, radio and television to combat the perceived left-wing bias of mainstream outlets. The creation of new social media networks, streaming sites and digital media apps is the next iteration of that decades-long trend.

Netflix received a whopping 35 Oscar nominations this year, a record for the streamer, and a record for any single studio (depending on how you calculate previous totals).

Why it matters: The streaming giant spent an unprecedented amount of money on content, while traditional movie studios were handicapped by theater closures over the past year.

Eight in 10 Americans think the federal minimum wage is too low and two-thirds support increasing it to $15 per hour, according to a poll from Amazon and survey producer Ipsos published Tuesday.

Why it matters: A raise in the minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour was not included in the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package passed by Congress this month, despite progressives pushing to add a minimum wage provision to the bill. This poll suggests there's widespread nonpartisan support for an increase.

Jesuit priests pledged Monday to raise $100 million for the descendants of people enslaved by the Catholic order as part of a new racial reconciliation initiative in the U.S., the New York Times first reported.

Why it matters: It's one of the biggest moves by an institution to atone for slavery, and "the largest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to make amends for the buying, selling and enslavement of Black people," church officials and historians told the NYT.

Democrats think they have a test for whether they can work with Republicans on anything: it has to do with China.

What we're hearing: The White House is quietly supporting Sen. Chuck Schumer's forthcoming legislation to curb China's global influence to prove Democrats can still work with Republicans despite the GOP voting unanimously against the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

Coca-Cola and Home Depot, two major corporations based in Georgia, expressed opposition to the state's push to restrict voting, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Why it matters: After the GOP lost in Georgia's Senate runoffs, Republican lawmakers moved quickly to introduce legislation that would make it harder to vote, baselessly citing voter fraud.