Axios PM

An analog clock with only two symbols instead of twelve: the symbols read 'AM' and 'PM'.

August 23, 2021

Mike Allen

Good afternoon. Today's PM — edited by Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath — is 389 words, a 2-minute read.

⚡ Situational awareness: Gov. Andrew Cuomo leaves office at 11:59 p.m. ET. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will then be sworn in as New York's first female governor. Go deeper: Cuomo's defiant farewell address.

1 big thing: Mask rage

Some 30 protesters rallied outside of Hewes Middle School in Tustin, CA on Friday, Aug. 13. Photo: MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images — Protesters rally outside Hewes Middle School in Tustin, Calif., on Aug. 13. Photo: Orange County Register via Getty Images

Back-to-school mask fights are getting scary and violent.

Teachers have been punched, and parents are wielding bullhorns and even getting charged with crimes, Axios' Ivana Saric writes.
School board members, county commissioners, doctors and local leaders are regularly confronted with angry taunts that compare them to the Taliban, Marxists and more, AP reports.

A parent in Austin ripped off a teacher's face mask during a "Meet the Teacher" event. Other parents screamed at teachers, demanding they remove their face coverings.

Outside Sacramento, a parent left a teacher bleeding and requiring hospital treatment — after the parent tried to attack the principal over masks and the teacher jumped in, KCRA-TV reports.

In Nevada and Pennsylvania, school-board meetings this month got so out of hand that police were called.

Go deeper.

2. Axios interview: YouTube's creator strategy

A photo of YouTube product head Neal Mohan. — Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photos: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch, Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan tells Axios' Ina Fried that the Google-owned video site is working to be a better content moderator — in part because it's good for business.

The latest: YouTube announced today that it now has 2 million people in programs that enable creators to get paid.

On COVID misinformation, Mohan points to YouTube collaborations between creators and health authorities.

"99.9% of creators are looking to do the right thing," he says. "I hope that we are perceived as ultimately a positive voice here."

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3. Catch up quick

A U.S. Marine high-fives a child at Kabul airport yesterday. Photo: Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps via AP

Twenty people have been killed in the chaos outside Kabul airport, most in shootings and stampedes, Reuters reports.
💉 The FDA gave full approval to Pfizer's vaccine. President Biden said that for those who have been hesitant, "the moment you’ve been waiting for is here." Go deeper.
China is back to zero COVID cases, just over a month after taking draconian measures to stop the Delta variant, Bloomberg reports.