National

Finance ministers from the world's 20 largest economies backed a proposal on Saturday that seeks to introduce an international tax on multinational companies and sets a global minimum tax rate of 15%, Politico reports.

Why it matters: If enacted, the reform could alter who gets to tax multinational corporations and "stop multinationals from shifting profits into tax havens," Politico reports.

What they're saying: "After many years of discussions and building on the progress made last year, we have achieved a historic agreement on a more stable and fairer international tax architecture," the finance ministers from the G20 club, who met at a summit in Venice on Saturday, wrote in a statement.

"This is a victory for tax fairness, for social justice and for the multilateral system. But our work is not done ... I am optimistic that we will be able in that time also to reach a consensus among all European Union Member States on this crucial issue," said Paolo Gentiloni, the European commissioner for the economy, per Politico. 

Some EU countries, such as Hungary, remain opposed to the deal.

What's next: Final approval of the deal is not expected until the G20 leaders' meeting in Rome in October, and some details still need to be worked out before then.

G20 leaders back global tax deal

The proposal sets a global minimum tax rate of 15%.

Italian Economy Minister, Daniele Franco (L) and Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco (R) hold a press conference.

Italian Economy Minister, Daniele Franco and Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco hold a press conference following G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Venice, Italy. Photo: Baris Seckin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Gray Television's Greta Van Susteren that President Biden should require all members of the military to take the coronavirus vaccine, saying it was a matter of "national security," the Hill reports.

Driving the news: More than half of all service members have received at least one COVID-19 shot as of late June, according to the Hill.

"I frankly think the president ought to issue an order requiring everybody in the military to get a COVID-19 shot, period," Panetta said in an interview with Van Susteren set to air on Sunday, per the Hill.

“The last damn thing you need is to have those in the military that are our warriors unable to respond to a mission because they've gotten COVID-19. There's no excuse for that," Panetta said.

The big picture: Due to the vaccines status as being under an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, the Pentagon cannot legally require all military members get the vaccine, but Biden could grant an exception.

During an interview in April with NBC's Craig Melvin, Biden said it would be a "tough call" about whether he would require service members to get the vaccine once the FDA fully approves it.

"I don’t know. I’m going to leave that to the military,” Biden said, per the Hill.

Mandate COVID vaccines for military, Panetta urges Biden

"I frankly think the president ought to issue an order requiring everybody in the military to get a COVID-19 shot, period."

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks at a podium.

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks at  a press conference in Los Angeles on Monday, Sep. 16, 2019. Photo: Scott Varley/MediaNews Group/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images

Coronavirus vaccines

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

The combination of extreme heat and drought that has scorched the Western United States and Canada over the past two weeks has killed hundreds of millions of mussels, clams and other marine animals, the New York Times reports.

The big picture: An estimated 1 billion small sea creatures died during the heat wave in the Salish Sea at the end of June, according to marine biologist Chris Harley, per the Washington Post.

The sea creatures' deaths coincide with the heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest last week, which led to more than a hundred human deaths.

A study by an international team of climate researchers said the heat wave would have been "virtually impossible without human-caused climate change."

Driving the news: Mussels attach themselves to rocks and other surfaces, but they generally can't survive temperatures over 100 degrees for extended periods of time, CNN reports.

Ken Fong, head of the marine invertebrates stock assessment research program for Canada’s department of fisheries and oceans, called the incident a "perfect storm," per the Washington Post. 

"A very low tide in the afternoon in the Strait of Georgia that happened to coincide with the hottest part of the day, exposing the sea animals to the worst of the extreme heat," the Post reports. 

What they're saying: "It was a catastrophe over there," Harley told CNN. "There's a really extensive mussel bed that coats the shore and most of those animals had died."

"What worries me is that if you start getting heat waves like this, every 10 years instead of every 1,000 years or every five years, then it's you're getting hit too hard, too rapidly to actually ever recover," Harley said. "And then the ecosystem is going to just look very, very different."

Go deeper: Welcome to our hellscape summer

Extreme heat has killed an estimated 1 billion small sea creatures

The small sea creatures' deaths coincide with the heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest.

Clam shells remain on previously submerged rocks as worsening drought drops the water level of Lake Mead

Clam shells remain on previously submerged rocks as worsening drought drops the water level in Meadview, Arizona. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images

Heat waves

Climate change

Breaking climate science and policy coverage as extreme weather events reshape communities. Keep tabs on the race to a low carbon economy, which may be bumpy as governments, climate tech startups and major oil and gas companies race to find their niche amid the changing energy landscape.

Energy & Climate

Latino

Axios Latino

Long-standing corruption in Latin America has hindered vaccination campaigns and health care responses.

The big picture: These scandals include inflated prices for unusable ventilators purchased by Bolivia, price gouging for N95 masks in Argentina, and a botched acquisition of emergency field hospitals that took over six months to be operational in Honduras.

Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Argentina were also roiled by “Vaccine-gate”, in which politicians and their families and friends were given hush-hush early access to the first shots.

More recent uproars include the possible impeachment of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for apparent bribery for contracts to purchase two vaccines, and a murky and unfulfilled deal in Guatemala to buy millions of Sputnik V doses that were paid for but never delivered, leading to protests and calls for President Alejandro Giammattei's resignation.

Between the lines: Public hospitals were already severely underfunded, lacking equipment and medicine, when COVID-19 hit. With the pandemic, they are overwhelmed.

Partly to blame are the enduring consequences of diverted funds, since Latin American and Caribbean nations consistently rank as some of the most corrupt in the world.

Long-standing corruption cripples vaccine campaigns in Latin America

Public hospitals were already underfunded, lacking equipment and medicine, when COVID-19 hit.

Patients with less severe COVID-19 cases in Paraguay are treated on May 1 in the corridor of a hospital that has run out of beds.

Patients with less severe COVID-19 cases in Paraguay are treated on May 1 in the corridor of a hospital that has run out of beds. The same has occurred at many hospitals throughout Latin America. Photo: Daniel Duarte/AFP via Getty Images

Coronavirus

Latin America and Latinos

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

World

The U.S. health system faces critical questions about cost, access and equity. Technological advances and new discoveries about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s are transforming patient care and reshaping public health.

Health

Axios AM

Mark Zuckerberg surprised a council of top Facebook executives in July 2018 by declaring: "Up until now, I’ve been a peacetime leader ... That’s going to change."

Driving the news: The account appears in a closely held book that'll be out Tuesday, "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination," by the N.Y. Times' Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang.

The group, the authors write, "had endured eighteen months of one bad news cycle after another. They had been forced to defend Facebook to their friends, family, and angry employees. Most of them had little to do with the controversies over election disinformation and Cambridge Analytica."

The book says Zuckerberg had been influenced by ideas in "What You Do Is Who You Are," by Ben Horowitz — who's half of Andreessen Horowitz, the VC firm that invested early in Facebook, along with Marc Andreessen, Zuckerberg’s friend and a Facebook board member: 

Horowitz argues that at various stages of development, tech companies demand two kinds of CEOs: wartime and peacetime leaders. In periods of peace, he writes, a company can focus on expanding and reinforcing its strengths. In times of war, the threats are existential, and the company has to hunker down to fight for survival. 

From that day forward, Zuckerberg continued, he was taking on the role of wartime CEO. He would assume more direct control over all aspects of the business. He could no longer sequester himself to focus only on new products. More decisions would fall to him. 

Facebook tells Axios that Zuckerberg instructed leaders they’d have to be more decisive, and would need to move forward even when there wasn't a clear consensus. His view was that it was like wartime, and he needed to run the company as a wartime CEO.

"An Ugly Truth" gives sneak peek as Zuckerberg becomes wartime leader

Zuckerberg told Facebook executives: ""Up until now, I’ve been a peacetime leader ... That’s going to change."

Picture of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg walk together on Thursday at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference in Idaho. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Facebook

Social Media

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

A growing number of Democrats are ringing the alarm that their party sounds — and acts — too judgmental, too sensitive, too "woke" to large swaths of America. 

Why it matters: These Democrats warn that by jamming politically correct terms or new norms down the throats of voters, they risk exacerbating the cultural wars — and inadvertently helping Trumpian candidates. 

Top Democrats confide that they're very aware of the danger. Already, we've seen a widespread pullback in the "defund the police" rhetoric. 

Former NYPD captain Eric Adams, who this week won New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, showed his party the power of a message that supports police while including justice and reform. 

"If we are for SAFETY — we NEED the NYPD!" Adams says on his campaign site. "At the same time," he acknowledges, "we face a crisis of confidence in our police."

Democratic strategist James Carville has been warning his party about this for months, telling Vox in an April interview: 

"You ever get the sense that people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people? ... This is not how voters talk."

Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote this week in the Wall Street Journal that she believes the left is misreading its position and "overplaying its hand."

She cited a new essay by Kevin Drum, formerly of Washington Monthly and Mother Jones, who wrote: "[T]he truth is that the Democratic Party has been pulled far enough left that even lots of non-crazy people find us just plain scary — something that Fox News takes vigorous advantage of."

On the flip side, "How to Be an Antiracist" author Ibram X. Kendi, who directs Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research, wrote in The Atlantic on Friday that Republican operatives "have conjured an imagined monster to scare the American people and project themselves as the nation’s defenders from that fictional monster."

What we're hearing: Moderate and swing-district lawmakers and aides tell Axios' Margaret Talev and Alayna Treene that the party could suffer massive losses in next year's midterms if Democrats run like Sen. Elizabeth Warren is president.

One former Senate aide said it's "bye-bye majority" if Democrats run on "extreme wokeness."

Between the lines: The big question is how different the midterms will be from 2020. People voted for Democrats in November when the same talking points and ideas were being discussed. The presidency was at stake, but the other cultural or social issues were the same.

What to watch: This tension is a huge test for President Biden. He knows that the rising left in his party, while great for fundraising and media coverage, could be electorally disastrous. 

Axios' Kim Hart and Alayna Treene contributed reporting.

Rise of the anti-"woke" Democrat

Some Democrats worry they risk exacerbating the cultural wars — and inadvertently helping Trumpian candidates.

Mayoral candidate Eric Adams greets NYPD officers in Manhattan on Wednesday.

Mayoral candidate Eric Adams greets NYPD officers in Manhattan on Wednesday. Photo: John Minchillo/AP

Democrats

Sunday's snap parliamentary elections in Bulgaria pit the man who has dominated the Balkan country's politics for a decade against an insurgent party led by a popular TV host.

The big picture: Former longtime Prime Minister Boyko Borissov failed to form a government after an inconclusive election in April, which followed massive protests last year over corruption and Borissov's alleged mafia ties.

Since the election, the Biden administration has sanctioned three Bulgarian power brokers for corruption, denting Borissov's support further.

The other side: That has left a major opening for political newcomers like Slavi Trifonov, sometimes referred to as the Bulgarian David Letterman.

Trifonov's "There is Such a People" party now has 21.8% support versus 21.5% for Borissov's GERB party, according to a poll released Thursday by Alpha Research.

Known to Bulgarians simply as “Slavi,” the 6.6-foot showman is a folk-pop musician, producer and actor, but he's best known for his late-night program “Slavi’s Show."

Before previous elections, Trifonov interviewed all the leading candidates, including Borissov. Now he is using his own cable channel, launched in 2019, as a platform to criticize other politicians and promote his own party.

He became a major political player in 2016 when he spearheaded a referendum campaign to reform Bulgaria's electoral system. The reforms won a clear majority of voters but fell 12,000 votes short of the threshold to make the result binding — an outcome Trifonov denounced as a “monstrous fraud.”

He's now set to become the latest TV star to parlay his fame and outsider appeal into political power, following former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Borissov is a colorful figure in his own right.

A former bodyguard to Bulgaria's last communist leader, he projects the image of a man of the people.

But he has had to fend off a number of scandals, including when photos surfaced last year appearing to show him sleeping next to a handgun, stacks of cash and gold bars. He claimed the photos may have been staged or doctored.

What’s next: Despite leading the two top parties, Borissov and Trifonov have both said they won't serve as prime minister if their party wins. Both are considered likely candidates for the presidency in the fall, though that role is less powerful.

Some observers fear another inconclusive election could further strain Bulgaria's democracy.

TV star's party takes poll lead ahead of Bulgaria's election

The race pits a strongman against a celebrity.

Larger than life: Trifonov sings at a campaign concert/rally. Photo: Nikolay Doychinov/AFP via Getty

Bulgaria

Heavy machinery hoisted the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee from its stone pedestal in Charlottesville, Virginia, around 8 a.m. Saturday morning, AP reports.

The big picture: The removal comes four years after the 2017 "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally, when hundreds of alt-right supporters gathered carrying torches and signs that read "white lives matter." The rally then started because protestors opposed the city's decision to get rid of the monument.

The rally left 32-year-old protester Heather Heyer dead.

City officials announced plans to remove the statue on Friday.

Details: Another Confederate statue, one of of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, is also set to be taken down, AP notes.

Of note: The stone pedestals will be taken down and taken to a secure location until the Charlottesville City Council decides what should be done with them. 

What they're saying: "Taking down this statue is one small step closer to the goal of helping Charlottesville, Virginia, and America, grapple with the sin of being willing to destroy Black people for economic gain," Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker said in a speech when the removal process started, per AP.

"This is well overdue," Zyahna Bryant, a student who in 2016 started the push to remove confederate statues from the city.

"No platform for racism. No platform for hate," Bryant added.

 A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is seen behind work-zone signage in Market Street Park July 9

 A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is seen behind work-zone signage in Market Street Park July 9. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Workers remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park July 10

Workers remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park July 10.  Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images

A flatbed truck carries a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the Market Street Park July 10

A flatbed truck carries a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the Market Street Park July 10. Photo Win McNamee/Getty Images

A flatbed truck carries a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the Market Street Park July 10. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Confederate statue removed in Charlottesville, Virginia

The monument helped spark the 2017 "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally.

Picture of a crowd watching as a statue gets removed

Spectators watch as workers remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park July 10, 2021 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Racism

Teachers and civil rights activists are organizing and preparing to go to court to stop conservatives' efforts to block curriculum about institutional racism.

Why it matters:  "It is the modern-day Scopes trial," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten tells Axios, recalling the 1925 case over teaching evolution.

Legislators in nearly half of U.S. states in recent months have passed or introduced proposals to constrain lessons about how racism has shaped the nation's history and political and economic systems.

Conservative groups also are driving recall campaigns against school board members around the U.S.

Driving the news: Weingarten said her union will defend teachers' right to teach American history — and will aggressively protect any educator accused of violating such new laws and restrictions.

"We're looking at court actions because these laws conflict with standards and our licensure requirements and our professional obligations," she said.

Union delegates with the National Education Association earlier this month voted to expand the teaching of anti-racism and diversity in American classrooms, despite the growing backlash.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 79 other civil rights and education groups recently released a statement calling anti-racism classroom lessons a student right needing to be defended.

The big picture: This backlash against critical race theory comes as school systems grow more diverse and many parents welcome more diverse curriculums.

The popularity of The New York Times' 1619 Project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, which examined the history of slavery and its lasting impact in the U.S., also sparked conservative anger.

The other side: Citizens for Renewing America, a group led by a White House budget director under former President Trump, offers activists model legislation to craft bans on critical race theory in their states. Teachers also are facing threats of firing for introducing anti-racism lessons.

At least 51 local recall efforts involving K-12 school boards have been initiated this year in reaction to critical race theory and COVID-19 closures.

Critics of critical race theory are suggesting long-time popular children's books and novels regularly listed high school reading are dangerous now.

Idaho state lawmaker Heather Scott cited the 1960 novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee as evidence that critical race theory was "creeping through our schools." 

A group of white parents in Tennessee claimed "Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story,” by Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana, was anti-American (and) anti-white.”

Reality check: Critical race theory — which holds that racism is baked into the formation of the nation and ingrained in our legal, financial, and education systems — was developed in law schools in the 1970s and isn't really taught in grade school.

Teachers prepare for court fights on race education

Coordinated efforts to limit the teaching of racism in schools caught educators off guard.

President of American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten speaks at an event in Washington, D.C. with the image of the Statue of Liberty in the background. 

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten speaking in Washington, D.C. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Critical race theory

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten speaking in front of an image of the Statue of Liberty.

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

Space

Axios Space

U.S. articles mentioning “space race”

The public's interest in space coverage has exploded leading up to the historic space race between billionaire space entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. 

Why it matters: Bezos and Branson are both hoping to make space tourism a big business, and their billionaire space race is sparking widespread interest in spaceflight that could ultimately translate into future customers.

Catch up quick: Bezos and Branson both plan to make sub-orbital flights this month aboard rockets built by their respective companies.

Branson will make the journey this Sunday. His company, Virgin Galactic, will livestream the trip. 

By the numbers: Not even halfway through July, mentions of the the term "space race" in U.S. articles have ballooned, according to new data from Signal AI provided to Axios — more than tripling the amount of mentions last July. 

Not surprisingly, this past June, the top two sites receiving traffic from searches related to space were space.com and spacenews.com, per SimilarWeb. 

When it comes to name recognition, Bezos' Blue Origin has received a lot more attention this year than its rival — Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Since July 2020, Virgin Galactic has received about a third of the number of total social media interactions (325,663) as Blue Origin (1,085,377), per Newswhip.

Elon Musk's SpaceX clobbers both, with nearly 3.5 million total social media interactions for the year. 

The big picture: Space coverage has historically been pretty niche — something that typically only broke through to the mainstream with big launches, accidents or anniversaries. 

But today, many news companies have hired designated space reporters, as private spaceflight takes off.

For space-specific news outlets, like Seeker, the space race has been a boon for traffic. A spokesperson tells Axios that Seeker has seen twice the amount of views and minutes watched on its video content, compared to the six months prior, as the space race heats up. 

What to watch: The space giants are acutely aware of how much the attention wars around this month's space race could impact their businesses. On Friday, Blue Origin tweeted an in-depth infographic explaining why its rockets are better than Virgin Galactic's.

Billionaire battle draws big attention to space coverage

News and analysis of the scientific advances fueling AI and quantum computing, revolutionizing biology and medicine, and tackling climate change. Science is changing the world and colliding with the global politics that shape it.

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