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National

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he will support the bipartisan bill that would reform and modernize the Electoral Count Act of 1887. 

Why it matters: McConnell's endorsement of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), bolsters the measure's chances of clearing the Senate. 

Driving the news: "I strongly support the modest changes that our colleagues in the working group have fleshed out after literally months of detailed discussions," McConnell said Tuesday. 

The big picture: McConnell's remarks come after the House last week voted to pass similar legislation to reform the Electoral Count Act to make it more difficult to subvert presidential elections.

Of note: "The full Senate is unlikely to act [on the legislation] before the November midterms, punting the issue until a lame-duck session of Congress at year’s end," CNN reported.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.

McConnell supports bipartisan bill to reform Electoral Count Act

"I strongly support modest changes that our colleagues in the working group have fleshed out."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol Building on September 07, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a news conference on Sept. 7. Photo: Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images

Mitch McConnell

Politics & Policy

The Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday postponed its next public hearing that was scheduled for Wednesday, citing the rapidly intensifying Hurricane Ian.

Driving the news: "In light of Hurricane Ian bearing down on parts of Florida, we have decided to postpone tomorrow’s proceedings. We’re praying for the safety of all those in the storm’s path," the committee tweeted.

The big picture: This week's hearing was expected to be the panel's final hearing before releasing a final report on its findings and recommendations. Its investigation into the events surrounding the Capitol riot has spanned more than a year.

The committee has not announced a rescheduled date.

"The Select Committee’s investigation goes forward," committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in a statement.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) is a member of the committee whose district includes parts of Orlando, which may be impacted by the hurricane.

What we’re watching: The timing of when the hearing will be rescheduled remains unclear, with multiple potential complicating factors at play.

The hurricane and its aftermath could continue to dominate the news cycle for the rest of the week, and committee member Murphy’s Florida district is in the path of the storm.

A hearing too close to the November election could complicate the committee’s efforts to avoid the perception of partisanship, especially as they are already poised to make news in October, as Axios reported.

The panel doesn’t typically hold hearings when the House is out of session — though they made a notable exception in the case of Cassidy Hutchinson’s bombshell testimony during the House’s summer recess.

A committee spokesperson declined to comment on the timing.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional background.

Jan 6. committee postpones hearing, citing Hurricane Ian

The committee cited the rapidly intensifying Hurricane Ian.

January 6 committee holds a public hearing 

Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during a Jan. 6 select committee hearing on July 21. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Congress

Space

Axios Space

Scientists say it's time to take the threats posed by asteroids seriously and prepare for the possibility that one could be found on a collision course with Earth.

Why it matters: Asteroid strikes are rare, but the danger posed by even a relatively small one impacting Earth over a populated area could be serious, and it might be harder to spot these hazardous space rocks in the future. 

Scientists are keeping tabs on thousands of asteroids with orbits known to bring them close to Earth's path around the Sun, but they still don't have the tools they need to find all of the possibly dangerous asteroids nearby.

"An asteroid impact is very similar in structure to a pandemic," Casey Dreier of the Planetary Society tells Axios. With both events, it costs more to respond to them if a society isn't prepared. 

Driving the news: NASA slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid on Monday in a bid to change its orbit and test the technology needed to one day redirect an asteroid found on a collision course with Earth.

It's not yet clear whether the impact changed the course of the moonlet asteroid circling a larger asteroid, but follow-up observations over the coming weeks will reveal how successful the test was.

If a large asteroid is one day found to threaten our planet, NASA says the data gathered by this mission — called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test — should help them to scale up the tech to throw that space rock off course. 

"We also have to understand the nature of these objects, what their sizes and compositions are and their orbital path to determine when in the future they might pose a hazard," NASA planetary defense officer Lindley Johnson said during a press conference last week.

How it works: Scientists use a variety of telescopes to discover asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) and then track their orbits around the Sun. 

Ground-based telescopes like Pan-STARRS take wide images of the sky to pick out the faint signals of asteroids as they move through space.

But "less than half of the estimated 25,000 NEOs that are 140 meters and larger in size have been found to date," according to NASA.

The intrigue: In 2021, NASA formally moved ahead with the NEO Surveyor telescope — which is specifically designed to search for difficult-to-find asteroids from space using infrared light — and the telescope won bipartisan political support, with a plan to launch by 2026. 

But this year, the proposed budget for the program was cut by $130 million, delaying the launch by two years. 

Even though Congress is pushing to restore some of the funding, the budget cut has already caused layoffs on the mission team and is forcing them to replan the development of the telescope.

Between the lines: NASA has not given a public explanation for why NEO Surveyor's budget was cut. 

According to Johnson, a delay of two years likely won't mean scientists miss a dangerous asteroid on its way to Earth, but launching NEO Surveyor is "something that we need to get done so that we know what's out there and know what's coming and have adequate time to prepare for it."

"We can't really do anything about a potentially dangerous object heading our way unless we know it's there," Amy Mainzer, the head of the NEO Surveyor mission, tells Axios.

What to watch: NEO Surveyor may be even more essential in the coming years as constellations of satellites continue to clutter Earth's orbit. 

Scientists are concerned that as companies like SpaceX and OneWeb continue to send hundreds of satellites to orbit, the light from satellites at dusk could make it harder to find certain dangerous asteroids near our planet. 

The asteroid threat gets real

Scientists say it's time to prepare for the possibility that one could be found on a collision course with Earth.

Illustration of a dented caution sign with an asteroid.

Asteroids

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.

Science

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

Representation of Latinos in shows and films, 2022

Data: 2022 LDC Latinos in Media Report; Chart: Axios Visuals

Latinos continue to be significantly underrepresented in U.S. films and TV series, despite the fact that the group represents nearly one-fifth (20%) of the total U.S. population and $2.8 trillion in total economic output, a new report finds.  

Why it matters: The report provides representation information by company, calling out specific studios and networks for their lack of Latino representation across acting roles, screenwriting and directing. 

"For whatever reason, studios haven't done enough," said Ana Valdez, president and CEO of the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC), the nonprofit group that published the report. "It doesn't make business sense."

The LDC is a nonpartisan group that's backed by its members, who are mostly prominent U.S. Latino business leaders. It funds economic research about the U.S. Latino community. 

Details: The report finds that so far in 2022, Latinos represented only 3.1% of lead actors in TV shows and 2.1% of co-lead/ensemble actors. Only 1.5% of TV showrunners and 1.3% of directors were Latino. 

In film, Latinos represented just 5.2% of lead actors and 5.1% of co-lead/ensemble actors. Only 3.5% of screenwriters and 2.6% of directors were Latino. 

By the numbers: Most TV networks and movie studios have few Latinos represented across their programming, but some stand out more than others.

The report measures all new and returning shows with premiere dates between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31 in prime time (8–11pm) on broadcast and cable and all new shows on streaming. 

It calls out CBS as a broadcaster that is "going backwards in Latino representation." 

Cable and premium cable networks have even worse representation numbers than broadcasters, according to the report. None of the 331 shows on cable surveyed this year across 25 networks included Latino showrunners. 

Discovery, HGTV, TLC and HBO, all owned by Warner Bros Discovery, have zero Latino leads across their 27, 37, 23 and 28 prime-time shows, respectively, the study finds. 

Netflix has just two Latino leads across all of its 124 shows. Apple TV+ has one across 44 shows. 

Between the lines: For years, the LDC has shared the findings of its annual media representation report privately with Hollywood executives, but it's making the latest report public for the first time to shine a light on the lack of progress, Valdez said. 

The study finds that representation has barely grown in the past five years, and in some categories, it's declined. Just 1.3% of Latinos directed TV series in 2022, compared to 3.5% in 2018 and 3.7% in 2020.

The big picture: Hollywood has been making some strides in equal representation in film and TV, but data shows Latinos have not made the same progress as Black Americans and Asian Americans. According to data from Nielsen cited in the report:

Black people represent 16.12% of those in streaming shows, compared to 13.6% of the U.S. population.

Asian people represent 11.18% of those in streaming shows, compared to 6.1% of the U.S. population.

Latinos represent 9.29% of those in streaming shows, compared to 19% of the U.S. population.

The bottom line: "Other communities and groups have advanced tremendously, but Latinos keep lagging behind. We don't understand it. We don't see the business premise happening as it should," Valdez said. 

What's next: As a part of making the report public, LDC has released a list of more than 3,000 Latino actors, showrunners, screenwriters and directors for Hollywood to pull from when evaluating talent for roles. 

Eva Longoria wants to “change the gatekeepers” in Hollywood

Why Latino shows are often quickly canceled

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Black people, Asian people and Latinos represented 16.12%, 11.18% and 9.29% of those in streaming shows, respectively (not that 16.12% of Black people, 11.18% of Asian people and 9.29% of Latinos were represented in streaming shows). Its headline has been corrected to reflect the story was not exclusive to Axios. 

New report calls out U.S. media for lack of Latino representation

Most TV networks and movie studios have few Latinos represented across their programming, but some stand out more than others.

Media trends

Media

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

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

Pro Rata

Axios Pro Rata

Elon Musk knows that there's a good chance he'll lose his lawsuit against Twitter, thus requiring him to buy the social media company for $44 billion. But, were that to happen, don't expect him to crawl under a rock and lick his wounds.

Instead, Musk will focus on disproving the doubters. 

The big picture: Musk understands that Twitter today isn't worth $44 billion, and that it probably wasn't worth $44 billion when he first signed the merger agreement in April. So the goal would be to make it worth even more, via an eventual sale or return to the public markets.

Yes, anyone who buys a company wants to increase its value. The difference here is that Musk's drive would be as much about proving skeptics wrong is it is about padding his pockets.

Behind the scenes: Sources close to Musk often talk about his reflexive distaste for the gospel of "how it's always been done," whether that be auto manufacturing or rocketry. 

They believe he'd bring that same ethos to Twitter, alongside his obsessive attention to product detail, even if they can't figure out where he'll find the spare hours.

Caveat: Again, this is all about what would happen were Musk to lose the trial. He still may win, or even settle (something there was unfounded speculation about yesterday, after reports that Musk and/or Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal delayed scheduled depositions).

The bottom line: Corporate acquisitions are ultimately judged years after they close. Musk could lose the Battle of Delaware, but still win the Twitter War. 

Elon Musk's Twitter revenge play

If Musk is forced to buy Twitter, he'll work to prove his doubters wrong.

Photo illustration of a close-up of Elon Musk with eye black grease in the shape of the Twitter logo under his eyes

Photo illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios. Photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage

Elon Musk

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.

Axios

Tuesday's top stories

McConnell supports bipartisan bill to reform Electoral Count Act

Jan 6. committee postpones hearing, citing Hurricane Ian

The asteroid threat gets real

New report calls out U.S. media for lack of Latino representation

Elon Musk's Twitter revenge play

British pound gets pounded as tax cut plan sinks in

Taiwanese citizens prepare for possible cyber war

The fastest-growing cities face some of the biggest climate risks

Russia's mobilization drive devolves into chaos

Report: Black Americans more likely to be wrongfully convicted

Axios Finish Line: Spreading kindness

Mark Meadows' inbox