[email protected] .Smart Brevity™ count: 1,218 words …4½ minutes.Edited by TuAnh Dam.💰 1 big thing: Big money vs.
Trump Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
A pair of libertarian-minded Republican groups — Americans For Prosperity and the Club for Growth — are planning to pour millions into the presidential campaign to stop former President Trump from winning the GOP nomination, Axios’ Josh Kraushaar reports.
Why it matters: The battle for the Republican Party’s future is a clash between the interests of its big donors and grassroots voters.
The donors are overwhelmingly looking for a Trump alternative in 2024, but Trump still maintains a strong hold on much of the populist base he empowered in 2016.Driving the news: Americans For Prosperity, the conservative political network founded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has said it will back a specific Republican candidate by the end of the summer.
The anti-tax Club for Growth, which has close ties to several potential presidential candidates, is less likely to coalesce behind one candidate.The club has invited six prospective GOP candidates — Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov.Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen.
Tim Scott, Virginia Gov.Glenn Youngkin and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — to its donor summit in Florida next month.
Trump isn’t invited.Reality check: Message often matters more than money in today’s politics.Trump lagged behind many of his 2016 primary competitors in campaign cash, but won the nomination because his message resonated with primary voters.
Republicans outspent Democrats $4.2 billion to $4 billion in the 2022 election cycle, but failed to win back a Senate majority and underperformed expectations in the House.Go deeper .
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🛍️ Charted: Brick and mortar boom Data: Coresight .Chart: Axios Visuals Physical store openings exceeded closings on an annual basis last year for the first time since 2016, per Coresight Research.
Retailers are on pace to open even more stores this year than last, at a rate of 3 to 1, Axios Pro retail deals reporter Richard Collings writes.The big picture: Online shopping helped stores navigate the pandemic — but retailers and shoppers have both realized the limitations of doing business entirely online.
As the world opened back up, shoppers returned to stores in hordes.A big driver of store openings: shoppers seeking bargains, especially at dollar stores with a limited or nonexistent online presence, Coresight managing director Marie Driscoll tells Axios.
The top six retailers opening stores in 2022 were dollar chains and discounters, including Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Five Below, TJX Cos.
and Aldi, in that order.
3.🍺 Betting, beer, big names Data: Ad Age , Axios research.Chart: Simran Parwani/Axios This year’s Super Bowl will be packed with ads touting America’s favorite vices — booze, betting and bingeing.
The big picture: Following a year of economic chaos and post-pandemic recovery, advertisers are leaning into lighter spots featuring A-list talent to win attention during Sunday’s Super Bowl on Fox, Axios’ Sara Fischer writes.Why it matters: Super Bowl ads “definitely focus on the mood of the country,” Tim Curtis, a senior partner in WME’s celebrity endorsement division, told Axios.
PopCorners brings back “Breaking Bad,” which first aired in 2008, with this Super Bowl ad starring Aaron Paul, Bryan Cranston and Raymond Cruz.Photo: Frito-Lay via AP What’s coming …
Steve Martin, Ben Stiller, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Elton John, Missy Elliot and Jack Harlow appear in ads for Pepsi Zero Sugar , PopCorners and Doritos .
Anheuser-Busch InBev will run four star-studded ads across four of its most popular brands, including Bud Light and Michelob Ultra.Netflix and GM are teaming up on an ad starring comedian Will Ferrell that promotes Netflix’s commitment to putting more electric vehicles in shows.FanDuel will debut its first-ever Super Bowl ad featuring four-time Super Bowl Champion Rob Gronkowski attempting to kick a field goal during a live commercial — with viewers able to bet.Go deeper .
4.U.S.
blacklists Chinese companies over balloon Pentagon Press Secretary Brig.Gen.Pat Ryder at a briefing.Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images The U.S.blacklisted six Chinese companies it said were linked to Beijing’s aerospace programs as part of its retaliation over an alleged Chinese spy balloon that traversed U.S.airspace, AP reports .
The economic restrictions will make it more difficult for the five companies and one research institute to obtain American tech.
The big picture: The move is likely to further escalate tensions between the U.S.and China sparked by the balloon, which was shot down last weekend off the Carolina coast.
The latest: The U.S.government is attempting to recover a second shot-down object to learn more about it, Axios’ Jacob Knutson writes .
A military fighter jet took down an unknown, unmanned “high-altitude” object off Alaska’s northern coast on President Biden’s orders yesterday.The U.S.
does not know whether the object was owned by a state, corporate, or private entity or whether it was being used for surveillance.5.🇹🇷🇸🇾 Survivors found 5 days after quake Photo: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters More than 24,000 are dead across southern Turkey and northwest Syria in Turkey’s worst quake in 84 years
Above: An aerial view yesterday of a camp for earthquake victims in Kahramanmaras, Turkey.The growing death toll raised questions about Turkey’s earthquake planning and response.President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that authorities should have reacted faster, Reuters reports.
Photo: Hussein Malla/AP This is a drone’s-eye view of rescue teams continuing to search yesterday in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, as cranes remove debris.
Rescuers in Turkey pulled five members of a family alive from rubble, five days — 129 hours! — after Monday’s quake, which was the country’s most devastating since 1939.Get the latest …More photos .
6.Lawsuit seeks arrest in Emmett Till kidnapping An exhibit about Emmett Till will be on display in D.C.’s Martin Luther King Jr.Memorial Library until March 12.
Photo: Chelsea Cirruzzo/Axios A relative of Emmett Till is suing to try to make a Mississippi sheriff serve a 1955 arrest warrant on a white woman for the kidnapping that led to the Black teenager’s brutal lynching, AP reports from Jackson, Miss.
Why it matters: The torture and killing of Till in the Mississippi Delta became a catalyst for the civil rights movement.Last June, a team doing research at the courthouse in Leflore County, Miss., found an unserved kidnapping warrant for Carolyn Bryant, listed on the document as “Mrs.Roy Bryant.”
Till’s cousin — Patricia Sterling of Jackson — filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the current Leflore County sheriff, Ricky Banks.The suit seeks to compel Banks to serve the warrant on Carolyn Bryant, who has remarried and is named Carolyn Bryant Donham.
The backstory: Evidence indicates a woman, possibly Donham, identified Till to the men who later killed him.
The warrant against Donham was publicized in 1955.But the Leflore County sheriff at the time told reporters that he did not want to “bother” the woman since she was raising two young children.
Now in her late 80s, Donham has lived in North Carolina and Kentucky in recent years.She hasn’t commented on calls for her prosecution.
Go deeper : D.C.library exhibit explores Emmett Till’s life and murder.7.
🍲 Most popular recipe A slow-cooked red wine beef stew.Photo: Amy Brothers/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Thousands of recipes fill The New York Times Cooking database — 700 new ones were published just last year.
But the most popular recipe isn’t the trending Coconut Chicken Curry, Green Shakshuka with Avocado and Lime, or Kung Pao Cauliflower.It’s Old Fashioned Beef Stew , a 1994 classic.”The recipe, with more than 19,000 reviews and an average rating of 5 stars, has been viewed over 24 million times since 2019, with 6.7 million of those visits occurring in 2022 alone,” Nieman Lab notes .
That’s an average of 18,000 hits per day.8.🏀 Parting shot: New 3-point record Photo: Brian Babineau/NBA via Getty Images Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics shoots against the Charlotte Hornets yesterday.
During the game, Tatum sank his 1,000th career 3-pointer, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to reach the milestone, at 24 years and 344 days old, NBC reports ..
