Good morning. Without dinner parties, opportunities to show off your intellect are few these days. 

But remember, you can always share interesting factoids from the Brew to remind your friends just how erudite you are. Here’s how:

• Click the gray icons at the bottom of each article to share it on your social media platform of choice. 
• Or, screenshot something that made you gasp and slap it on your Stories (or Fleets?).

AVIATION

737 Max Cleared for Takeoff

Twenty months after it was initially grounded, Boeing’s 737 Max has been cleared to fly by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In a video message, the agency’s administrator Steve Dickson said he’d be “100 percent comfortable with my family flying on it.” 

The backstory: The Max had been involved in two fatal crashes—one in Ethiopia and one in Indonesia—that killed 346 people in total. In March 2019, aviation regulators around the world said the jet couldn’t fly again until Boeing and the FAA figured out what went wrong...and fixed it.

This story was one of the most dramatic we’ve followed in the past several years. And it features many superlatives: 

• Longest grounding of a jet in U.S. history 
• By far the worst crisis in Boeing’s 100+ year history
• Considering the 737 Max was the bestselling plane from the U.S.’ preeminent industrial company, some consider it to be the country’s most important manufacturing product. 

The cost has been huge

Boeing estimates the crisis and its aftermath have cost $20 billion. CEO Dennis Muilenburg was replaced. And despite a steady climb back from pandemic lows, Boeing’s share price sits at less than half of the company’s all-time high on March 1, 2019. 

• And there’s no calculating the human cost. Some families of the victims have argued the 737 Max should never fly again.

Big picture: Boeing and its regulator, the FAA, won’t be Googling themselves for a long time. A deep-dive report from a congressional subcommittee blamed the crashes on a “horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions” by Boeing engineers as well as “grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA.”

What next? Despite a series of software fixes and the lifting of the grounding order, the 737 Max won’t fly immediately—the first flight on its schedule is an American Airlines route from Miami to NYC on Dec. 29. 

Even then, the company faces a jittery public because of both the plane’s history and the ongoing pandemic. In an unofficial poll on Morning Brew’s Twitter account, 54% of respondents said they wouldn’t fly on a 737 Max.

COVID

Here We Go Again

As the coronavirus sweeps across the country, states and cities are re-implementing restrictions on businesses and social life to curb infection numbers. Here’s a quick roundup:

• New York City, home to the country’s largest public school district, ordered schools to close for in-person learning as of this morning, citing a 3% positive test threshold.
• Ohio announced a three-week curfew from 10pm to 5am starting today.
• New Mexicans have been told to shelter in place for two weeks because of what Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called a “life-or-death situation.”
• California reimposed tight restrictions on 94% of its population.
• Washington, Michigan, and other states have halted indoor dining. So have cities like Philadelphia.
• Iowa was among some Republican-led states that did a 180 on mask mandates.
• New Orleans said it wouldn’t host parades next Mardi Gras season for the first time in 42 years. 

Looking ahead...with Thanksgiving approaching, the No. 1 topic of conversation in our group chats is, “Should I go home for the holiday?” Here’s some advice from experts.

TECH

Google, Yesterday

Looks like Google overheard one too many college students say, “Jerry put down his card, everyone just Venmo him” after a big night out. The tech giant rolled out a revamped Google Pay app yesterday highlighted by a new peer-to-peer payments system. 

It’s got a bunch of cool features

An “Explore” tab highlights deals and discounts nearby, while users can connect their bank accounts to the “Insights” section to get a high-level look at their finances.

• Not all of these features are actually new, but yesterday marks the first time Google has folded them into a single app.

Is it just a data grab in an app’s clothing? Google says no. “When you pay friends, it stays private just between you," according to a company statement. That means no data will be shared with its ad division unless you explicitly allow it.

Bottom line: Google’s app will shine if you opt into its advanced features like allowing it to scan your Gmail inbox or Google Photos account to look for receipts. But if users don’t opt in, it will be tough for Google Pay to stand out in a crowded space that already includes Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, PayPal, Venmo, Square Cash, Shop, and others. 

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BIG TECH

Apple Cuts Its Cut

Yesterday, Apple said that starting Jan. 1, it will lower the bite it takes out of App Store sales from 30% to 15%—but only for small developers. 

• Who counts as small: Those that generate $1 million or less in annual revenue (after Apple takes its 15% chunk). 

Zoom out: Small is also a good way to describe the difference the move will make in Apple’s ongoing battle with software companies such as Epic Games, Spotify, and Tinder owner Match Group...none of which fit in the “small” category. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney dismissed the announcement.

• Those bigger players are also the ones that drive the most revenue in the App Store, a major growth engine for Apple’s services division. 

Bottom line: The App Store is essential to Apple’s long-term strategy, but it’s also been the center of antitrust allegations in both the U.S. and the EU. 

+ In other news out of virtual Cupertino...Apple agreed to pay $113 million to settle an investigation into its past practice of slowing down old iPhones to shore up their batteries. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

The Youths Are Obsessed With a New App

French startup Yubo raised an additional $47.5 million yesterday to fuel its bid to reimagine social media. 

It’s doing a lot more than just copying Snap stories. The app consists of a variety of “rooms” users can enter to videochat with friends or strangers. Rooms are filtered by location or topic of conversation and are meant to facilitate the type of spontaneous interactions that bubble up at an IRL party. In between chats, users can swipe left or right to add friends, similar to Tinder. 

How it makes money: Yubo is completely ad-free. It relies on a “freemium” model that encourages users to buy premium features like boosting your profile on the Swipe page. CEO Sacha Lazimi thinks it’s the future of social media monetization. “If you focus on ads, you’re competing with Facebook, TikTok, and Snap,” he told TechCrunch. 

Bottom line: Like Bryson Dechambeau’s golf swing, the unique approach is (mostly) working. Hours spent in live rooms is up 400% from last year, while Yubo’s total users recently topped 40 million. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said of a stimulus stalemate, “This is childish behavior on the part of our politicians.” 
• Wonder Woman 1984 will be released simultaneously on both HBO Max and in U.S. theaters on Christmas Day.
• Pfizer said its Covid-19 vaccine had a 95% success rate. It will be seeking FDA emergency use authorization within days.
• Target trounced fiscal Q3 earnings, cementing itself as one of the big retail winners during the pandemic.
• Anthony Edwards was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves as the top overall pick in the NBA Draft. 
• More than 49,000 fans attended a rugby match in Australia, likely the most-attended sporting event since the pandemic began.

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BREW'S BETS

Life in a bubble: Tour the most beautiful outdoor dining experiences that have popped up across the U.S. this year. 

Work playlists: Listen to field recordings (it’s exactly what it says) or reminisce about crowded lunch spots with Coffivity. For a laugh, try these soundscape parodies or KFC’s sizzling site.

House tours: Would you rather live in Dakota Johnson’s or J Balvin’s house?

FROM THE CREW

Brew’s Bookshelf

If you’re feeling intimidated by all 768 pages of Barack Obama’s new book, A Promised Land, try checking out some other great memoirs instead.

• Sounds Like Titanic is Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman’s story of touring the world as a fake concert violinist. Beneath her too-crazy-to-believe tale is insightful commentary on gender, the economy, and our love of what is fake. 
• Eat a Peach shows how David Chang, the culinary icon behind Momofuku, carved a rollercoaster path through the restaurant industry. 
• Daring: My Passages is the late Gail Sheehy’s recounting of an extraordinary life as a journalist covering major cultural shifts and some of the biggest leaders of the 20th century. 

Find more memoirs and other book recommendations on our Brew’s Bookshelf homepage. 

GAMES

Three Headlines and a Lie

How good are you at separating fact from fiction? Three of these headlines are real while one is made up. Can you spot the fake? 

1. "French radio accidentally announces death of 100 of world’s most famous people"
2. "Man tries to sue Peloton for failing to disclose that its exercise bikes are not roadworthy"
3. "Dolly Parton partly funded Moderna Covid vaccine research"
4. "Turkmenistan's authoritarian leader unveils huge golden dog statue in the capital"

ANSWER

We made up the Peloton one.