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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held a high-level video call with China's vice premier to prepare for the September visit of its president, Xi Jinping, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The call sets the stage for President Trump and Xi to sign future trade deals between the U.S. and China. But there are tensions. Zoom in: The cordial video conference call between Bessent, Grier and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng lasted more than an hour. "I emphasi

President Trump announced Thursday that his Board of Peace had reached an agreement with Hamas to disarm and transfer civilian and security control of Gaza to a new Palestinian technocratic government. Why it matters: If implemented, the agreement would represent a dramatic breakthrough in Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan and clear the way for reconstruction of the devastated enclave. But the deal requires Hamas and Israel to complete a complicated series of reciprocal and independently verified

A super PAC that has invested millions to unseat Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) is putting another $700,000 behind his GOP primary challenger in the final week of the campaign, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Ogles was already facing one his most perilous reelection battle to date, with Democrats making him one of their top targets in November. But first he has to get the nomination, which is not a done deal. Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, the clean-energy aligned super PAC working to primary Ogles

The Senate health committee approved the nomination of Erica Schwartz for Centers for Disease Control director Thursday, a step toward refilling the depleted ranks of the Trump administration's health care leadership. The committee also approved the nomination of Sean Kaufman , who's in line for assistant secretary for preparedness and response and had been in trouble because of past anti-vaccine statements . Why it matters: The votes showed Republicans, at least, are still willing to accept the

Apple hinted Thursday that heavy users of its revamped Siri may have to pay for access. Why it matters: It's the first time that Apple has confirmed it will charge for the new AI -powered voice assistant. What they're saying: In a conference call to discuss Apple's most recent quarterly earnings , CEO Tim Cook said Apple is still developing its plan to address the higher computing costs that will come with the improved voice assistant. "We do believe there will be people that want to use it a lo

President Trump said Thursday that he would have "no objection" to temporarily withdrawing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination until his Republican opponents are out of office next January. The big picture: Trump's threat, directed at GOP Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and John Cornyn (Texas), puts Blanche's critics on notice as to what the president deemed "the right thing" after their concerns stalled the acting attorney general's nomination. Cornyn lost his primary earlier this year t

Data: Brunswick Group and Echelon Insights; Chart: Sara Wise/Axios CEOs face an increasingly skeptical American public that's laser-focused on affordability and fairness, according to polling from the Brunswick Group and Echelon Insights provided first to Axios. Why it matters: With the midterms less than 100 days away, the results show corporate leaders need to build trust through consistency and neutrality — rather than trying to chase political headwinds. By the numbers: 41% of Americans surv

Democratic socialists look like they're about to rack up a stunning new victory: Their candidate in Michigan's Senate Democratic primary has the momentum heading into Tuesday's primary. Why it matters: A win by Abdul El-Sayed in the swing state would turbocharge the party's left flank and validate establishment fears about the party's direction. The big picture: Establishment Democrats have watched in horror as democratic socialist candidates pull off one win after another in House primaries thi

The Department of Health and Human Services keeps saying it's turning over a new leaf , but it has only been partially successful — and controversial vaccine policymaking appears to be back on the table. Why it matters: Though the agency reset was launched with the midterm elections in mind, it's already under strain and the elections are still more than three months away. State of play: Until this week, the administration had spent most of this year toning down its approach to vaccines, after i

A series of dangerous heat waves this summer — including one that has left 17 states under an emergency federal order — are putting the electric grid under an intense real-world stress test. Why it matters: Successive summer heat waves are forcing utilities to rethink how they prepare the grid for longer and more frequent periods of extreme stress. They're raising questions about whether the electric grid can keep pace with surging demand from both climate change and the AI-driven electricity bo

Data : Charles F. Kettering Foundation and Gallup. Chart: Noah Bressner/Axios Americans fear November's midterms could be stolen or otherwise compromised, with most worried about political pressure to change results or officials mishandling ballots, new Gallup polling finds. Why it matters: President Trump has cast the American election system as under siege and vulnerable with unfounded claims about his 2020 loss. Meanwhile, his critics warn his push to reshape the ways Americans vote are under

President Trump has three go-to moves for GOP senators who frustrate him : persuade them when he can, ignore them when he must and bully them at will. Why it matters: The approach doesn't always produce results. But it almost always provides drama . Persuade: Trump dispatched two top deputies to the Senate GOP lunch on Wednesday to make the case, in person, for a third reconciliation bill with elements of the SAVE Act . Then he sent in the big guns. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles huddled with the Se

The Trump administration has a new tactic for trying to isolate cases of alleged voter fraud — digging into the IP addresses of those who went online to register to vote. The FBI recently obtained the IP address of someone who registered online in South Carolina, according to documents first shared with Axios. Why it matters: The bureau's request for the address, which state and local officials complied with, offers a glimpse of how federal authorities are stepping up their probe of voter rolls

The way your work shows up in a digital-dominated world is changing lightning fast, starting with the total collapse of Google Search traffic. Why it matters: Google has basically stopped sending people to websites (including our site) for answers and information. Instead, it's using AI to answer them on its platform, in its words. Chartbeat data shared with Axios shows Google Search traffic to publishers fell 34% over the past year. That pain is regressive. Over the past two years, small publis

Some of Anthropic's most powerful models — including Mythos 5 and an internal research model — gained unauthorized access to real-world systems during pre-deployment cybersecurity testing, the company said Thursday. Why it matters: OpenAI's and Anthropic's latest disclosures show frontier AI models reaching real-world systems during safety testing, raising new questions about how labs secure their evaluation environments. The big picture: Anthropic said a misunderstanding between the company and

Vice President Vance and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a "direct" conversation about their differences in a one-on-one meeting in Washington on Tuesday evening, Israeli and U.S. officials said. Why it matters: Vance has been the most Netanyahu-skeptical voice in Trump's inner circle since the beginning of the war. As the war dragged on, he became increasingly critical of the Israeli prime minister. Vance took on a larger role in war policy and Iran negotiations as the conflict p

Europe and the United Kingdom are fine-tuning their approach to AI model testing as a deadline looms for the U.S. government to set rules of the road. Why it matters: U.S. allies for years have been grappling with the same AI safety questions the Trump administration now faces. Wherever the U.S. lands in its AI framework, architects of the EU and U.K. approaches say it would be just the start. The big picture: President Trump began his second term by scrapping his predecessor's AI strategy and p

Situational Awareness, an AI -focused hedge fund founded by a former OpenAI researcher, has sold all of its public equities portfolio to Ken Griffin's Citadel, a source tells Axios. Why it matters: This comes amidst a recent sell-off in AI stocks, particularly chipmakers. News of a sale was first reported by the WSJ . Catch up quick: Former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner founded Situational Awareness after being fired from OpenAI in 2024, over an alleged information leak that he dispute

Data: China's General Administration of Customs; Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios The Iran war has revealed China's enormous power over global oil prices, thanks to its position as the world's largest buyer. Why it matters: China's reaction to the oil shock — by substantially withdrawing from buying on world markets — helped prevent the worst of the price spikes that experts thought would follow from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Catch up quick: After the U.S. and Israel launched the

America's AI architects are converging on a chilling consensus: The pace of progress may soon demand a slowdown, but no single lab can afford to pull the brake alone. Why it matters: Momentum for an AI pause or pacing mechanism has reached a historic tipping point, ignited by a summer of extraordinary yet unsettling leaps in capabilities. More than 1,200 employees at leading AI companies have signed on to a new petition, " Pacing the Frontier ," urging Washington to back an international framewo

The U.S. military conducted "a heavy wave" of airstrikes in Iran on Wednesday evening, U.S. Central Command said in a statement . Why it matters: These are the first U.S. strikes in Iran since President Trump paused the bombing campaign Friday to give negotiations another chance. Wednesday's strikes came in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack targeting a U.S. base in Jordan on Tuesday. All of the Iranian missiles were intercepted, according to the U.S. military. What they're saying: " CENT

President Trump met Wednesday with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, a U.S. official and another source with knowledge of the meeting told Axios. The meeting was added to the Saudi minister's itinerary after he met with Vice President Vance and told him that Saudi Arabia favors de-escalation with Iran — despite this week's joint U.S.-Saudi strike on pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, a source familiar with the matter said. Why it matters: The source said the purpose of the meetings was

Senate Majority Leader John Thune repeated to White House officials in private what he's been saying in public for weeks: We don't have the votes . Why it matters: President Trump isn't buying it — and he's questioning whether Thune is the man for the job. "Well, we're gonna find out," Trump said Wednesday. "I'll let you know." Asked Wednesday evening about Trump saying the votes were gettable, Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters, "That must be a different form of math." Driving the news: Hours earlie

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is jumping into the midterms with a huge investment in a plan to boost Republican voter turnout, Axios has learned. Driving the news: Musk is resuscitating his dormant super PAC, America PAC, which spent more than $260 million to help get President Trump elected in 2024. America PAC will focus on door-knocking, digital advertising and direct mail aimed at turning out the conservative base, including voters who typically are less inclined to cast ballots in a non-presid

Politicians are increasingly abandoning scripted language and publicly cursing as profanity becomes a more common political tool. Why it matters: The shift suggests politicians are using profanity intentionally to project authenticity, signal confrontation and distance themselves from traditional Washington norms. What they're saying: "There's this dissatisfaction and anti-establishment fervor that's been present for probably at least a decade now," Nick Beauchamp, a professor at Northeastern Un

The Federal Reserve left its interest rate target unchanged Wednesday amid significant internal dissent from officials who preferred to raise rates. The big picture: The central bank elected not to surprise markets with an interest rate hike, contrary to rampant speculation on Wall Street in recent days. But three members of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee did favor raising the cost of borrowing. Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack, Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari, and

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday declaring that Ghislaine Maxwell , the convicted sex trafficker who aided Jeffrey Epstein 's abuse of underage girls, should never receive a presidential pardon. Why it matters: Democrats wanted to put every Republican senator on record as opposed to a potential pardon. By failing to object to Sen. Jacky Rosen's resolution, Republicans agreed that the president "should not grant a pardon, commutation, or any other form of executive clemency to

OpenAI is launching a new program Wednesday that will provide 100,000 academic researchers with free access to its advanced AI models through 2027, the company told Axios ahead of the announcement. Why it matters: The program could help scientists, mathematicians and engineers pursue the kind of breakthroughs that OpenAI and other AI companies say the technology could enable. Driving the news: Those selected will have access to OpenAI's most advanced models — including GPT-5.6 Sol Pro — and can

White House officials will press Senate Republicans behind closed doors Wednesday to pass a blueprint for another GOP-only megabill before they leave for the August recess, but save any possible debt ceiling increase for later, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Senate Republican leaders have been skeptical that there is the time — or the votes — to get it done. President Trump and his team disagree. White House officials want the Senate to build in flexibility to jam through as much of the SAVE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed skepticism during his meeting with President Trump about the chance of a deal with Iran and discussed increasing economic pressure on Iran "through kinetic and non-kinetic means," a senior Israeli official said in a briefing with reporters. Why it matters: Tuesday's meeting was the first between Netanyahu and Trump since the start of the war on Feb. 28. It came as Trump is still trying to reach a deal with Iran but also considering a return to

Central bankers, as a rule, try to maintain stable prices, a strong job market and a sound financial system. The AI boom is a complexifier on all three fronts. The big picture: AI is blurring the usual indicators that central bankers rely upon to set policy, a new paper from a leading international body finds, simultaneously affecting the supply and demand sides of the economy and driving both structural and cyclical change. The upshot, per the Bank for International Settlements — the Basel, Swi

Anthony Fauci, who led the nation's infectious disease efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic , invoked the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday and declined to answer questions from a Senate committee investigating the origins of the coronavirus. Homeland Security Chair Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the committee will vote on a contempt resolution against Fauci next week. Why it matters: Fauci said Paul was trying to get him to say something that could put him in legal jeopardy. Paul said his use of the Fi

The Supreme Court's approval rating — long the highest among the three branches of government — has sunk to a record low, joining President Trump and Congress in drawing low public support. Why it matters: Americans aren't just unhappy with individual leaders. They're increasingly convinced the country's biggest institutions aren't working for them. By the numbers: 33% of Americans approve of the Supreme Court's performance, according to a Gallup survey of 1,200 adults conducted from July 1-19 —

The nation's largest known cyclospora outbreak is straining Americans' trust in the food safety system — and could undermine the healthy-foods messaging from the Trump administration. Why it matters: It arrives as the administration urges Americans to eat more whole foods, even as health experts say recent cuts have weakened the public health infrastructure responsible for detecting outbreaks. The big picture: More than 11,000 confirmed or suspected cases of infection have been linked to the par

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has one of the toughest jobs in Washington. It could get even harder next year. Why it matters: Thune is one of the few Republicans in Washington who's managed to say "no" to President Trump and still keep his job. But the Senate leader could enter the next Congress with diminished power, leading a conference whose loyalty increasingly lies with Trump. Republican control of Congress could be weakened , if not lost. The Senate's MAGA flank is poised to grow. And

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios in an interview Tuesday that he asked President Trump for an emergency "winter package" of Patriot air defense interceptors to help thwart Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Why it matters: Ukraine's stockpiles of the interceptors have been almost depleted, and without them the country can't defend itself against ballistic missiles. It was the reason Ukraine couldn't stop recent Russian attacks on Kyiv. If this problem isn't solv

Anthropic spent this winter and spring as the darling of America's AI boom, conquering the frontier while casting itself as the industry's moral conscience. By summer, the Claude maker had found itself alone on an island of its own principles. Why it matters: Anthropic is simultaneously the world's most valuable startup and its most isolated AI leader. The company's idiosyncrasies have strained its relationship with developers, policymakers and partners as it barrels toward a potential trillion-

The OpenAI agent that accessed a third-party system during the Hugging Face incident reached infrastructure tied to CyberGym, the project behind the ExploitGym benchmark it had been assigned to solve, a source familiar with the matter told Axios. Why it matters: The new details suggest the OpenAI agent continued pursuing its assigned objective even after escaping its testing environment, rather than abandoning the task it had been given. Catch up quick: OpenAI's AI agent system accessed an asset

Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles toward a U.S. military base in Jordan on Tuesday in what U.S. Central Command described as an "attempted surprise attack." All of the missiles were intercepted, CENTCOM said in a statement . Why it matters: This marks Iran's first ballistic missile attack against a U.S. base in the region since President Trump paused strikes against Iran on Friday to give diplomacy another chance. The attack threatens to unravel the fragile pause and could force Trump to

House and Senate Republican leaders are heading to Dallas to embrace the president who has done the most to shape — and complicate — their political fortunes. Why it matters: Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson don't have much of a choice about attending September's midterm convention. President Trump doesn't tolerate high-profile dissent, and both leaders know their best chance of staying in power is by staying united. But for Republicans in tight races, the two-day political ex

In a massive show of bipartisanship, 86 senators voted to move forward with a Russia and Iran sanctions bill championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham . Why it matters: The vote came hours after senators gathered to honor Graham's memory, and immediately following a closed-door meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky . The vote was 86-12. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to vote against it. It is a procedural vote, but leadership hopes that the strong bipartisan suppor

House Republicans are pressuring the Senate to advance their reconciliation package as President Trump pushes for quick action. Why it matters: The roughly $95 billion package is House Republicans' latest effort to enact Trump's priorities without Democratic votes using the reconciliation process. The framework already cleared some early hurdles, but House Republicans are pressing the Senate to move quickly to keep Trump's legislative agenda on track before the midterm elections. The reconciliat

President Trump 's lawyers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the $83.3 million defamation judgment he was ordered to pay to E. Jean Carroll, Axios has learned. The judgment stemmed from Trump's 2019 statements in which he denied Carroll's claim that he'd sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and attacked her credibility, accusing her of making up the allegation. Driving the news: Trump's lawyers argue he's entitled to presidential immunity because he made the comments while he was serv

Legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians in the U.S. have ended after the Supreme Court upheld the termination of their Temporary Protected Status, a ruling that could reshape the program's future. The big picture: The justices limited courts' ability to review Homeland Security's TPS decisions — making challenges harder and leaving hundreds of thousands of people at risk of losing legal status, work authorization and protection from deportation. Established in 1990, T