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Data: International Trade Administration ; Chart: Sara Wise/Axios Even as U.S. policy has walled off Washington, D.C., from friends across the pond, Americans' travel overseas is reaching new heights. Why it matters: Much like the resilient consumer , the American tourist keeps riding the post-COVID travel wave , even as debt delays life milestones and global perceptions of the U.S. slip. Driving the news: More than 56 million U.S. residents traveled overseas last year, according to the Internat

Dorm rooms are tiny. The dorm decor economy is not. The big picture: College dorms are becoming customized, social-media-ready micro-apartments, but the market looks wildly different depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line your campus sits. Zoom out: The multi-thousand-dollar "designer dorm" industry has grown alongside viral TikTok dorm tours and hauls, and parents hoping to make their child's transition to college easier. Shelly Gates, founder of Mary Margaret Designs, an interior desi

Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to stalking charges tied to the 2024 broad daylight killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. Why it matters: Mangione's lawyers are now using Friday's federal plea to request that all but one separate state charge be dismissed. They claimed double jeopardy, a legal protection that prevents a person from being charged twice for the same offense. Driving the news: Mangione's trial over the two federal charges — interstat

Data: Census Bureau ; Chart: Neil Irwin/Axios American consumers have powered the economy forward this year. In July, they took a breather. Why it matters: While the underlying trend in consumer demand appears solid, retail sales hit an air pocket last month, suggesting a bumpier path ahead for overall growth. Combined with a weak jobs report last week and two subdued inflation readings this week, it points to the Federal Reserve having room to be patient on potential interest rate increases thi

President Trump said Friday that he isn't concerned about the state of the USS Abraham Lincoln, despite calls from lawmakers to investigate reports of mental health issues for those onboard. Why it matters: The San Diego-based aircraft carrier has been deployed for nine months, and numerous reports have indicated that crew members' families are concerned about a lack of food and other basic supplies. At least one sailor has gone overboard , prompting the Navy to launch an investigation. The Mili

Whether framed on an office wall, collecting dust in a box or still a distant dream, the college diploma is getting a hard reappraisal. Why it matters: College was once sold as a ticket to the American dream. But students today are taking a tougher look at the college tradeoff: burdensome debt and no guarantee of a dream career — or employment at all, as AI threatens the jobs the degrees were meant to unlock. "People didn't ask whether college mattered 20 years ago," says Courtney Brown, the vic

Data: University of Michigan ; Note: August 2026 number is preliminary; Chart: Neil Irwin/Axios Public opinion about the economy appears to be souring further this month, per the preliminary release of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index. By the numbers: Overall sentiment fell 8% in the early days of August, after two consecutive months of improvement. The index fell to 51, from 55.2 in July. That remains above the recent lows reached in the spring, when gasoline prices were so

A wave of top OpenAI executives — including Sam Altman's top deputy, a longtime chief operating officer and the chief revenue officer — has left in the span of a month as the company retools its leadership ahead of an expected IPO. Why it matters: Co-founder Greg Brockman is getting more involved across every level of the company to build out a leadership team he hopes will catapult OpenAI past Anthropic in enterprise adoption, according to a source familiar with the matter. Zoom in: OpenAI's re

Students — and their parents — are searching for future-proof college majors for an AI -powered world. Why it matters: AI is changing the skills employers expect from entry-level workers, while colleges are rethinking how to prepare students for the transition. The big picture: Rumors of the death of jobs might be greatly exaggerated , but college students and graduates are still worried about what comes next. College instructors and administrators need to spend more time thinking about what stu

Data: U.S. Census, USDA ; Note: Census data and BLS rural designations are released in different years; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals The U.S. is projected to become majority-minority in 2046, but hundreds of rural pockets crossed that demographic benchmark years ago, an Axios analysis finds. Why it matters: The evolving face of rural America, driven both by immigration and increased mobility, has invigorated communities, increased their diversity — and presented new challenges. Rural governme

Willie Nelson has become an unlikely barometer of America's biggest infrastructure fights. He once protested the Keystone XL pipeline and fracking. Today, he's fighting data centers. Why it matters: The American icon's latest cause underscores how the politics surrounding AI infrastructure are beginning to resemble the last decade's fights over fossil fuels. "The last thing we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting, data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter)," Ne

The search for a winning message on AI is pushing candidates and lawmakers into unexpected political territory. Why it matters: With the midterms approaching, AI is creating alliances across party lines while opening fissures within them. Here are three ways AI is scrambling the political map. 1. Centrist Democrats versus progressives on data centers New York made waves as the first state to impose a data center moratorium — a product of Gov. Kathy Hochul joining forces with progressive state Se

Republicans have a new name on their growing list of progressive midterm targets: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan , fresh off a landslide Senate primary win. Why it matters: With President Trump 's approval ratings in the 30s, Republicans are trying to turn the midterms from a referendum on him into a choice between the GOP and a Democratic Party they argue has moved sharply to the left. That means portraying some progressive Democrats who've won statewide primaries as national foils. The stra

White House deputy national security adviser Andy Baker is leaving the administration in the coming weeks. Why it matters: Baker, who also served as national security advisor to Vice President Vance, was among the staffers most central to the administration's foreign policy and national security decision-making over the last 18 months. Baker was also personally involved in negotiations with Iran this year. Cliff Sims, who succeeded Baker as Vance's national security adviser earlier this summer,

When Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump met in the Oval Office two weeks ago, the president asked the Israeli prime minister how he was doing in the polls ahead of an Oct. 27 election. Netanyahu paused. Then one of his advisers piped up: "Mr. President, he is winning," the aide said, according to a U.S. official familiar with the exchange. Why it matters: Netanyahu is not winning. And so far, Trump hasn't given him the endorsement he hopes for, despite being asked about it repeatedly by reporte

Photo: Marc Caputo/Axios Marco Rubio has three official Trump administration jobs and a fourth unofficial title: Viral meme star. He's been featured in countless "Rubio Realizing" images doctored to capture his grim reaction to being "assigned" more jobs, depending on the news of the day or the crisis du jour in the White House. Why it matters: For his 55th birthday on May 28, White House staffers and President Trump gifted Rubio with a gold-framed collage of their 68 favorite "Rubio Realizing"

President Trump's top political hands had some surprising advice for Senate Republicans last week: Talk more about health care. Why it matters: Trump and the MAGA base are fixated on the voter-ID and proof-of-citizenship SAVE Act . But Republican message testing from Trump's own pollster suggests candidates are better off focusing elsewhere. Driving the news: Top Trumpworld campaign officials, including James Blair, pollster Tony Fabrizio and Senate Leadership Fund executive director Alex Latcha

House Democrats went into the vote on the Stop Insider Trading Act last month groaning that it was all a big Republican set-up. Now they're fuming that the trap has been sprung. Why it matters: A well-funded Republican group is blanketing the airwaves lauding GOP lawmakers in key swing districts — including some with reputations for prolific stock trading — as champions on the issue. "Corrupt congressmen treat the House floor like a trading floor. Thankfully, Congressman Rob Bresnahan voted to s

Jared Kushner, President Trump's envoy and son-in-law, is planning to visit Israel next week for talks on the situation in Gaza , according to five sources with knowledge of the plan. Why it matters: This would be Kushner's first trip to Israel since January. It comes as the White House and Trump's Board of Peace are trying to push forward with the next phase of the Gaza plan, which focuses on disarming Hamas and a potential Israeli withdrawal. The Netanyahu government is highly skeptical of the

What's the common thread connecting AI advances, biological breakthroughs, a preponderance of high-risk-high-reward research, escalating geopolitical tensions and a hollowed-out U.S. public health sector? They all heighten the risk that one day a lethal human-made pathogen will emerge, either accidentally or intentionally, and we won't be ready for it. Why it matters: The same advances that make this a pivotal moment for medical innovation are intensifying the risk of catastrophic lab mishaps, t

The Kennedy Center board voted Thursday to again add President Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, two anonymous sources told Axios. Why it matters: The move challenges a federal judge's ruling back in May that only Congress could change the name of the performing arts venue, and that Trump's name must be removed . That process was completed in June. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper concluded that the board had "overstepped its statutory bounds by unilateral

A federal trade court ruled Thursday that President Trump can block cheap imports — including from Chinese retailers like Temu and Shein — from entering the U.S. tariff-free . Why it matters: It's a win for the Trump administration's trade agenda after a major legal setback forced officials to find new legal avenues for imposing sweeping tariffs. The Court of International Trade ruling means that Trump's suspension of the so-called de minimis exemption, which allowed packages worth $800 or less

House Democrats who have comfortably held their seats for decades are suddenly finding the ground shifting beneath their feet as primary voters revolt against the party's old guard. Why it matters: The anti-establishment revolution that has swept Democratic primaries this year is poised to drastically alter the makeup of the party caucus and Congress as a whole. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) became the latest victim of this trend: The 78-year-old lost his primary by more than 20 percentage points t

The East Wing is gone, a new helipad is spreading across the lawn, and scaffolding wraps the White House's front columns, but the price tags for President Trump's renovations are far less obvious. The big picture: The muddled mix of funding streams — whether from private donors, the president himself or taxpayers — has fueled ethical questions about who's footing the ever-rising bill for the HGTV-reminiscent White House redesign. The latest: Senate Democrats urged the Government Accountability O

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman tells me 70% of President Trump's mindshare ("maybe plus or minus 5%") goes to his gilding, construction, renovation, renaming and tribute projects. "He is spending a huge amount of energy, mental and otherwise, on these renovation projects, beautification projects around Washington, and then monuments to self," Haberman told me for Axios' "Behind the Curtain" video series . "[T]here is no precedent in U.S. history of a sitting president devising such endeavor

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have muscled their way back into AI's elite ranks, defying early obituaries to close the gap on a new generation of Silicon Valley startups. Why it matters: Recent gains by tech giants SpaceX and Meta — long stuck in AI's second tier — are putting new pressure on a hierarchy dominated by OpenAI and Anthropic. State of play: Both companies released models this week featuring a combination of performance and price that would have been hard to imagine from either lab a

Pollsters appeared to blow another high-stakes Midwest election Tuesday, as center-left Democrat David Crowley stunned socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin's primary for governor. But on Wednesday, the reasons for the miss seemed clear: Surveys a week before the primary captured only a hint of a rapidly changing roller coaster of a race in which Crowley was gaining fast, and Hong was playing defense. Driving the news: Two polls had shown Hong up by about 20 points over Crowley. But Crowley woun

Data: Generation Lab; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios More than a quarter of younger Americans (27%) believe they or someone they know has lost a job because their employer replaced them with AI, according to a new Axios-Generation Lab poll of 18- to 34-year-olds. Why it matters: Research suggests the actual share of job losses from AI is smaller. But the survey reflects the suspicion, mistrust and fatalism in how Gen Zers and young Millennials see the technology — sentiments driving their views o

Rep. Mike Lawler 's (R-N.Y.) fight to hold on to a key battleground seat is getting a behind-the-scenes assist — for now, at least — from an unlikely group: House Democrats. Why it matters: Kamala Harris carried Lawler's district in 2024, but some Democrats are privately wary of spending the small fortune it would take to oust one of the GOP's most bipartisan — and electorally savvy — members. "If you're going to have a Republican, it's the kind of Republican we want in the Congress," a Democrat

It's August, which means lawmakers are fanning out across the country to campaign for themselves and their colleagues. Why it matters: A friendly senator or House member can help on the stump. But only a handful can juice fundraising , draw a real crowd or make a mark with an endorsement. And Democrats have more of them. Zoom in: Axios asked strategists in both parties which lawmakers have enough star power to move voters, draw crowds or open wallets for candidates far from home. There aren't ma

Karoline Leavitt will be stepping down from her role as White House press secretary at the end of the month, President Trump announced Wednesday in a Truth Social post. The big picture: Leavitt is leaving to spend more time with her family, the president said. A member of Trump's team who followed him from his presidential campaign to the White House, she's been a fiercely loyal face of the White House. Driving the news: Trump said in the surprise post that Leavitt will become one of his top out

The development costs of President Trump's White House ballroom keep rising — as does speculation about what the finished project, including its underground complex, will look like. The big picture: Trump 's ballroom project is more than a simple remodel of the East Wing. It's a complete overhaul featuring what appears to be a military-grade underground bunker, meant to protect and secure the president. The project remains in legal limbo after a federal appeals court ruled in August that Trump's

Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to begin using electric shock gloves designed to cause pain and disrupt a person's ability to react. The big picture: The gloves could give ICE officers a new way to use force as their tactics face intense scrutiny after several deaths and violent encounters . Driving the news: ICE plans to spend between $10 and $20 million on the gloves and issue them to Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations officers and agents, per a Depar

When investment on the scale of the current AI boom occurs, it inevitably has to come at the expense of something. All the resources devoted to building data centers and developing AI models would otherwise go to something else. The big picture: This crowding out is smaller than you might expect, Goldman Sachs economists find in a new note. But it does exist, they say, and takes the form of displacing other tech investment and construction , as well as raising corporate borrowing costs. By the n

The state of the global diesel market is getting even more precarious as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Iran crisis squeeze supply from multiple angles. Why it matters: Diesel prices ripple through economies here and abroad, affecting shipping costs, construction and plenty in between. The average U.S. price is up 44 cents over the last month to $5.32 per gallon, compared to $3.71 a year ago, per AAA. However, during the Iran crisis, it hasn't hit the all-time high of $5.82 per gallon that AAA r

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly defeated socialist Francesca Hong by about 3,000 votes, dealing a blow to the progressive left's momentum Tuesday in Wisconsin's Democratic primary for governor, after his own polling indicated he was behind by nearly 20 points. Why it matters: Crowley's win could breathe new life into a center-left that had been losing primary after primary in recent months, from last week's Senate contest in Michigan to House races across the country . Yes, but

Artificial intelligence isn't just speeding up early-stage drug development, it's starting to unlock millions of dollars' worth of new efficiencies in clinical trials on cancer treatments, research shared first with Axios shows. Why it matters: AI-powered tools could shave months off time-consuming processes like recruiting and enrolling patients, monitoring results and interpreting data. That could free up resources for more clinical studies and possibly lower the high failure rate for new drug

Anthropic's new models will add machine-readable "watermarks" to Claude-generated text and files to comply with new European Union transparency regulations. Why it matters: Comms teams using Claude to simply clean up, translate, or format human-drafted press releases could stamp those documents with an AI signature. How it works: For models launched in the EU after Aug. 2, Anthropic is marking content in two ways, "wherever Claude is offered, worldwide." Text watermarks: Claude embeds patterns i