Axios News

Persistent pump pain and pricey burgers mean this summer's last hurrah comes with a cost crunch.The big picture: Gasoline prices are almost certain to remain north of $4 per gallon over Labor Day weekend — a heavy travel stretch and the time when midterm election season intensifies.Driving the news: Labor Day gas prices are slated to be the highest on record, surpassing the previous one set in 2012, per market tracking firm GasBuddy and AAA.That's coming off a record-setting August, where the mo

The Trump administration is working on a post-war strategy focused on a regional effort to contain Iran and expand normalization of relations between Israel and its neighbors, according to two U.S. officials and two other sources with knowledge of the issue. Why it matters: While the plan is still in the early stages of drafting, it's intended to guide the U.S. approach in the Middle East after the Iran war ends and in the final two years of Trump's term. Two other big events loom over the plann

After winning an upset primary victory over a field of better-funded, establishment-backed rivals, Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-N.J.) is launching a super PAC to help other progressive underdogs do the same, Axios has learned.Why it matters: Mejia is adding to a growing constellation of new progressive super PACs trying to compete with cash-rich groups like AIPAC that back more moderate Democrats in primaries.It is all part of a strategy that has helped the left pull off a series of high-profile prima

The labor market looks considerably healthier than it did at the start of the summer.Why it matters: Friday morning's jobs report recast the last two months as a period of modest job growth rather than of outright deterioration, capped by a gain last month that was more than triple what economists expected.The labor market is weathering the Iran conflict and an AI-driven transformation of the economy with surprisingly little damage, at least for now. For the Federal Reserve, the report puts infl

President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel this weekend to Moscow and Kyiv for talks on ending the war, U.S. officials said. Why it matters: This will be the first visit by Witkoff and Kushner to Kyiv since President Trump returned to office. State of play: Witkoff and Kushner will travel on Friday, hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday and then meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday. The visit by Trump's

The White House is at odds with some private sector analysts over how much oil is leaving the Strait of Hormuz — but it will take weeks until the picture of what's truly getting through becomes clear.Why it matters: How much oil exits the waterway sways the price of gasoline and other consumer products.The White House is claiming success in forcing open the world's most important energy chokepoint, which handled 20 million barrels of crude and oil products each day before the Iran war.The verdic

AI models may be getting safer while also getting harder to monitor. Which side of that seesaw prevails could determine whether AI is scaled safely or ruins civilization as we know it.Why it matters: Right now both options are running full steam and no one knows who's in charge of making sure the right one wins. State of play: OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-6 Astra, which president Greg Brockman said could eventually be seen as the start of artificial general intelligence, or AGI.Astra performs

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The Trump administration used this week's G20 innovation summit to draw a bright line between U.S. and European approaches to AI regulation. The bloc's top tech official says the U.S. is ending up with many of the same guardrails anyway.Why it matters: The U.S. is urging countries to avoid Europe's sweeping approach to AI regulation, but the fight is shifting to which guardrails advanced AI needs and how governments put them in place.What they're saying: European Commission t

The average price of diesel topped its 2022 record high on Friday, spiking to $5.85 per gallon, per AAA.Why it matters: Farmers, truckers and freight companies have been absorbing higher diesel costs since the Iran war began. The ballooning price threatens to further raise shipping costs while compounding a growing political problem for President Trump. It can also indirectly affect households by putting inflationary pressure on anything Americans buy that's carried by truck, which includes a ma

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is conducting an internal review of a civilian casualty incident at a wedding during the strikes in Iran last Tuesday, U.S. officials say. Why it matters: While it still hasn't been confirmed that the incident was caused by the U.S. strike, it is one of the more significant civilian casualty incidents since the war began six months ago. The most significant civilian casualty incident happened on the first day of the war when a U.S. strike hit a school, killing 150

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) said Thursday he was informed by the Department of Justice that his phone calls with a Virginia state legislator in the spring were wiretapped.Why it matters: The Democratic congressman is casting the tap as part of a pattern of the DOJ targeting President Trump's political enemies, calling the incident "deeply concerning.""They have politically investigated multiple states' Attorneys General and the former FBI director. Now they admit they have surveilled conversa

OpenAI is launching a new initiaitve designed to provide subsidized access to its models to water systems, electricity providers, local governments and other critical services. Why it matters: Critical infrastructure organizations — which have long lacked the budget, manpower and time needed to shore up their cyber defenses — have been struggling to prepare for the anticipated wave of AI-enabled cyberattacks. Driving the news: OpenAI president Greg Brockman announced the new program while hosti

OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-6 Astra, which president Greg Brockman called a "generational leap" and said could eventually be seen as the arrival of artificial general intelligence, or AGI.Why it matters: Astra pushes AI agents closer to doing complex professional work on their own — while also raising questions about how safely they can be deployed.Driving the news: Brockman says he personally believes OpenAI has reached AGI, while leaving users to decide whether Astra meets that definition.

For only the second time in a quarter century, a majority of Republicans — 52% — approve of labor unions, according to a new Gallup poll.Why it matters: Despite Americans' rising approval, union membership remains near a modern low. Congress has repeatedly blocked labor's biggest priorities, and House Republicans are now investigating unions, even as their own voters approve of them.Republicans' warmer feelings toward unions don't translate into wanting them to wield more power: 49% of Republica

The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Adm. Brad Cooper, recommended stopping the bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz because it has reached the limit of its effectiveness, according to two sources with knowledge of his position. Why it matters: The recommendation by Cooper, the commander of the U.S. Military Central Command (CENTCOM), together with other advisers impacted President Trump's decision on Friday to pause U.S. strikes against Iran, the sources said. It was an a

President Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Tuesday, a White House official confirmed to Axios.The big picture: The visit gives Zelensky a chance to shore up support in Washington after the death of one of Ukraine's congressional champions.It also comes as Russia intensifies its missile campaign.Trump and Zelensky last met earlier this month at the NATO summit in Turkey, where they discussed strengthening Ukraine's air defenses and diplomatic efforts to

Data: The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Map: Erin Davis/Axios VisualsThe midterm elections are 100 days out. Political reporter Hans Nichols, lead author of the Hill Leaders newsletter, shares his intel on the state of the races:The big picture: The House environment favors the Dems. The terrain favors Republicans. The same is broadly true on the Senate side — except the structural advantages are even greater for Republicans.THE HOUSE — currently 218 Rs, 212 Ds, 1 independent, and 4 vac

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman heads to Washington this week to preview the company's most powerful AI yet, pushing for speedy approval of a model that just hacked a real company.Why it matters: He'll tout a model powerful enough to solve an 80-year-old math problem, breach another company's system unprompted and begin to make complex work more cost-efficient for U.S. business.What Sam will show:It does original science. An internal model solved the 80-year-old Erdős unit distance problem, the first prom

With Congress on the sidelines, union contracts are among the strongest guardrails American workers have against artificial intelligence.Why it matters: Nearly 90% of the U.S. workforce lacks union representation, leaving about 130 million workers without that leverage as companies use AI to rewrite job descriptions and cut jobs.What they're saying: The only meaningful guardrails around workplace AI are happening "at the bargaining table, where workers are showing up and demanding protections,"

The Trump administration has made exporting American AI a key part of its plans for global AI dominance, but ad hoc policy decisions around the most advanced AI are threatening that effort.Why it matters: A flagship U.S. program designed to boost AI exports could be undermined by the very administration that created it."The government's willingness to arbitrarily and abruptly remove America's best models from all foreign use shows that the strategy behind the AI Export Program is no longer relev