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Trump set to appear at Pennsylvania GOP hearing on voter fraud claims
2 hours ago - Politics & PolicyFrance to end second lockdown after three weeks
8 hours ago - HealthRemote work shakes up geopolitics
9 hours ago - World$10,000 to telework from Tulsa
9 hours ago - Economy & BusinessSurvey: Underrepresented employees face greater work challenges during pandemic
9 hours ago - Economy & BusinessUPS and Ford prepare for vaccine distribution with ultra-cold freezers
10 hours ago - Economy & BusinessVenus' phosphine puzzle
10 hours ago - ScienceChinese mission launches to the Moon
10 hours ago - ScienceToday’s top stories
Scoop: Trump tells confidants he plans to pardon Michael Flynn
Photo: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
President Trump has told confidants he plans to pardon his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios.
Behind the scenes: Sources with direct knowledge of the discussions said Flynn will be part of a series of pardons that Trump issues between now and when he leaves office.
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Trump set to appear at Pennsylvania GOP hearing on voter fraud claims
President Trumpat the White House on Tuesday. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Trump is due to join his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Wednesday at a Republican-led state Senate Majority Policy Committee hearing to discuss alleged election irregularities.
Why it matters: This would be his first trip outside of the DMV since Election Day and comes shortly after GSA ascertained the results, formally signing off on a transition to President-elect Biden.
Remote work shakes up geopolitics
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
The global adoption of remote work may leave the rising powers in the East behind.
The big picture: Despite India's and China's economic might, these countries have far fewer remote jobs than the U.S. or Europe. That's affecting the emerging economies' resilience amid the pandemic.
Trump gives Biden access to presidential intelligence briefings
Photo: Mark Makela/Getty Images
The Trump White House on Tuesday gave President-elect Biden access to daily presidential intelligence briefings, a source familiar with the matter tells Axios.
Why it matters: Trump has refused to share the briefs until now, as he continues to challenge the result of the election and declines to concede. The president's acquiescence comes as another sign that the transition to a Biden administration is taking place.
AOC and Ilhan Omar want to block Biden’s former chief of staff
Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar are boosting a petition against Joe Biden nominating his former chief of staff to a new role in his administration, calling Bruce Reed a "deficit hawk” and criticizing his past support for Social Security and Medicare cuts.
Why it matters: Progressives are mounting their pressure campaign after the president-elect did not include any of their favored candidates in his first slate of Cabinet nominees, and they are serious about installing some of their allies, blocking anyone who doesn't pass their smell test — and making noise if they are not heard.
Butterball CEO Jay Jandrain talks turkey
Butterball estimates that it sells one out of every three Thanksgiving turkeys, but knows that this year's celebrations will be different than years past.
Axios Re:Cap talks with the turkey giant's CEO Jay Jandrain about what people are buying, what they're asking the "Turkey Talkline" and what the pandemic has meant for his business.
Biden introduces top national security team
President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Tuesday at an event introducing the incoming administration's top national security officials, where he told the story of his stepfather being the only one of 900 children at his school in Poland to survive the Holocaust.
What they're saying: "At the end of the war, he made a break from a death march into the woods in Bavaria. From his hiding place, he heard a deep rumbling sound. It was a tank. But instead of the iron cross, he saw painted on its side a five pointed white star," Blinken said.
America's Chinese communities struggle with online disinformation
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Disinformation has proliferated on Chinese-language websites and platforms like WeChat that are popular with Chinese speakers in the U.S., just as it has on English-language websites.
Why it matters: There are fewer fact-checking sites and other sources of reliable information in Chinese, making it even harder to push back against disinformation.
Coronavirus dashboard
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
- Vaccines: Essential workers are likely to get vaccine priority.
- Health: What overwhelmed hospitals look like.
- World: U.S. hotspots far outpacing Europe's — Business activity is plunging in Europe as COVID-19 cases rise.
- Economy: Airlines push for "COVID-free passports."
- 1 🦃 thing: Axios-Ipsos poll: 6 in 10 Americans are dialing back Thanksgiving plans.
Pennsylvania certifies Biden's victory
Photo: Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Pennsylvania officials on Tuesday certified the state's presidential election results, making President-elect Joe Biden's win in the key battleground official.
Why it matters: The move deals another blow to President Trump's failed efforts to block certification in key swing states that he lost to Biden. It also comes one day after officials voted to certify Biden's victory in Michigan.
Trump bump: NYT and WaPo digital subscriptions tripled since 2016
The New York Times and The Washington Post have very different strategies for building the subscription news company of the future.
The big picture: Sources tell Axios that the Post is nearing 3 million digital subscribers, a 50% year-over-year growth in subscriptions and more than 3x the number of digital-only subscribers it had in 2016. The New York Times now has more than 6 million digital-only subscribers, nearly 3x its number from 2016.
Biden's emerging climate orbit
Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
As of Tuesday morning, we know a lot more about President-elect Joe Biden climate personnel orbit, even as picks for agencies like EPA and DOE are outstanding, so here are a few early conclusions.
Why it matters: They're the highest-level names yet announced who will have a role in what Biden is promising will be a far-reaching climate and energy agenda.
Janet Yellen is back
Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Hannelore Foerster/Getty Images
A face familiar to Wall Street is back as a central player that this time will need to steer the country out of a deep economic crisis.
Driving the news: President-elect Joe Biden is preparing to nominate former Fed chair Janet Yellen to be Treasury secretary.
Charles Koch: I "screwed up"
In his first on-camera interview in four years, Charles Koch told "Axios on HBO" that he "screwed up by being partisan," rather than approaching his network's big-spending political action in a more nonpartisan way.
Why it matters: Koch — chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, which Forbes yesterday designated as America's largest private company — has been the left's favorite face of big-spending political action.
What overwhelmed hospitals look like
A healthcare professional suits up to enter a COVID-19 patient's room in the ICU at Van Wert County Hospital in Ohio. Photo: Megan Jelinger/AFP
Utah doctors are doing what they say is the equivalent of rationing care. Intensive care beds in Minnesota are nearly full. And the country overall continues to break hospitalization records — all as millions of Americans travel to spend Thanksgiving with friends and family.
Why it matters: America's health care workers are exhausted, and the sickest coronavirus patients aren't receiving the kind of care that could make the difference between living and dying.
Southwest CEO: "You should fly"
The official guidance of the CDC says that "postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year."
- Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, however, took the opposing position when he was interviewed by "Axios on HBO." "You should fly," he told me, adding that "we need to have as much commerce and business and movement as is safe to do."
Cárdenas: Democrats need to be more "culturally competent" to win
Photo: Paul Morigi via Getty Images
Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), who's running for chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told "Axios on HBO" that the DCCC needs to change "overnight" and his colleagues need to be more "culturally competent" if they want to be successful in the next election.
Why it matters: House Democrats are confronting what went wrong and what their party needs to change after they failed to expand their House majority and President Trump expanded his support among Latino voters.
Apple's new Mac chip turns heads and promises bigger changes
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
For now, Apple's new M1 chip — fast, power-smart, and literally cool — is just a major hardware upgrade that's winning rave reviews.
But down the road, the M1 will pave the way for new Apple devices that could bridge the divide between Mac and iPhone/iPad computing and transform the devices we use every day.
Space is outgrowing its billionaires
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
The space industry is outgrowing the billionaires who made it famous.
Why it matters: Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson helped put the space industry on the map, but today, a significant amount of growth seen in the industry is propelled by smaller companies.
Axios-Ipsos poll: COVID Thanksgiving
Six in 10 Americans are dialing back this year's Thanksgiving plans because of the pandemic — cutting guest lists, canceling travel or scrapping Turkey Day altogether — in the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
The big picture: This greater willingness to turn inward and exercise caution around the holidays comes amid signs of increased trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a growing confidence there will soon be a safe and effective vaccine available in the U.S.
Moderna exec says children could be vaccinated by mid-2021
Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna, tells "Axios on HBO" that a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for children by the middle of next year.
Be smart: There will be a coronavirus vaccine for adults long before there is one for kids.