When Susan McPherson opened her own LLC in 2013, it was a placeholder while she looked for another job. She had no idea that it would become what it is today — McPherson Strategies, a 14-employee firm that helps global brands lead with impact and push social change.
The Trump administration is warning Americans of a looming food crisis brought on by its own crackdown on undocumented farmworkers.
Why it matters: To offset the fallout, the administration pushed through an emergency rule last week that could gut the paychecks of domestic farmworkers by replacing them with foreign guest workers subject to lower wages.
Some moderate Senate Democrats say they are open to placing an income cap on eligibility for Affordable Care Act tax credits to help facilitate a deal with Republicans.
Why it matters: The way high earners can tap ACA tax credits is helping drive Republican resistance to renewing the subsidies.An income cap is almost essential to a potential deal, whether as part of negotiations to reopen the government or as part of a health care package later this year.
Why it matters: Controller and TSA "sick-outs" played an under-appreciated role in ending the 2018-19 shutdown, as lawmakers faced the prospect of a snarled air traffic network, furious airline executives and an irate flying public.
A few Federal Reserve officials saw a case in keeping interest rates on hold last month, according to minutes from the central bank's policy meeting released on Wednesday.
Why it matters: It shows larger divisions among Fed officials than previously known at the most recent policy meeting, which concluded with the first rate cut in nearly a year.
Rivian might be facing huge headwinds, but CEO RJ Scaringe is looking forward to 2026 and the launch of the company's next model, the $45,000 R2.
"I've never been more confident in the company than I am today," he told me this week during a fireside chat I moderated for the Automotive Press Association.
"We've got this product about to launch. It is insanely good. It takes everything that we've learned in launching the R1 and embodies it in a smaller package."
"The teams are functioning with incredible accuracy and precision, and the way they're working would have been unimaginable 5-10 years ago," he said.
"And along with that, the brand is resonating in ways that we'd only hoped to achieve."
Retailers and drone delivery companies say the federal government is overreaching with a proposed law on drone operations that would require TSA-like security screening for their stores, employees and potentially even their customers.
Why it matters: The proposed rule, which assigns 55-pound delivery drones the same risk profile as huge cargo planes, would cripple the drone delivery business just as it's about to take off, industry leaders say.
Federal tax credits for electric vehicle purchases may be dead, but depending on where you live, you might still get a sizable state tax break on your EV.
But be prepared to pay a higher vehicle registration fee than your neighbor who drives a gasoline-powered car.
Why it matters: The rewards and penalties on EVs reflect an industry in flux, as policymakers try to balance environmental goals with the need to pay for roads and other critical infrastructure.
Snappr has expanded its visual content platform, along with its network of photographers, to Europe after raising a Series B round, CEO Matt Schiller exclusively tells Axios.
Why it matters: The expansion underscores rising demand for high-quality original content and blends human creativity with AI efficiency.
Whole Foods Market says 2026 will be all about fiber, fat and freezer meals — as consumers chase gut health, back-to-basics cooking and restaurant-quality convenience.
Why it matters: The grocer released its annual trends report Wednesday — a forecast that often foreshadows what ends up in grocery aisles and where food brands will chase consumer dollars next.
U.S. oil production growthmay prove more resilient than it appeared a few months ago — but big, dramatic output and price swings have become passé for now.
Why it matters: Oil prices ripple throughout the economy, affecting everything from consumer goods to the strength of competing tech like EVs.
Gold — typically a safe-haven in times of turmoil — is soaring at the same time the stock market is hitting new highs, an unusual dynamic that is troubling some market insiders.
Why it matters: The rally in gold reflects investors' desire to diversify away from dollar-denominated assets as trust in the U.S. slowly erodes, they say.
Book publisher HarperCollins UK apologized to First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday and recalled a book that repeated unverified claims that child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was involved in introducing her to Donald Trump.
Why it matters: HarperCollins is the third media enterprise to apologize to Melania Trump and remove content related to the Epstein allegation.
The edges of companies that make AI and those that make AI infrastructure are blurring as the industry coalesces into a handful of corporate mega-blobs linked by investments, partnerships and shared supply chains.
Why it matters: The AI world is moving into a new era of corporate entanglement with OpenAI's latest megadeal, a "tens of billions of dollars" agreement with AMD that has OpenAI buying mountains of AMD's GPU chips and taking up to a 10% stake in the firm.
President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday morning to join the negotiations over the deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas and end the war in Gaza that has now crossed the two-year mark.
Why it matters: Trump and his team are pushing hard for both Israel and Hamas to conclude their negotiations within days and reach a deal.
Airport staffing shortages saw thousands of flights delayed across the U.S. on Tuesday night as overstretched air traffic controllers continued to work with no pay during the government shutdown.
The big picture: Seven days into the shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing issues at airports in Chicago, Las Vegas, Nashville and Philadelphia, and at air traffic control centers in the Atlanta, Boston, Dallas and Houston areas.
