Republican super PACs are flooding the airwaves in once-safe states and are pulling down ads for races that look like lost causes, Axios' Hans Nichols writes.

• Why it matters: GOP operatives are making the kind of hard decisions of a battlefield medic — save the wounded, and say a prayer for the lost.

Between the lines: Republicans can dismiss bad polls as noise, or the result of liberal bias. But their concern about a potential blue wave is evident in their thundering attack ads in Kansas, South Carolina and Texas.

• GOP efforts now are more focused on turning out MAGA loyalists than on persuading swing voters.

👢 Republicans have been forced to pour well over $100 million into Ken Paxton's Senate race in Texas against Democrat James Talarico, and to plead for millions more to defend Senate seats in Alaska, Iowa and Ohio.

• President Trump held a rally in San Antonio yesterday to try to boost Paxton — the president's second trip in less than a week to Texas, a state he won by 14 points in 2024.

🌊 During the past week, the president has also campaigned in Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio and Nebraska. He'll fly to Alabama again on Saturday for the Georgia-Alabama football game.

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Republicans have spent months griping privately to Fox News about coverage they argue is helping Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan's Democratic nominee for Senate, moderate his image, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes.

• The frustration boiled over into public view Tuesday when President Trump lashed out at his favorite network.

Why it matters: Republicans worry that Fox is undercutting their efforts to brand the charismatic El-Sayed as a liberal who's far outside the mainstream.

• Polls show El-Sayed, a critic of Israel's government who'd be the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, in a tight race against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R).

Behind the scenes: White House officials reached out to Fox on Tuesday to complain about anchor Martha MacCallum's interview with El-Sayed, according to people familiar with the conversations. On Truth Social, Trump blasted the interview as "softball."

• Senior GOP operatives repeatedly contacted Fox producers and executives in early August, warning that El-Sayed could use favorable commentary from host Jesse Watters to cast himself as moderate.

📺 Later that month, El-Sayed released a TV ad featuring Watters' remark that "You gotta respect Abdul because he beat the [Democratic] machine."

• A Fox News spokesperson said Rogers also was invited to be interviewed on Watters' show but didn't respond.

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Bryan Johnson, 49, the face of the longevity movement, says on a new episode of "The Axios Show," out this morning, that he wants to make staying alive more important than making money.

• The famous/infamous biohacker spends over $2 million a year on his health, talks about living forever and publicly tracks everything from his erections to his sperm strength.

Why it matters: As Johnson fights to "live forever," he's doing so with a wink to his 8 million social media followers, a link to his business in his bio and a knack for drawing attention to himself.

In his interview with Axios' Madison Mills, Johnson offered advice for Elon Musk and said he'd love to help President Trump with his health.

• "Will the 25th century ... be like, 'thank you' in 500 years? Will they give me a head nod? That's the goal," he said.

His prescription: Change the focus of society to health, not wealth.

• "Society says making money ... is the greatest trophy one can get ... We are at this inflection moment as a species where we are transitioning to 'Don't Die,'" Johnson said, referring to the title of his longevity movement.
• "What creates status and power and prestige is going to be different. And as crazy as it sounds, it may be your nighttime erections ... It may be your ability to dunk a basketball at age 49."

▶️ Watch the full episode.

Intel from Axios' Barak Ravid: The Pentagon instructed U.S. Central Command several days ago to be ready to resume major combat operations in Iran.

• Why it matters: The directive didn't include a specific date for launching strikes, and President Trump hasn't made any final decisions. But U.S. and Israeli sources say it could happen before the U.S. midterm elections and possibly the Israeli elections a week earlier.

If major combat operations resume, they're expected to include massive bombing of Iranian energy, infrastructure and nuclear targets, sources say.

• Trump's national security team met at Camp David for several hours on Friday to discuss the war and other issues.
• An Israeli official told Axios that part of the meeting focused on a possible resumption of major combat operations in Iran.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the meeting that it focused on "long-term" foreign policy planning.

👀 Behind the scenes: President Trump spoke yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was their second call in days, after barely speaking for many weeks.

• The call took place after Netanyahu held a meeting with his national security team about Iran, the first Israeli official said.

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A Ukrainian counteroffensive over the past few weeks has forced Russian forces back in several pockets along the front line and undercut Moscow's narrative that it will control all of the eastern Donbas region, Axios' Dave Lawler writes.

• Why it matters: The gains are more symbolically significant than territorial. After years of grinding warfare in which relatively little land has changed hands, even modest shifts in momentum carry outsized weight.

Mapped: Ukraine claws back land, thwarting a Russian push (NYT).

AI chewed through the field of computer programming in months. Now it's making child's play of the world's most advanced mathematics, Axios' Bradley Olson writes.

Why it matters: Two years ago, the best model was on par with a bright high school student. The speed of that progress hints at breakthroughs that could soon emerge in fields like biology and physics.

• Even if these math breakthroughs don't have real-world applications, they prove that centuries-old problems in the world's toughest fields may be more solvable than we think.

🔬 Zoom in: OpenAI on Tuesday released 722 manuscripts organized into 372 groups of findings ("families") on longstanding mathematical problems, inviting academics and researchers to examine and build on the material.

• The reception has mixed scientific excitement with genuine unease. One Rutgers University mathematician said on X that a result connected to the Riemann hypothesis would warrant an automatic Fields Medal if a human had done the work.
• Some mathematicians have questioned these results, as well as another solution OpenAI released last month, asking whether they represent original breakthroughs or draw heavily from previous human input.

Keep reading.

CBS News is launching a new election night streaming show that lets political junkies watch its decision desk analyze races and make calls in real time, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: "The Nerd Show" represents the network's first election-focused show built for a digital audience.

How it works: The special streaming show will begin at 5 p.m. ET, a few hours before CBS News' official election broadcast.

• It'll be hosted by CBS News executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto alongside congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns. The big touchscreen map will be branded "The Hub."

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Scoop: I've learned that Ross Douthat — the former New York Times columnist who became a "60 Minutes" correspondent — will write a weekly column for The Free Press.

• Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News and founder of The Free Press ("for free people"), has driven synergies between the two organizations, both owned by Skydance.

The world's oldest known land animal — Jonathan, a roughly 194-year-old giant tortoise — is giving scientists a new window into aging, the N.Y. Times writes.

• Researchers sequenced his genome for the first time and compared it with those of tortoises 100 years younger, finding differences in genes involved in DNA repair and protecting chromosomes.

The 400-pound tortoise, who lives on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena, is mostly blind but still has excellent hearing and enjoys greeting visitors and having his neck petted.

• But getting his DNA wasn't easy: The first attempt to swab his cheek yielded nothing but half-chewed carrot.

Go deeper (gift link).