The Pentagon is putting small, inexpensive drones and their makers through the wringer in a high-stakes competition starting this week as the U.S. attempts to learn the lessons of war in Ukraine, Axios Future of Defense author Colin Demarest writes.

• Why it matters: The tests — known as the Gauntlet — run through early March and are part of the Defense Department's Drone Dominance push, which seeks to arm American troops with hundreds of thousands of expendable drones in a few short years.

The Pentagon expects to spend a little more than $1 billion on the program over four increasingly competitive phases.

• Jeff Thompson, CEO of drone maker Red Cat, told Axios: "They're very blunt ... if you can't produce them and deliver them on time — if you're two weeks late — you're out."

🔭 Zoom out: Some 70-80% of casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war are caused by drones, according to a recent Latvian intelligence report. Kyiv alone is said to be using 9,000 drones per day.

• The U.S. isn't ready to deploy or destroy cheap drones on that scale.

Keep reading.

The Supreme Court could decide as soon as today or next week whether President Trump can preserve the sweeping tariffs that anchor his trade agenda, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes.

• After small businesses sued to block Trump's tariffs last year, a quick ruling was expected. The delay underscores the enormity of a decision that, either way, could rattle the global economy.

In November, several justices signaled skepticism of the administration's legal case. Since then:

1. 📦 The U.S. goods trade deficit hit a record in 2025 — even after Trump declared "large and persistent" deficits a national emergency to justify his "Liberation Day" tariffs. New data show the gap widened despite the levies.
2. 🏛️ Congress took a (symbolic) tariff stand. Six Republicans voted with Democrats earlier this month to repeal tariffs on Canada, a rare rebuke of Trump's signature economic policy.
3. 💰 Tariff burden in spotlight. New York Federal Reserve Bank researchers calculated that households and businesses paid 90% of last year's tariffs.

What to watch: If the Supreme Court rejects the legality of part or all of the tariffs, it could trigger a chaotic refund process and tilt the nation's fiscal outlook.

• The administration says it would reimpose any overturned tariffs using other trade authorities, though it's unclear how long that might take.

Go deeper ... Get Axios Business.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has upended DHS staffing in her first year, pairing high-level leadership purges with a growing staff exodus, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports.

• Multiple reports describe a culture of fear inside DHS as Noem and her top adviser Corey Lewandowski have fired, reassigned and demoted people throughout the department's 23 sub-agencies.

✂️ About 10% of employees left DHS last year, Federal News Network found.

• The staffing shake-up has left thousands fewer employees at headquarters and key agencies, including FEMA, CISA and TSA — while ICE and Border Patrol added headcount.

The other side: "Secretary Noem saved U.S. taxpayers $1.3 billion ... without cuts to key law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement and positions with a public safety responsibility," a DHS spokesperson said.

• Keep reading.

The cost to fill up your car will probably climb soon — and the oil price spike over Iran tensions isn't the only reason, Axios' Ben Geman writes:

• A seasonal cost rise typically starts at the end of February or early March as spring-break season kicks off and refiners start producing costlier fuel.

Share this story ... Get Axios Future of Energy.

Overdose deaths are falling. But America's illicit drug supply is evolving into lethal cocktails: fentanyl plus stimulants, sedatives and novel synthetics that hide in party powders and pressed pills, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.

• 🧬 Why it matters: Those polydrug blends — with nicknames "pink cocaine," "rhino tranq," "benzo-dope" and others — are harder to detect, reverse and warn against. Some can even result in the loss of limbs.

That makes recent overdose declines fragile and public-health victories reversible if policy, testing and treatment don't catch up.

• "When we crack down on one drug, the market innovates," Sheila Vakharia, managing director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance, tells Axios.

Catch up quick: The Trump administration has highlighted record fentanyl seizures at the southern border and credited tougher enforcement with helping drive overdose deaths down.

Yes, but: Experts say the domestic drug market is adapting in real time.

• Targeting fentanyl has incentivized illegal drug suppliers to experiment with other compounds that bypass detection, creating what Vakharia describes as a "whack-a-mole" cycle.

Keep reading.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) is pushing back on steps by the Chicago Bears to move their stadium 30 miles south to Hammond, Ind., Axios' Justin Kaufmann and Arika Herron report.

• Pritzker said the state and the team have made "lots of progress" on a deal.

🏟️ The Indiana House's Ways and Means Committee voted 24-0 to establish a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, build and lease a stadium. The Bears are looking at a tract of land near Wolf Lake in Hammond.

• Since moving to Chicago from Decatur, Ill., in 1921, the Bears have never owned their stadium, whether playing at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970 or Soldier Field since then.

Keep reading.

This photo of a post-arrest Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — Prince Andrew, before he was stripped of his royal title last year over Epstein revelations — went viral after it was taken last evening. It was the lead art in Axios PM.

• The shaken man, once known as the Playboy Prince, is slumped in the back seat of a Range Rover as he's driven away from a police station in Norfolk, England, after 11 hours of questioning on suspicion of "misconduct in public office" — forwarding confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein.

How Reuters photographer Phil Noble got the shot on Andrew's 66th birthday:

• When news broke that the younger brother of King Charles had been arrested yesterday morning, Manchester-based Noble began the six-hour drive south to Norfolk.
• Journalists knew the former prince had been arrested in Norfolk, the county that's home to the royal Sandringham estate, where he'd been banished. There were potentially 20+ police stations where he could be.

Following a tip, Noble headed to the police station in the historic market town of Aylsham. Not much was going on. A couple of other members of the media were there, including Reuters video journalist Marissa Davison.

• Six or seven hours went by. Darkness fell. Still, nothing was happening. It seemed like this was the wrong station. The Reuters journalists decided to book rooms at a hotel. Noble packed up and started heading down the road.

📸 Minutes later, he got a call from Davison. Mountbatten-Windsor's cars had arrived. Noble raced back, just in time to see two vehicles leaving at high speed. The front car contained two police officers. So Noble aimed his camera and flash at the car behind.

• He fired six frames — two showed police, two were blank, one was out of focus. But one captured the unprecedented moment: For the first time in centuries, a UK royal was an accused criminal.

"You can plan and use your experience and know roughly what you need to do, but still everything needs to align," Noble said. "When you're doing car shots, it's more luck than judgment. ... It was a proper old school news day, a guy being arrested, who can we call, tracking him down."

• Share Reuters' story.

⛸️ Gold medalist Alysa Liu broke the drought for USA women's figure skating yesterday — claiming the team's first individual medal since 2006 in Turin.

• Go deeper.

🏒 On other ice, the U.S. women's hockey team rallied to beat Canada 2-1 during an overtime comeback to win gold.

• Go deeper.

🇺🇸 🇮🇹 The U.S. ended the day tied with Italy for second place in gold medals (nine each), trailing the No. 1 Norway, which has 26 (!) medals.

• Medal count.