🚨 Several hours after peace talks in Pakistan ended in failure, President Trump announced the U.S. is imposing a naval blockade on Iran, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

• Why it matters: The move would prevent Iran from exporting its oil as long as other countries are prevented from doing so.

🚢 Trump said on Truth Social that the U.S. Navy will immediately "begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," where traffic has fallen to a trickle.

• Saying this weekend's Iran-U.S. peace talks in Pakistan failed over the nuclear issue, Trump added: "We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!"

The backdrop: The U.S. and Iran failed to reach an agreement after 21 hours of face-to-face talks — leaving the two-week ceasefire in limbo, with the possibility of renewed and escalating warfare.

• Vice President Vance flew out of Islamabad after saying the parties had "substantive discussions" but couldn't bridge the gaps.

☢️ According to a source briefed on the talks, some of the disagreements had to do with Iran's demand to control the Strait of Hormuz and refusal to give up its enriched uranium stockpile.

• Vance said: "This is bad news for Iran much more than this is bad news for the U.S. ... We have made very clear what our red lines are ... and they have chosen not to accept our terms."
• He said the U.S. wants a long-term "affirmative commitment" from the Iranians not to seek a nuclear weapon or tools to produce one quickly: "We haven't seen that yet. We hope that we will."

The other side: Several Iranian media outlets said after Vance's press conference that the talks failed because the U.S. side wasn't realistic and made "excessive demands."

The bottom line: No one expected a final agreement yesterday. But the U.S. side hoped for enough momentum to keep negotiating, even if that meant extending the ceasefire. Vance's brief remarks conveyed little such optimism, though he didn't say the U.S. is walking away.

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It increasingly looks as if the inflation problem that emerged five years ago wasn't a one-off event, but the defining economic challenge of the decade — and Americans don't like it one bit, Axios' Neil Irwin writes.

• Price pressures were already reaccelerating in the last few months, even before the U.S.–Israeli attack on Iran disrupted global energy supplies.
• Since January 2021, consumer prices have climbed a cumulative 26%.

The big picture: Americans are deeply angry at the constellation of economic forces buffeting them, especially higher prices and diminished job prospects. Both are bound to get worse before they get better.

😤 Since the initial outburst in 2021, economists have taken solace that price spikes could be chalked up to one-time factors: pandemic supply chain snarls, excessive stimulus, the Ukraine war, tariffs and now Iran.

• But when those seemingly one-off events pile up on top of each other, it no longer looks like a spurt of bad luck, but rather a resetting of prices across the economy.
• Recent data provides overwhelming evidence of both how persistent 2020s-style inflation has proven to be, and just how much people hate it.

⛽ Stunning stat: The 21% surge in gasoline prices in March was the biggest single-month percentage increase in records that date back to the 1960s.

• That drove the overall Consumer Price Index to its highest one-month surge since the peak of the Biden-era inflation in 2022. The year-over-year reading reached 3.3%, its highest in nearly two years.

😬 What's happening: Even as price pressures build, job prospects have started looking worse.

• The rate at which companies have hired new workers fell in February to match the lowest levels of the pandemic.
• Wages are no longer rising as they did earlier in the inflationary surge.

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We have only a tiny glimpse of AI's capabilities — and we have day jobs. But imagine having the full view, and that's all you stare at. That's OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's life. As he told me in an interview 10 days ago: "I don't think I have a very normal life anymore."

• Altman posted an 1,100-word essay on Friday, shortly fater someone threw a Molotov cocktail at his San Francisco home at 4 a.m., setting an exterior gate afire. A 20-year-old man was arrested. Highlights:

"It will not all go well," Altman admits. "The fear and anxiety about AI is justified; we are in the process of witnessing the largest change to society in a long time, and perhaps ever."

• "We urgently need a society-wide response to be resilient to new threats. This includes things like new policy to help navigate through a difficult economic transition in order to get to a much better future."

Adding "thoughts about the industry," Altman acknowledges: "A lot of the criticism of our industry comes from sincere concern about the incredibly high stakes of this technology. This is quite valid, and we welcome good-faith criticism and debate."

• He concludes: "[W]e should de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally."

Read Sam's post.

As talks with Iran failed, President Trump made a thunderous entrance at UFC 327 in Miami last night, striding out at Kaseya Center to a Kid Rock tune with UFC CEO Dana White by his side.

• Trump was joined by daughters Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, son Donald Trump Jr., and other family members.

Trump greeted Joe Rogan, the podcaster and UFC commentator, who's been critical of the war with Iran, AP reports.

Above: Trump huddled on fight night with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Miami native.

• Also spotted: Andrew and Tristan Tate, right-wing influencers; and restaurateur Guy Fieri; artist Vanilla Ice; and former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino.

The Artemis II astronauts posed with their Orion spacecraft, which they named Integrity, in the well deck of USS John P. Murtha following their splashdown Friday evening off the coast of San Diego.

• The astronauts — commander Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Canada's Jeremy Hansen and pilot Victor Glover — returned to Houston yesterday afternoon to a jubilant welcome from the hundreds who took part in NASA's lunar comeback.

Watch the welcome-back ceremony.

The scandal surrounding Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) could ignite expulsion votes for at least three of his House colleagues, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.

• Why it matters: Multiple members in the 119th Congress accused of grave misbehavior have so far survived every push to oust them. The bill may finally be coming due.

⚖️ What's happening: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) announced plans to force a vote next week to expel Swalwell, who is facing allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment, which he denies.

• Swalwell is also under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Democrats plan to counter with a vote to expel Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), as Axios first reported. Gonzales admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide and is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

• If those votes succeed — which may be a long shot, given that expulsion requires a two-thirds majority — votes to expel Reps. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) could follow, sources say.

Go deeper: Swalwell loses all 21 of his endorsements from Dem colleagues.

From Jim VandeHei's new weekly newsletter for CEOs:

A trend to watch, via expert Axios Communicators author Eleanor Hawkins: The number of C-suite leaders with more than two titles has increased by 121% over the past decade, a practice known as "title stacking."

• Chief communications officers are often absorbing more, marking the rise of the CCO+ title. Among the functions they're increasingly taking on: HR, ESG, corporate affairs, investor relations and branding.

📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: Ask to join the beta of Jim's new Axios C-Suite weekly newsletter.

The Obama era is back — this time with show tunes.

• "44: The Musical" opens in the nation's capital next Saturday (through May 10, Shakespeare Theatre Company's Klein Theater) after sold-out runs in Chicago and on Broadway, Axios DC's Anna Spiegel writes.

The play — part satirical comedy, part concert — was written by former Obama campaign staffer Eli Bauman.

• We're told neither former President Obama nor Michelle Obama has seen it.

1-min. YouTube trailer ... More details.