Israel's polling collapse among younger Americans, driven by contempt for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is hitting Congress, too:

• Lawmakers who started out staunchly pro-Israel are becoming increasingly vocal critics, Axios' Andrew Solender and Justin Green report.

💣 Zoom in: Every Senate Democrat who's eyeing a 2028 presidential run voted against arms sales to Israel in votes earlier this week.

• 40 Senate Dems voted on a resolution to block arms sales to Israel, up from just 15 on a similar vote last April.
• Netanyahu is "destroying the bipartisan nature in terms of support for Israel," Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) told Punchbowl News.

🏛️ Over in the House, some Democrats are turning against defensive support, including funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

• That was "seen as insanely fringe four years ago," Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) told Axios.
• But multiple Democrats who voted for Iron Dome in 2021 told Axios they're done providing financial aid.

📊 By the numbers: Older Republicans and white evangelicals are the last groups to hold majority favorable views of Israel, according to new Pew polling. For every other group, Israel's favorability has collapsed since 2022:

• ⬇️ Down 31 points among older Democrats (ages 50+).
• ⬇️ Down 22 points among both younger Republicans/GOP leaners and younger Dems/Dem leaners.
• ⬇️ Down 14 points among Protestants, 23 among Catholics and 20 among the religiously unaffiliated.

Even white evangelical support, which was at 80% in 2022, has slid by 15 points.

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Seismic turbulence is hitting U.S. airlines:

• Rising fuel and labor costs are squeezing carriers — and pushing higher fares and fees onto travelers already facing economic uncertainty, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes.

The big picture: Airlines are entering a shakeout — with consolidation talk rising, the winner-loser divide widening, and profit decisions raising fees.

• United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby floated a mega-merger with American Airlines. American yesterday rejected the notion, saying it's "not engaged with or interested in any discussions regarding a merger with United Airlines."
• Spirit Airlines may be on the verge of liquidation, according to multiple reports, after filing for its second bankruptcy in less than a year in November.
• Southwest recently cut routes, and other airlines are trimming less-profitable service.
• Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Tuesday that the carrier must "find ways" to pass along the extra costs of jet fuel to consumers.

🛢️ The throughline, from the healthiest carriers to the stragglers, is the spike in jet fuel prices since the Iran war began.

• If fuel prices remain high, the industry could shift "from growth to survival mode," Brandon Parsons, economist at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, tells Axios in an email.

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The House Republican revolt on FISA yesterday wasn't just a setback for Speaker Mike Johnson — it was a rare defeat for President Trump with his own party, Axios' Kate Santaliz writes.

• Why it matters: Trump usually delivers House Republicans on big votes. This time, he couldn't — exposing the limits of his influence and leaving Johnson exposed.

The White House, in tandem with GOP leadership, mounted an intense pressure campaign to convince holdouts to come on board for a clean extension of the warrantless spy program.

• It ultimately fell short. More than two dozen Republicans voted down two separate procedural votes early yesterday — once unheard-of for members in the majority, but now an increasingly common tactic.

🖼️ The big picture: On almost every issue, Trump has successfully bent House Republicans to his will. Johnson's legislative strategy has depended on it.

• There's often drama on the floor during tough votes, but the conference typically falls in line.

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As buyers gain leverage and homes take longer to sell, a growing share of homeowners are renting their properties out instead, Axios' Sami Sparber writes.

• Zillow calls them "accidental landlords": 2.3% of rental listings on its platform in October were previously for sale.
• That's the highest level since late 2022, when mortgage rates topped 7%.

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Axios' Marc Caputo, based in Miami, delivers a breakthrough on what the Trump administration has been doing behind the scenes with Cuba while sounding a strident public tone:

State Department officials met in Havana with Cuban apparatchiks — including the grandson of aging strongman Raul Castro — to urge democratic and economic freedoms and warn of the risks of not heeding their advice.

• The U.S. delegation offered to help restore internet services by setting up Starlink satellite services.

Why it matters: Last week's meeting is the first time a U.S. government plane has touched down since President Obama visited a decade ago in an effort at rapprochement.

• Now, Cuba is closer to societal collapse than ever. President Trump is in office with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and they're far less inclined to make concessions.

🦀 Zoom in: A senior State Department official wouldn't name the meetings' participants, except for one — Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Castro.

• Known as Raulito and nicknamed El Cangrejo (The Crab), the younger Castro is seen by the U.S. as a de facto spokesman for his grandfather, who remains the real power in Cuba, Axios scooped.

The bottom line: Without directly threatening the Cuban officials, the U.S. made clear that Trump's government won't allow a disaster to occur on the island 90 miles south of Key West.

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If you're still trying to figure out why OpenAI spent a reportedly huge sum of cash to acquire the streaming show TBPN, podcaster Ed Elson has one of the answers, one he claims will upend the entire media industry: clips.

• His argument: OpenAI was excited partly by TBPN's social strategy and revenue from clips of the podcast.

Legacy media companies still haven't figured this out. But when they do, they're "sitting on a clip-field the size of the Permian Basin," Elson writes.

• OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane told Puck the TBPN buy is partly about expanding the "AI-curious" audience: "We tend to communicate in a very AI-researcher language ... We need to get a lot better at actually telling people why this is going to be important and good for them."

Read Ed's full post on X.

New research is giving us an understanding of how the Colorado River, which carved the Grand Canyon, arrived at the region 6.6 million years ago, Reuters reports (🔒).

• The study — published this week in the journal Science — found the river began to flow into a basin in northeastern Arizona, forming a wide and shallow lake east of where the Grand Canyon later took shape.

🌊 The lake water built up over time and eventually spilled over a low point on the lakeshore starting around 5.6 million years ago, sending it coursing through the region that became the Grand Canyon, the researchers found.

• "We have long known that the river existed in western Colorado 11 million years ago, and that it did not [run through] Grand Canyon until after 5.6 million years ago," study co-lead author Ryan Crow said. "But until now, we knew almost nothing about where it was during the intervening time."

Explore the study.

Washington's Le Diplomate and Philadelphia's Parc — both run by Stephen Starr — were crowned by The Atlantic as purveyors of the best free restaurant bread in America.

• Atlantic writer Caity Weaver based her choice on more than 550 responses, months of research and 13,000 miles traveled.

📊 By the numbers: Parc bakes 1,500 loaves a day — 200 of which are the cranberry-walnut.

• Starr told The Atlantic that Parc's breadbasket, which has three varieties of bread including the cranberry-walnut loaf, costs about 60¢ a pop.
• At roughly 10,000 customers a week, Parc hands out nearly $500,000 in free bread every year (sans butter costs).

Gift link.