Axios CEO Jim VandeHei previews his interview with Mel Robbins for "The Axios Show." Watch the episode.

Mel Robbins has sold more books to more people in less time than almost any human in history.

• The result: a booming Mel Robbins Inc.

Why it matters: Robbins, with books in 64 languages, is a modern content creation machine on steroids — pumping out books, podcasts, viral clips, public speeches, and soon consumer goods. Her lessons apply to big companies and individual social media talents.

But don't call her talent.

• "I, first and foremost, consider myself a businesswoman," the bestselling author of "The Let Them Theory" says on a new episode of "The Axios Show." "I don't consider myself talent or this or that."

Robbins, 57, is building a media empire around a single asset — herself. Her staff of 50-plus employees and contractors manages her book tour, her 40 million social media followers and her production company, 143 Studios.

• The various formats of "The Let Them Theory" sold 7 million units in nine months. It's been on The New York Times bestseller list for 40 weeks. Her earlier books — "The 5 Second Rule" and "The High 5 Habit" — sold millions.
• Her team told us "The Mel Robbins Podcast" has over half a billion downloads. People have spent 38 million hours watching it on YouTube — equivalent to 4,335 years.
• "We are an advertising-supported media company," she said. Robbins has expanded to creating content for corporate partners, leveraging the same core asset — her. Next up: consumer products.

👀 Robbins has what companies and aspiring influencers crave: attention. And she has a few rules for getting it and maximizing it:

1. Vital, not viral. "You can't think about virality," she says. "Make content absurdly useful to a specific group of people. Only then will it stick and spread. "Stop obsessing over views and start obsessing over" making it indispensable.
2. Bet on you. "Don't ever make a deal that you are going to regret in success," she says. It's easy to take easy money or easy shortcuts for short-term wins. Don't. "You have to bet on yourself," she told us. "And you only do that by asking: If this actually works, am I going to be pissed off I signed this deal?"
3. You bring the weather. "Your energy is currency," she says. "I want you to understand that you bring the weather. That means you can be the sun or you can be the storm." Obsess about how you want people to see and feel about you after you leave the room: "Because people don't invest in businesses. They invest in people."

• 🎬 Watch the full episode.

Furloughed federal workers aren't guaranteed compensation for their forced time off during the government shutdown, according to a draft White House memo described to Axios' Marc Caputo.

• Why it matters: If the White House acts on that legal analysis, it would dramatically escalate President Trump's pressure on Senate Democrats to end the week-old shutdown by denying back pay to as many as 750,000 federal workers.

Trump wants Democrats to back a continuing resolution to fund the government with no strings about healthcare subsidies attached.

• "This would not have happened if Democrats voted for the clean CR," a senior administration official said.

The big picture: Under Trump, the executive branch is grabbing more power than ever — a trend that's accelerating during the shutdown that began last week.

🔎 Zoom in: At issue is the ''Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019" that Trump signed during the last government shutdown, which lasted a record 35 days.

• Called GEFTA, the law has been widely interpreted as ensuring that furloughed workers automatically would be compensated after future shutdowns.

But the new White House memo from the Office of Management and Budget argues that GEFTA has been misconstrued or, in the words of one source, is "deficient" because it was amended nine days later, on Jan. 25, 2019.

• "Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn't," a senior White House official said.

Keep reading.

Exactly two years after Hamas' October 7th attacks, the war in Gaza is closer than ever to its end, and the region will never be the same, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

• Why it matters: The war started with the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and continued with the worst killing and displacement of Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948.

Even if President Trump's peace push proves successful, the human tragedy and the geopolitical shifts will be felt for generations.

🖼️ The big picture: Israel has inflicted enormous blows on its adversaries since Oct. 7, 2023. But its own global standing has dramatically deteriorated.

• Support for Palestinian rights and statehood has greatly increased, with more than a dozen additional countries recognizing Palestine. But Palestinians in Gaza are displaced and hungry, while Palestinians in the occupied West Bank face repression.
• In the U.S., the war split the Democratic base in 2024 and sparked campus protests that the Trump administration is now citing to exert pressure on universities.

State of play: Nearly 2,000 Israelis have been killed in the war across its various fronts, according to the Israeli government.

• More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
• Several thousand more people have been killed in the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Yemen. Israel has bombed eight countries in total since Oct. 7.
• Out of 255 hostages taken by Hamas, 148 returned alive, and the bodies of 59 were retrieved. Twenty of the remaining 48 hostages are believed to be alive.

🔭 What to watch: All eyes turn to Egypt and the indirect peace talks happening there this week between Israel and Hamas.

• Keep reading: How the war changed the Middle East forever.

Massive single-day stock pops are becoming a regular occurrence for AI stocks, Axios Markets author Madison Mills writes.

• Why it matters: These record one-day rallies are looking frothy as investors continue worrying about an approaching AI bubble.

Yesterday, AMD soared 24% after a multibillion-dollar AI data center partnership with OpenAI.

• Oracle's stock rallied about 40% in one day last month after its latest earnings release and a reported $300 billion cloud deal with OpenAI.

Keep reading.

New AI video apps are providing fertile ground for scammers looking to take their fraud and impersonation schemes to the next level, Axios Future of Cybersecurity author Sam Sabin writes.

• Why it matters: AI-generated content is quickly blurring the lines between what's real and what's not — and scammers thrive on blurred realities.

🎥 Zoom in: OpenAI rolled out its new Sora iOS app last week, powered by the company's updated, second-generation video creation model.

• The app is unique in that it allows users to upload photos of themselves and others, and create AI-generated videos using their likeness — but users need to give consent to specific users to be shown in a video.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the app will also give people "more granular control over generation of characters," including specifying in what scenarios their character can be used.

• People have been quick to show off fun ways they can use the tool, including videos of themselves in TV ads or being arrested.

Get Axios Future of Cybersecurity

Worldwide solar and wind power have grown faster than electricity demand growth this year, AP writes from a report by the energy think tank Ember.

• For the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal.
• Global solar (+31%) and wind (+7.7%) generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours in the first half of 2025 — more than overall global demand increased in the same period.

Explore the data.

The young adult suicide rate increased in most U.S. states from 2014 to 2024, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes.

• The suicide rate for U.S. adults aged 18-27 increased nearly 20% between 2014 and 2024, according to a new analysis of CDC data from Stateline, a nonprofit newsroom.

🧮 By the numbers: The young adult suicide rate increased the most in Georgia (+65%), North Carolina (+41%), Texas (+41%), Alabama (+39%) and Ohio (+37%).

• The rate decreased in a few states, including North Dakota (-39%), Vermont (-37%) and Delaware (-34%).

If you have thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please pick up the phone right now and call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at (800) 273-8255.

• Full story.

Above: Last night's supermoon — the first this year — rises behind the Statue of Liberty in New York.

• The moon appeared up to 30% brighter and up to 14% larger than a typical full moon. (NASA)

Two more supermoons — which occur when the moon is at its closest to Earth — will happen this year: Nov. 5 and Dec. 4.

Above: A Southwest Airlines plane appears between the supermoon and a statue of Jesus atop a church in Texas as it takes off from Dallas Love Field Airport.

• More pics.