Axios PM

May 22, 2026
πΊπΈ Wishing you a peaceful Memorial Day weekend, with time to rest, reflect and remember. Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 582 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.
β‘οΈ Breaking: Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's director of national intelligence, is leaving the administration after her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Get the latest.
π Axios' Ashley Gold got her hands on the White House's 6-page draft executive order on cybersecurity and AI, as it stood before President Trump pulled the plug yesterday. Read it here.
1 big thing: Martian marathon

NASA's Perseverance Rover is about to complete a Martian marathon, having traveled just shy of 26.22 miles.
- It should cross the proverbial finish line sometime this month, mission manager Robert Hogg tells Reuters.
πͺ The car-sized rover landed on Mars in February 2021, with a primary mission meant to last nearly two Earth years.
- It's still kicking over five years later β continuing a long tradition of NASA robots and probes well outperforming their initial objectives. (Voyager 1, now in interstellar space, has been transmitting valuable data back to Earth for nearly half a century.)
π Perseverance deputy project scientist Ken Farley tells Reuters: "The rover continues in good health with at least a decade left in its power source ... The duration of the mission will depend on choices NASA makes."

π¦ The rover's most important discovery so far: a sample from Mars' Jezero Crater that bore signs of ancient microbial life.
- NASA and the European Space Agency had been planning an ambitious effort to collect samples from Perseverance and return them to Earth.
- That mission's future is unclear amid questions over funding.
2. π« Chocolate lovers can't get a break


Wholesale cocoa prices have plunged 70% from their late 2024 peak β but don't expect cheaper chocolate anytime soon, Axios' Matt Phillips reports.
- Hershey recently told analysts that, despite the drop in cocoa, the company sees "no change in the pricing environment."
π€ Companies typically don't cut prices unless competition or economic conditions force their hands.
- They also like to make up for lost ground when their input prices fall.
π΄ Allison Kleinfelter, head of communications at Hershey, tells Axios: "We absorbed unprecedented cocoa costs for two years before taking pricing in 2025 that didn't fully cover those costs."
- "Cocoa markets remain volatile and elevated, and our plan is to recover those costs over the next few years while keeping our brands affordable and accessible."
3. β‘οΈ Catch me up

- βοΈ Pakistan's top military commander is traveling to Tehran today in an effort to reach a deal under which the U.S. and Iran would agree to end the war and start negotiations toward a broader agreement. More from Barak Ravid.
- π A key measure of U.S. consumer sentiment hit a new all-time low this month. The University of Michigan index fell to 44.2 amid worries about gas prices, inflation and more. Go deeper.
- βοΈ Congo's Ebola outbreak now poses a "very high" risk there, the World Health Organization said today. The risk of global spread remains low. Get the latest.
4. π£ 1 for the road: 3D-printed ... chicks?

A biotech company aiming to resurrect lost creatures says it has hatched 26 live chicks from a 3D-printed structure mimicking an eggshell.
π¦ Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm says the tech could one day be used to genetically tweak living birds to resemble extinct species, like New Zealand's South Island giant moa.
- Outside scientists say the technology lacks some components to be truly considered an artificial egg β and that the idea of reviving extinct beasts is likely impossible.
π¬ Thanks for reading! Please invite your friends to join PM.
Sign up for Axios PM

