Axios

In any other context, it would be a career-ender: A federal jury ordered the Republican presidential front-runner to pay $5 million after finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming a famous writer.

Why it matters: E. Jean Carroll's successful lawsuit against former President Trump is a landmark moment in the #MeToo era. And yet recent history suggests it will do little — if anything — to dislodge Trump's iron grip over the Republican Party.

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) has responded to multiple reports Tuesday that he faces federal charges for criminal offenses.

Driving the news: "This is news to me," Santos told AP in a brief interview about the unspecified charges first reported by CNN.

President Biden publicly signaled on Tuesday that he's weighing options to take debt ceiling default off the table in the future, including a controversial theory that claims the debt limit can be ignored.

Driving the news: "I have been considering the 14th Amendment," Biden told reporters after a White House meeting with congressional leadership.

The Allen shooter brought eight weapons with him, all of which were purchased legally, authorities said at a news conference Tuesday.

The big picture: Representatives from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the FBI and Allen police didn't offer many new details about the shooting or the suspect, Mauricio Garcia from Dallas, focusing mostly on the support they have provided to the community since the attack.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) emerged from a Tuesday meeting with President Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House railing against Biden’s continued insistence on a clean debt ceiling increase.

Yes, but: Despite saying there was no “new movement” in the meeting with congressional leaders, McCarthy said they plan to sit down again later this week.

Tucker Carlson, two weeks after being ousted by Fox News, accused the network Tuesday of fraud and breach of contract — and made a host of document demands that could precede legal action.

Why it matters: The aggressive letter from his lawyers to Fox positions Carlson to argue that the noncompete provision in his contract is no longer valid — freeing him to launch his own competing show or media enterprise.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is expected to return to the Senate this week, her spokesperson Adam Russell told Axios.

Why it matters: The development caps off a more than two-month absence by the 89-year-old senator following her hospitalization for shingles in March.

Vulnerable House Republicans from New York are warning that President Biden’s planned trip to their home turf on Wednesday could only serve to further strain tensions between them and the White House.

Why it matters: These GOP lawmakers — who would be critical to a Democratic effort to pass a clean debt ceiling increase – see Biden’s speech as a provocative ploy to pressure them into supporting that push.

As Hollywood writers continue a massive strike against studios, some say they're worried that the unregulated use of artificial intelligence could hurt efforts to diversify the industry.

Details: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) wants the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to regulate the use of AI in projects covered by its agreements and declare that AI can't write or rewrite literary material or be used as source material.

Here's a special excerpt for Axios readers from "The Joy Of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurrection, and Life's Other Unexpected Curveballs," out Tuesday from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

Why it matters: "You see, you need to start where you are," the senator writes in the introduction. "Your obstacles are your path. And sometimes when you don’t quite make it to the top of the trail, you learn all kinds of lessons along the way."

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is out with her first 2024 TV ad Tuesday, attacking former President Trump and warning that he "is a risk America can never take again."

Driving the news: Cheney, who has not ruled out a 2024 bid herself, does not appear in the 60-second ad, but she narrates over footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying that "there has never been a greater dereliction of duty by any president."

This year has seen more mass killings to date than any other year since 2006, according to a database from USA Today, Northeastern University, and Associated Press.

Driving the news: The killings in 2023 have been driven "exclusively by gun violence," as all 22 incidents of mass murder this year have involved guns, per AP.

Call it the Trump Law of Inverse Reactions: Everything that would seem to hurt the former president only makes him stronger.

Why it matters: Trump's grip over Republicans seems stronger than ever — and chances of beating President Biden are as high as ever.

• This dynamic is similar to the stunning election of 2016.

Jonathan Karl of ABC News, author of two bestsellers about former President Trump, will be out Nov. 7 with his deeply reported "Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party."

Driving the news: "From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has engineered a remarkable comeback," Karl told Axios. "He left the White House as a disgraced and defeated president in January 2021 and managed to once again become the dominant figure in the Republican Party."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Axios the odds of him running to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) are an “absolute tossup” as he sets a June deadline to decide.

Why it matters: The high-profile House Oversight Committee ranking member, who served as a Jan. 6 committee member and Trump impeachment manager, would likely be a leading contender for the seat.

House conservatives have high expectations for Speaker Kevin McCarthy's White House debt ceiling meeting on Tuesday, saying he doesn't have a "lot of wiggle room" when negotiating with President Biden.

Why it matters: The House GOP's strictest fiscal conservatives say McCarthy has promised them he won't accept any legislation that doesn't include the majority of their demands that made it into the House-passed measure.

Failure is not an option in the debt ceiling talks. But flirting with it may be necessary to reach a deal.

Why it matters: For a compromise between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on raising the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt limit to be possible, the political environment needs to change dramatically, top Democrats and Republicans privately acknowledge.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides will leave his post this summer after nearly two years in Jerusalem, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Nides announced his departure at a time when the Netanyahu government's controversial judicial overhaul continues to complicate the U.S.-Israel relationship. President Biden still hasn't invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House — more than four months after the Israeli leader was sworn in.

Israeli strikes on Gaza Tuesday killed at least 13 Palestinians, including eight civilians and three senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commanders, according to Palestinian officials.

Why it matters: It's the biggest Israeli military operation in Gaza since last August when Israeli forces conducted a wave of air strikes against the PIJ group. Tuesday's strikes will likely lead to a wider escalation.

Canada's government on Monday expelled a Chinese diplomat who was accused of trying to intimidate a lawmaker who had sponsored a motion that declared Beijing's treatment of Muslim Uyghurs as a genocide.

Driving the news: Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in a statement announced the government had declared the Toronto-based diplomat Zhao Wei "persona non grata." Hours later, Beijing took retaliatory measures.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried asked a federal court in Manhattan Monday to dismiss several criminal charges against him over the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.

Driving the news: Lawyers for Bankman-Fried, who's pleaded not guilty to fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance law violations and money laundering, in a filing argued that several of the charges failed to properly state an offense.

Washington state is setting aside money to help people who were hurt by racially restrictive real estate covenants — documents that were used to enforce segregation in the early- to mid-20th century.

Driving the news: Gov. Jay Inslee signed a measure into law Monday that will create a downpayment assistance program for people affected by the racist covenants, which were often used to ban property from being sold or rented to someone who wasn't white. Descendants of those discriminated against would also qualify under the law.