Axios

After hitting a wall in Congress, gun control advocates are increasingly saying they'll need to change the country's culture before they can change its laws.

• That was the message from advocates and experts in conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Wednesday.

The nation's biggest banks are healthy enough to keep lending in the face of a severe economic shock, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday as the central bank and other regulators prepare to propose harsher regulations for the financial sector.

Why it matters: The results of the Fed’s annual stress tests — which factor into how much capital banks need to hold — come after a string of bank failures earlier this year took regulators by surprise.

President Biden has recently started to use a CPAP machine to treat his sleep apnea, the White House confirmed Wednesday.

Driving the news: “Since 2008, the President has disclosed his history with sleep apnea in thorough medical reports. He used a CPAP machine last night, which is common for people with that history," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.

The federal government budget deficit is set to soar in the coming years with the rise of spending on health care programs and Social Security as well as interest costs, the Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday.

Why it matters: The nonpartisan agency's budget outlook is the latest with a gloomy long-term view for the nation's debt and could crowd out private investment, slow growth and risk a crisis.

When the U.S. began shipping missiles to Ukraine last year, the defense community believed new supply could be spun up with relative ease. But that faith was misplaced, leading to missile stockpile shortages and an unexpected merger.

Why it matters: What's now a supply chain glitch could become a national security nightmare were the U.S. to be drawn into a larger war, in Ukraine or somewhere else.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized former President Trump for reportedly diverting 2024 campaign donations into a political action committee that he has used to pay his legal fees.

Driving the news: Trump is "the cheapest S.O.B. I’ve ever met in my life,” Christie, who is Trump's most vocal critic in the crowded 2024 Republican primary, told POLITICO on Tuesday.

It may take a while, but former President Trump has entertained the idea of returning to his happy place on Twitter, where he's been absent for nearly 2 1/2 years, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Trump still has nearly 87 million followers on Twitter, but hasn't posted there since he was banned after the Jan. 6 riot in 2021. Now a growing number of Trump allies — and some close to his campaign — are expecting him to tweet again.

The Supreme Court rejected a once-fringe legal theory that would have granted state legislatures unchecked authority to run federal elections, gutting an argument cited by former President Trump's allies in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6.

Why it matters: At a moment of record-low trust in institutions, all three branches of government have now taken steps to fortify the guardrails of democracy challenged by Trump's unprecedented efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In countries around the world, people are now more likely to name the U.S. as the world's leading economic power, rather than China, according to a new Pew Research Center report published Tuesday.

Why it matters: The findings underscore the U.S.' economic dominance as nations emerge from the upheaval of the pandemic and highlights the divide between the two superpowers even as U.S.-China relations remain strained.

A New York appeals court dismissed Ivanka Trump from a civil fraud case brought by the state's attorney general against former President Trump, the Trump Organization, her brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and others.

Why it matters: New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2022 accused the former president, his elder children and employees of the Trump Organization of committing financial fraud by misrepresenting valuations on financial statements.

The U.S. government may have lost more than $200 billion in potential fraud through two COVID relief programs, according to estimates released Tuesday by the inspector general of the Small Business Administration.

Why it matters: The new figures are higher than the previous estimates and underscore the scale to which fraudsters targeted the pandemic relief programs.

Latinos don't think much of Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk, according to an exclusive Axios-Ipsos Latino poll in partnership with Noticias Telemundo.

Why it matters: Hispanics are among the fastest-growing consumers in the U.S. and are avid social media users, which could spell trouble for Musk if they continue to shun his electric vehicles or flee Twitter.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday walked back his earlier comments expressing uncertainty over former President Trump's strength as a 2024 candidate, telling Breitbart News that Trump is "stronger today than he was in 2016."

The big picture: McCarthy's comments earlier on Tuesday were uncharacteristic of the California Republican, who has been a staunch Trump ally and defended him throughout his legal woes.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear testimony from both Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray in the coming months.

Why it matters: The testimony comes as House Republicans are bombarding the Justice Department with demands for information, allegations of a "two-tiered" criminal justice system and even threats of possible impeachment.

Progressives are warning that what they see as poor messaging on the country's economic gains is weakening Latino support for Democrats, including President Biden, in Nevada and Arizona — two key battleground states.

Driving the news: Valiente, the research wing of the Way to Win Action Fund, today released findings from eight focus groups where Latino voters in both of those states expressed only "soft" support for Biden, adding that he did not do anything to help them or their families and that they did not know about Democrats' accomplishments over the past two years, such as the America Rescue Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected one of Republicans’ most audacious attempts to control elections.

The big picture: In a 6-3 decision, the justices said states' election laws can be challenged in court — a rebuke to a burgeoning conservative movement that has sought to block the courts from hearing such cases.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that he thinks former President Trump could beat President Biden in 2024, but expressed some doubt about whether the former president is the "strongest" candidate.

Why it matters: McCarthy has not given an endorsement in the crowded 2024 Republican contest, but he's been a staunch ally to Trump, especially as he faces criminal charges.

Former Navy SEAL officer Tim Sheehy announced Tuesday that he's running for Senate as a Republican in Montana.

Why it matters: Montana's Senate race is shaping up to be among the most competitive in the nation and could help decide control of the Senate.

Former President Trump and other Republican presidential hopefuls are skirting questions about what abortion policies they'd support if elected, in a sign of ambivalence over a topic that's perennially fired up the conservative base.

Driving the news: Trump over the weekend said that the federal government had a "vital role" in opposing abortion, but wouldn't elaborate on what federal restrictions he'd support — a guarded stance for someone who's accustomed to defining the terms of intra-party debates.

Artificial intelligence and generative bots like ChatGPT are poised to upend modern American politics in the same way that social media reset the playbook in 2008, with mounting warnings for democracy.

Why it matters: Top technologists are portraying a dystopian landscape in 2024 in which misinformation and disinformation proliferate with a speed and ease that means "you can't trust anything that you see or hear," as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt puts it.

Malaria has been spread by mosquitos locally in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years, per a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alert issued Monday.

Driving the news: Four people in Sarasota County, Florida, and a person in Cameron County, Texas, contracted the potentially deadly disease over a period from late May to late June through local transmission, according to the CDC. "All patients have received treatment and are improving," per a CDC statement.

CNN released exclusive audio on Monday seeming to show former President Trump discussing sensitive documents during a 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Why it matters: The two-minute audio recording could hold key evidence in Trump's indictment over his handling of classified information after he left the White House.

The 30 men remaining at Guantánamo Bay face "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law" at the U.S. detention center, a United Nations human rights investigator said Monday.

Driving the news: "The U.S. government must urgently provide judicial resolution, apology and guarantees of non-repetition," said Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, as she released her report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The shooter who killed five people and wounded 17 others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to November's attack on Monday.

Driving the news: Anderson Lee Aldrich received five consecutive life sentences in a state court without the possibility of parole for the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs and was sentenced to a further 2,208 years in prison over attempted murder charges.

Former NIAID director Anthony Fauci will be joining the faculty at Georgetown University on July 1, the university announced Monday.

The big picture: Fauci's move to the university's School of Medicine and McCourt School of Public Policy comes after he stepped down from the NIH, where he served the government for over 50 years and advised seven presidents on health crises ranging from Ebola to COVID-19.

Biden administration officials on Monday denounced online harassment against a Wall Street Journal reporter who asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his government's human rights record at the White House last week.

Driving the news: Sabrina Siddiqui has been subject to "intense online harassment from people inside India," some of them politicians associated with Modi's government, and is being targeted because of her Muslim faith, another reporter said during a White House press briefing Monday.