The centrist Blue Dog Coalition is backing challengers to high-profile Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.) in its first endorsements of 2024.
Why it matters: The group of Congress' most right-leaning Democrats is trying to rebuild its ranks after successive election losses and a schism in January decimated its membership.
Israel is offering to pause the fighting in Gaza for at least one week as part of a new deal to get Hamas to release more than three dozen hostages the terror group is holding, two Israeli officials and another source with knowledge of the situation told Axios.
Why it matters: The proposal, made through Qatari mediators, is the first Israel has offered since the collapse of a deal last month that led to a seven-day ceasefire and the release of more than 100 hostages.
The names of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein associates could be made public next month after a federal judge on Monday ordered an array of court documents to be unsealed.
The big picture: The documents are a part of a settled civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced last year to 20years in prison on sex trafficking and other charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
Civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to challenge the new Texas law that gives local police authority over immigration enforcement.
The big picture: Critics say the law is unconstitutional and could lead to racial profiling.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday submitted his formal letter of resignation from Congress, which will take effect on Dec. 31.
Why it matters: It caps off a nearly two decade career in which the Californian steadily climbed the ranks of GOP leadership to become speaker in January, before his ignominious ouster just eight months later.
Roughly 60 protestors calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war were arrested Tuesday for holding a demonstration in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, the Capitol Police said.
Why it matters: It's one of multiple such demonstrations that have rocked Capitol Hill – with lawmakers on edge about their security – since the onset of the war in October.
Senate leaders have pulled a provision from this year's defense policy bill that would have expanded compensation for victims of the Trinity Test — the world's first atomic explosion.
Why it matters: A federal law, which awards financial reparations to people who lived downwind of nuclear testing sites, is scheduled to sunset this summer, and people in New Mexico near where the Trinity Test occurred aren't included.
To examinethe origins of white supremacy in America, one may not need to look only to 1619 or 1776, but also 1493 — the year Pope Alexander VI issued the "Doctrine of Discovery," author Robert P. Jones writes in a new book.
The big picture: Jones tells Axios that any search for the nation's origin story needs to consider this largely overlooked doctrine because it shaped the racial order of the U.S.
Some women writers in Latin America are shifting away from the magic realism that defined the20th Century literary boom and instead focusing on the raw realities of sexism, violence and displacement.
The big picture: Colombian writer Pilar Quintana, Ecuadorian writer and journalist María Fernanda Ampuero and Mexican author Cristina Rivera Garza are among the writers leading the next generation.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court, was memorialized at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.
The big picture: O'Connor, who retired from the court in 2006, died on Dec. 1 in Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of 93 from complications from advanced dementia.
A trade group representing Facebook, TikTok and X is suing Utah for its pending age restrictions on social media access.
Driving the news: In a lawsuit filed Monday, NetChoice, which represents Meta and other social media giants, argued the age verification and parental consent rules passed in March violate the First Amendment rights of children and adults.
President Biden's reluctance to acknowledge his physical limitations at age 81 is causing some tension on his team, as senior aides and First Lady Jill Biden push him to rest more and be vigilant about his health going into 2024.
Why it matters: Current and former aides say Biden is extraordinarily energetic for his age. But his repeated insistence that he feels so young can draw eye rolls: Some current and former aides believe Biden doesn't realize how old he can come across.
Autonomous trucking developer Torc Robotics is test-driving its prototypes on historic Route 66 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as it works toward commercial deployment.
Driving the news: Torc says it's on track to use its autonomous trucks for deliveries with no safety driver by 2027, and recently unveiled more detailed plans to get them operating across the American Southwest.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed into law Monday legislation that authorizes state officials to arrest and seek the deportation of migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without legal authorization.
Why it matters: The new law that's due to take effect in March is a major escalation in Abbott's pushback against President Biden's border policies and one that critics say is unconstitutional and could lead to racial profiling.
A Florida man has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a U.S. Supreme Court justice, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
The big picture: Neal Brij Sidhwaney, 43, of Fernandina Beach, faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison after he admitted to transmitting an interstate threat to the justice, who was not named, per a Department of Justice statement.
The 118th Congress is on track to be one of the most unproductive in modern history, with just a couple dozen laws on the books at the close of 2023, according to data from data analytics firm Quorum.
Why it matters: It's the product of not only divided partisan control of Washington, but infighting within the House Republican majority that has routinely ground legislative business to a halt.
House Republicans have entered holiday recess resigned to the prospect of punting again on their spending priorities to avoid a government shutdown.
Why it matters: Fear has gripped some in the House GOP about getting jammed by the Senate on a massive omnibus spending package, raising the odds that the House chooses to instead extend former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) budget into 2025.
Nikki Haley's polling surgein New Hampshire has unleashed a new frenzy of hope from restless pundits and anti-Trump conservatives eager for signs of a competitive Republican primary.
Reality check: While the former UN ambassador's momentum is unmistakable, so too are the immense challenges she faces from GOP voters who have stuck by former President Trump through the worst of times.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Monday the expansion of a multinational maritime security force to protect ships in the Red Sea from missile and drone attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Why it matters: "The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law," Austin said in a statement.
