President Trump canceled the trip by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad due to the Iranian position in peace negotiations, he told Axios.
Why it matters: The envoys had been expected to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a trip designed to break a diplomatic stalemate and build momentum for a deal.
The Trump administration moved faster than anyone expected to build a system to repay businesses billions of dollars in tariffs. Now, the president is warning companies not to use it.
Why it matters: Businesses face an especially tricky quandary: On the one hand, consumers and some lawmakers are calling on them to pass down refunds to their customers. On the other, there's now political pressure not to seek refunds at all.
President Trump is governing like a man who will never face voters again, mortgaging his party's future on promises he won't be around to keep.
Why it matters: Trump's approval has plunged to a second-term low. His signature bets — tariffs, the war in Iran, redistricting — are curdling into long-term liabilities the GOP could carry long past November.
Israel has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign — spearheaded by a former top lieutenant of President Trump — to reshape how AI platforms portray the nation.
Why it matters: Platforms like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are increasingly central to shaping perceptions — and countries, corporations and other powerful interests are spending big to influence them.
The Department of Justice said Friday it will drop a criminal probe into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, a sharp pivot in an unprecedented investigation into the nation's top central banker.
Why it matters: It opens the path for President Trump's pick to lead the Fed, Kevin Warsh, to be confirmed to the post after a standoff with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who blocked confirmation until the investigation was closed.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Pakistan on Saturday for negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the White House said.
Iranian state media denied that any meeting had been scheduled.
Why it matters: While President Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran, the diplomatic efforts haven't made any progress in recent days. The planned trip is an effort to break the stalemate and build momentum for a deal before Trump goes back to exploring military options.
The big picture: A significant challenge to combating mental health issues is resistance to treatment — a hurdle that research suggests psychedelic therapy could help patients clear.
The best way business leaders can receive help from President Trump is to "just tell him the truth," former White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich told Axios co-founder Mike Allen on Friday.
Why it matters: Chief of staff Susie Wiles' former aide has spent half a decade in Trump's inner circle, giving Budowich a close view of decision-making inside the Oval Office.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down a brutal pre-recess session next week as he tries to cram three high-stakes votes through a fractured conference.
Why it matters: Johnson (R-La.) has built a reputation for pulling off the improbable. But his rank-and-file have shown a new willingness to buck President Trump, who the speaker relies on to close tough votes.
Economists and analysts say that AI in the long term will make the economy more productive — we'll get more done in less time, and that might even keep inflation in check.
Why it matters: It's a long complicated road to get to that fairy-tale ending. In the short term, AI is actually increasing inflation modestly at a time of more urgent inflationary pressures like war.
The bottling up of Middle East oil is giving a lift to U.S. exports, but there are real limits on how much more they can grow.
Why it matters: President Trump keeps talking up U.S. exports as the Strait of Hormuzis blocked, and oil and gas exports give America more geopolitical leverage.
Persian Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates have plenty of dollars, yet they're asking the U.S. for access to more — via what's called swap lines — and the Trump administration seems open to the idea.
Why it matters: The asks are less about finances and more about politics — a sign of how the U.S. is trying to maintain dollar dominance amid a changing geopolitical backdrop.
The push to block ICE's plans to expand detention centers is fueling a coordinated national day of protests on Saturday.
Why it matters: No Kings protests have shown an appetite among Americans to unify against some Trump administration policies, and the latest effort — organized by the Disappeared in America campaign — is building on that momentum.
The Vatican is racing to build digital defenses for the artificial intelligence era — and quietly positioning itself as a global referee of what's real.
Why it matters: The Holy See is moving faster than most other legacy institutions to shape rules and guardrails in verifying reality, with urgency that's unfolding amid unusual geopolitical and digital clashes.
Florida bans lawmakers from intentionally creating congressional seats to give their party an advantage. But Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly has launched a three-tiered power play to evade the ban — and create more GOP-friendly seats — in November.
Why it matters: Partisan control of Congress could hinge on how — or whether — Florida legislators approve DeSantis' new map of U.S. House districts in a special session next Tuesday.
Breakfast meetings, happy hours and group chats across Washington are abuzz with the same question: Who gets axed next?
The big picture: The ousters this month of U.S. Navy Secretary John Phelan and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, alongside two other service leaders, have intensified Pentagon palace intrigue.
The nerves are particularly charged inside the building.
A cohort of resistance-minded House Democrats is pushing their colleagues to begin building the case against President Trumpnow in anticipation of a Day 1 impeachment vote if they retake the House.
Why it matters: The mere existence of this movement demonstrates just how much pressure lawmakers who have not yet gotten on board with impeachment will face in January of 2027.
Key deadlines set out in President Trump's executive order targeting state AI laws have passed, with agencies failing to deliver on major steps that were due more than a month ago.
Why it matters: The missed deadlines are raising doubts about how forcefully the administration can follow through on its push to rein in states on AI regulation.
A U.S. special forces soldier was arrested and charged with using classified information about the raid to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to profit from prediction market bets, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Why it matters: The case lands as regulators and lawmakers intensify scrutiny of prediction markets — offering a real-world test of how aggressively authorities pursue insider trading tied to sensitive government information.
This is the first time the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed charges of insider trading in connection with event contracts, per a CFTC statement.
Senior Republican officials called Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday after a new crypto super PAC seeded by his former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, indicated in a FEC filing that it planned to spend $1.75 million backing Ken Paxton in Texas, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: GOP leaders were alarmed that the new group, Fellowship PAC, was wading into a contentious primary runoff in which President Trump has famously dithered about taking a side between Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn.
