Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is shaking up her team with several departures and new aides, sources tell Axios.
Why it matters: The personnel changes come months before the progressive leader will decide whether to launch a presidential campaign. She's also weighing a run for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's seat, which is also up in 2028.
President Trump pledged Friday to allow farmers and ranchers to process their own meat in a salvo aimed at the industry's four dominant meatpackers, calling them a "nasty Monopoly."
Why it matters: The president is under pressure to help a constituency his own policies have squeezed — increasing farmers' costs while raising prices for consumers on products like beef.
Roughly 200 accounts from a suspected Chinese bot farm have quietly tried to influence Americans to oppose AI data centers on social media, X said Thursday night.
Why it matters: The U.S. and China are racing to build the world's most advanced AI systems — and it appears Chinese propaganda has infiltrated American circles with the hope of slowing the U.S. down.
A federal judge again declined to erase President Trump's hush money conviction on Friday, noting that the president's arguments were "neither new nor legally sufficient."
Why it matters: The loss is another blow to the president, who has sought to get the conviction of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records thrown out after the Supreme Court ruled presidents have immunity for "official acts."
Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh said Friday that the central bank's leaders have "work to do" if they are not confident that inflation is moving to 2% "clearly and at sufficient speed," implying that interest rate hikes are ahead in the absence of improvement in price pressures.
The big picture: In a much-anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Warsh made clear that he is committed to the Fed's longstanding policy playbook of using interest rate adjustments to try to manage inflation — even as he sees this as a "hinge point in history" with the advent of AI.
It raises the strong possibility that the Fed's next move will be an interest rate increase, which could put him crosswise with President Trump, who has long sought rate cuts.
Republicans will have some stiff competition for eyeballs when they hold their first-ever midterm convention next month in Dallas — the NFL, American television's undisputed champion of ratings.
Driving the news: The GOP's Sept. 9-10 convention in Dallas will go head-to-head with the two opening games of the NFL season, which are expected to draw huge audiences each night.
The Strait of Hormuz has been Iran's most powerful card since the start of the war in late February. But over the past two months, U.S. officials say the American military has steadily eroded Iran's leverage over the crucial waterway.
Why it matters: What began six months ago with the goal of degrading Iran's missile capabilities and destroying what remained of its nuclear program has evolved into an open-ended fight over the world's most important energy chokepoint.
The Iran war hits its six-month mark Friday, with President Trump's path to ending it increasingly unclear.
Why it matters:Trump entered the war projecting a four- to five-week military campaign. Six months later, his proposed exits have ranged from military victory to a negotiated peace deal tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
A federal judge on Thursday struck down the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, ruling that the government's actions violated Anthropic's constitutional rights.
Why it matters: The ruling marks a major legal victory for Anthropic in its months-long fight with the Trump administration over how the military can use its AI models.
Unhoused people. Criminal justice-impacted individuals. Substance use disorder. Birthing people.
Several Democrats eyeing 2028 runs for president say the party has a vocabulary problem as much as a messaging one. The left's embrace of "woke" buzzwords alienated working-class voters and drove many of them to Donald Trump, they say.
Why it matters: To get them back, they want more Democrats to start speaking more like ordinary people — and less like progressive politicos or liberal arts professors.
Three Stars and Stripes leaders sued the Pentagon on Thursday, alleging Defense Department officials are threatening to fire them in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Why it matters: The lawsuit escalates a fight over the editorial independence of a military newspaper partially funded through congressional appropriations.
National Democrats and Republicans are pressuring local TV stations to respond in opposite ways to a new federal court ruling on political ad rates, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: How they respond will have a major impact on the fight for control of Congress by deciding which party's ad money goes further in the final stretch of the 2026 midterms.
