Axios

One issue is breaking through even among the most loyal Republican supporters: gas prices.

Why it matters: Republicans promised to slash gas prices. But the Iran war sent them soaring, up 37% since President Trump took office.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise won't talk about defeat, even as his outside GOP allies are pulling money anyway.

Why it matters: Republicans face brutal political headwinds, but Scalise (R-La.) stands out from his fellow leaders for refusing to even contemplate losing the House.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday lobbied a bipartisan group of senators to press the Trump administration to remove what he claimed are restrictions on intelligence sharing and weapons supplies.

Why it matters: Ukrainian officials say the Trump administration has quietly imposed these limits without admitting it publicly in an attempt to press Zelensky to accept a deal to end the war that includes more concessions to Russia.

Steve Pajcic, the 80-year-old Florida attorney funding a surprise $7 million Democratic ad blitz in four red-state Senate races, tells Axios his family could double that and expand into more long-shot states.

Why it matters: Pajcic is testing whether buying cheap TV time in races the party has been slow to fund can stretch a Democratic wave to places it hasn't won in decades.

• He says his party is "too cautious" and aiming too low, both in the seats it's pursuing and what it hopes to accomplish in power.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to the Reconstruction-era ban on distilling alcohol in private homes.

Why it matters: Americans can legally brew beer or make wine at home, but making whiskey, vodka or other spirits can land them in federal prison. The Supreme Court could change that.

Top Trump adviser Ric Grenell allegedly outlined a stunning pay-for-influence offer to a Turkish billionaire last year: access to "POTUS," "VIP events" and administration officials, according to a text message, reviewed by Axios, that the White House counsel is investigating.

• "Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy Centre [sic], and you'll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS," the May 3, 2025, text says.
• Grenell has called the accusations "lies" and denied sending the text message.

Why it matters: Administration officials say the text is a key piece of evidence in the White House's investigation — ordered by President Trump — into whether Grenell abused the president's trust and misappropriated a potential multimillion-dollar donation to the Kennedy Center, which Grenell led at the time.

The Supreme Court denied on Monday a bid by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks, to reinstate plea agreements that would have spared him and two co-defendants the death penalty.

Why it matters: The denial keeps the death penalty on the table for the accused 9/11 plotters as they move closer to their June 2028 military trial date, when the government hopes to finally secure convictions more than 25 years after one of America's deadliest terrorist attacks.

DALLAS — The aerospace industry's growth is pushing Dallas employers and educators to focus on training more skilled workers as technology redefines the sector's standards.

Why it matters: Heightened national security needs and rising commercial aviation demands are fueling investment in North Texas' aerospace and defense industries, underscoring the importance of a highly skilled workforce.

Axios' Colin Demarest and Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi spoke with Tarrant County College Aviation Technology department chair Phillip Craig, Bell SVP for the Bell 525 Michael Deslatte, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control VP of operations Michael Patton, and Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas president and CEO Laura Ward. The Oct. 14 event was sponsored by GE Aerospace.

What they're saying: Patton said Lockheed Martin is aiming to hire 2,000 Texas employees over the next year, citing a growing sense of "national security urgency."

• "We are definitely seeing people wanting to migrate into our industry," he said.
• Retaining young workers and bolstering the talent pipeline supported by job training investments comes down to "communicating opportunity often," Ward said.
• "I think upskilling while they're on the job is really important," Ward said of maintaining a robust workforce for the industry.
• New technology, including AI, is speeding up the productivity and efficiency of young aerospace engineers, Deslatte said. "It used to take a better part of a decade for a brand-new engineer to become fairly productive within an OEM [original equipment manufacturer] setting. We're seeing that timeline accelerate drastically," he added.

Zoom in: Commercial airline and aerospace industries are facing a projected shortage of aviation maintenance technicians over "the next 20 years," Craig said. TCC aims to prepare students for the most in-demand skills in aerospace, he added.

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View From the Top conversation, chief human resources officer for GE Aerospace Christian Meisner said the aerospace industry needs to prioritize building long-term career opportunities for employees, starting with apprenticeship and training programs.

• "Whether it's an apprenticeship program, whether it's a partnership with a local community college or a tech school … we really need to scale."

Go deeper: Watch the full conversation.

The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota sits in one of America's poorest counties, with a poverty rate estimated to hover above 50%. It's also where Devyn Valandra has started a business, now with support from one of venture capital's most successful investors.

Why it matters: Devyn isn't competing with Dario or Elon. But what he and others like him are doing is just as challenging — trying to grow in the literal and figurative badlands.

President Trump's moves to avoid new penalties on Russian energy sent shockwaves through Washington, sparking diplomatic tensions and political turmoil.

Why it matters: Trump's push to lower energy prices ahead of the midterms could provide Russia an economic lifeline and is exposing divisions within his own party.

It got kind of wild in the U.S. Treasury market last week: The yield on the benchmark 10-year note swung in surprising ways as investors digested hot inflation reports and AI jitters.

Why it matters: Get used to it. Volatility could be a new normal.

Health care stocks have done well in recent months as investors turn toward "defensive" shares and appear to have priced in increasing odds of Democrats gaining power in the midterm elections.

Why it matters: The price moves suggest that traders and investors see increasing odds that some cuts to federal health spending imposed by President Trump's big 2025 spending bill could be undone, analysts say.

Bob Woodward — in an eye-opening excerpt from his forthcoming memoir, "Secrets," that's previewed in the new issue of The New Yorker — reveals that one of his best friends, the late Richard Darman, was also one of his best sources during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

• "Darman was willing, even eager at times, to talk about the most sensitive intelligence matters, including N.S.A. intercepts and covert C.I.A. operations," Woodward writes in his book, out Nov. 15. "He was always careful not to talk about matters that would harm national security, I believed, but he would go right up to the edge — a reporter's dream source."

The AI boom is about to rewrite the rules of global philanthropy, shifting its center of gravity to Silicon Valley, where the IPOs of AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI will create the world's largest charitable organizations.

Why it matters: Rather than massive donations earmarked for renaming hospital wings or university graduate programs, expect the new wave of giving to mirror startup culture: flexible capital, ambitious bets and a search for measurable impact.

AI is producing reality-bending midterm ads about defaced Bibles, upscale dinners and a board game with a "Death to America" playing card.

Why it matters: The warnings about deepfakes are coming true. Election laws haven't kept pace with a world where campaigns can put words in opponents' mouths and create realistic-looking scenes that didn't happen.