Axios

Meta's landmark settlement over claims its products harmed children underscores years of congressional deadlock over kids' online safety legislation.

Why it matters: The settlement will force Meta to make changes to its products and pay billions after Congress repeatedly failed to pass federal rules to protect children online.

The Trump administration has struck data-sharing deals with major technology firms to help track how AI is affecting jobs and hiring, acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling told Axios.

Why it matters: AI could reshape the labor market faster than traditional government statistics can capture it. That could make it difficult for economic policymakers to see major shifts in jobs and hiring in real time.

The chair of a key Senate Judiciary subcommittee is launching an investigation into Flock Safety's "collection, retention, and dissemination of the data" from its AI-powered surveillance cameras, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The probe represents the highest level of backlash to date towards Flock cameras, which have rapidly evolved from the target of local governments and activists to a major national political issue.

President Trump recently blurted out that North Korea has 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons.

• Experts told Axios that is believable, but is most likely an undercount.

Why it matters: Nuclear arsenals are often spoken of in generalities — round numbers, increases and decreases, confidence levels. Specifics like this, especially from the very top, are rare and raise hackles.

Rolls-Royce will this week mark the completion of a $1 billion investment in Indiana, where the company has expanded and renovated its manufacturing, assembly and test facilities.

The big picture: The overhaul competitively positions Rolls-Royce amid wartime-production messaging from the Pentagon and a growing portfolio of projects, including propulsion for the Army's MV-75, the Air Force's B-52J and the Navy's MQ-25A.

• "If you go back to 2014, we knew that we were at an inflection point. We had aging facilities, some dating back to World War II," Adam Riddle, president of Rolls-Royce Defense, told Axios.

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — The scrubby, scorching-hot hills of Range 63 bustled last week with soldiers and contractors. Some nursed cans of Monster. Some rocked sunglasses and sun shirts. Some handled shotgun magazines.

• A futuristic Ford F-250 was posted at one end of the range. Atop sat a 12-gauge turret, dubbed Edda, that shredded two targets as they flew overhead. A small shipping container labeled "Bee Hive" was parked at the other end. It brimmed with Bumblebee V2 drones, which zipped toward the horizon one after the other.
• In the middle, a crew with Safe Pro AI pored over aerial imagery and algorithms to identify hidden mines. And somewhere farther off, another F-250 finessed a slurry line charge into place. Its detonation, seen and felt, hurled into the air smoke and dust.

The big picture: This hourslong jam session was part of Sandhills 2.0, an ongoing experiment meant to remove U.S. troops from some of the bloodiest battlefield tasks, like breaching.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' long-standing tensions with his party's left flank resurfaced this week after news broke of his meeting with President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Why it matters: Jeffries will have to make nice with the left next year if Democrats win back the House with only a narrow majority. Blowups like this are not helping.

A federal appeals court ruling Tuesday could erase a new midterm advantage for Republicans.

Why it matters: The 2-1 ruling would block Republicans from using cash-rich party committees to buy more political TV ads at discounted rates.

Sen. Darline Graham, President Trump's endorsed candidate, won the Republican nomination Tuesday to fill the Senate vacancy created by her brother Lindsey Graham's death, per the AP.

Why it matters: The victory underscores Trump's continued sway with Republican voters and positions Graham as the odds-on favorite to win a full term in November.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told several of his foreign counterparts in recent days that "for the time being" the U.S. is not expected to initiate new strikes against Iran, according to a U.S. official and a second source with knowledge of the matter.

• Instead, he's said the focus is on other means of pressure, including the sanctions initiative announced this week.

Why it matters: Rubio's message to foreign ministers from several allied countries comes as the U.S. believes it's suffocating Iran with the naval blockade — while moving ever-increasing amounts of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz.

• It's also another sign that President Trump is exasperated with the war and wants it to be over, at least for now.