topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

jobs

transportation

business

stock-market-news

retail-news

crypto

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

pittsburgh

atlanta

san-diego

charlotte

boulder

washington-dc

kansas-city

dallas

denver

detroit

des-moines

austin

boston

chicago

cleveland

columbus

houston

indianapolis

miami

nashville

new-orleans

nw-arkansas

philadelphia

phoenix

portland

richmond

salt-lake-city

san-antonio

san-francisco

seattle

tampa-bay

twin-cities

raleigh

huntsville

colorado-springs

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

National

Robert Mueller's team has been working "extensively" with White House counsel Don McGahn, the New York Times reports as he shares "detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart" of the special counsel's investigation. 

Why it matters: It's unusual for a lawyer to be so open with investigators probing matters regarding his client, the Times' Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt point out. Trump's legal team has "explained that they believe their client had nothing to hide and that they could bring the investigation to an end quickly." McGahn has met with Mueller's team for at least three voluntary interviews totaling 30 hours over nine months, the NYT reports.

 The big picture: McGahn and his lawyer, William Burck, "devised their own strategy" to cooperate with Mueller as a safe-guard, the Times reports. Because Trump was "so willing" to let McGahn speak with Mueller's team, they feared that Trump "was setting up Mr. McGahn to take the blame for any possible illegal acts of obstruction." 

Full cooperation with Mueller was seen as "the only choice he had to protect himself."

The White House did not exert attorney-client privilege — which would have allowed the president to withhold some information — meaning that McGahn has had to answer Mueller's questions in full. 

McGahn and Burck met with Mueller's team for the first time in November. Per the Times, McGahn "was a fruitful witness" because of his involvement in so many events being questioned by the special counsel. 

He told the special counsel of Trump's "mind-set" in the days leading up to his firing of former FBI Director James Comey. 

He spoke to them about the White House's handling of the firing of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

He also told Mueller's team about Trump's relationship with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as he "tried to get him to assert control over the investigation." 

A deputy independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation, Solomon Wisenburg, told the Times: "A prosecutor would kill for that. ... [I]t would have been phenomenally helpful to us. It would have been like have the keys to the kingdom." 

The president responded to the report claiming the White House "readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history."

White House counsel Don McGahn cooperating "extensively" with Mueller

McGahn felt suspicious that Trump would throw him under the bus.

Politics

Mueller investigation

World

In the months electric scooters for rent started cropping up in cities across the country, the response hasn’t exactly been positive — especially from local governments, which have scrambled to implement pilot programs with strict limits. 

The bottom line: City officials are trying to regain control over private transportation services after ride-hailing companies flooded their streets with cars years ago. But while some upset residents are destroying scooters, many are embracing them as an easy option to get around. 

Payback: For some local officials, this is an opportunity to do what they weren’t able to do years ago when ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft showed up and flooded their cities with cars, angering taxi companies, and not paying what some saw as their fair share of taxes. 

In places like California, for example, ride-hailing companies went straight to state regulators early on to have their business models approved, making it trickier for individual cities to control them. In San Francisco, city officials have blocked public funding in at least two occasions that would go to ride-hailing companies (or services they own), according to the SF Examiner. 

Anti-tech sentiment: Some of the backlash is undeniably part of a large anti-tech sentiment that’s been growing over the last several years, especially in cities where the industry is creating visible socio-economic divides. 

In late May, for example, housing activists in San Francisco used scooters during a protest to block private shuttle buses that transport employees to large tech companies. 

Some scooter companies haven’t helped themselves by aggressively deploying vehicles in cities like San Francisco and Austin before regulations are in place, and later protesting new rules. In Santa Monica, the city’s planning department recommended that the permits be given to Uber and Lyft instead of the companies like Bird, which angered officials when it began operating last year.  

Safety concerns: There are genuine concerns over the safety of scooters. Residents and city officials have been frustrated with the number of scooters left to block roads, sidewalks, and entrances. Many scooter riders also zip along sidewalks instead of bike lanes or streets, despite scooter companies’ claims they try to educate customers how to safely ride.

Public transit: Perhaps a derivative of the effect of ride-hailing services on public transit, a number of city officials worry that new private transportation like scooters will continue to divert ridership (and funds) from local transit. Several cities are asking scooter — and bike-sharing — companies to provide data about their riders as part of obtaining a permit so they can better understand how these various services interact with each other. 

The other side: Scooter backlash is getting substantial media coverage, but it’s not as widespread as it appears. Slews of people in those same cities have embraced this new transportation option because it satisfies their needs. The backlash also exposes the refusal to acknowledge that current options, namely private cars and public transit, aren’t fulfilling many residents’ needs.  

The big picture: Why scooters have faced backlash

Technology

electric scooters

Business

Electric vehicles

Breaking climate science and policy coverage as extreme weather events reshape communities. Keep tabs on the race to a low carbon economy, which may be bumpy as governments, climate tech startups and major oil and gas companies race to find their niche amid the changing energy landscape.

Energy & Climate

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey denied claims the company is discriminating against users with conservative views in an interview with CNN's Brian Stelter.

"Are we doing something according to political ideology or viewpoints? We are not... We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We look at behavior... I think we need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is left, is more left-leaning."

The interview came on the heels of a Saturday morning tweet series from President Trump who slammed social media platforms for "closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others."

The big picture: Twitter has been more aggressive in suspending accounts that are in violation of its terms of service rules in recent months and conservatives feel their views are being unfairly targeted in the platform's purge. 

What happened: Twitter fell under fire from conservatives after it suspended the account of Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones earlier this week. It was just one of many platforms that shut down Jones' accounts this week.

Initially, the company said it would not suspend Jones' account because he had not violated any rules. 

The company was also called out by a Republican congressional candidate for blocking an ad.

Twitter CEO defends company after Trump's discrimination claims

"We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We look at behavior."

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Photo: Michael Cohen/New York Times via Getty Images

Jack Dorsey

Big Tech

Elon Musk

Social Media

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

A Turkish court Friday rejected an appeal for the release of Andrew Brunson, the American pastor who has been held since 2016 on terrorism charges the U.S. says are baseless.

Why it matters: President Trump has fumed in recent days over Brunson’s continued detention, slapping sanctions on Turkey and threatening further action. He told reporters today that Turkey had "acted very, very badly" and "we are not going to take it sitting down." The standoff has sent long-simmering tensions with Turkey boiling over, and led to fears the U.S.-Turkey alliance could break down.

The backdrop: "There has been a crisis in U.S.-Turkey relations for a while now," says Soner Cagaptay, Washington Institute fellow and author of "The New Sultan." He says other issues over which "the two sides disagree vehemently" include:

U.S. support in Syria for the YPG, a Kurdish militia that Turkey views as a terrorist group.

The continued residence in Pennsylvania of Fethullah Gulen — a cleric whom Turkish President Recep Erdogan claims was behind the failed attempt to oust him in 2016.

Looming punishments for Halkbank, a state-owned Turkish bank accused of helping Iran evade sanctions.

With the standoff over Brunson, however, we have entered uncharted waters. "It went from a crisis in the bureaucracy to a crisis at the presidential level," Cagaptay says. 

Trump and Erdogan met on the sidelines of last month's NATO summit, and Trump left under the impression that he and Erdogan had reached a deal: the U.S. would secure the release of a Turkish woman held in Israel, and Turkey would release Brunson.

But when Brunson was moved to house arrest, rather than released, "Trump felt slighted, and took it personally," Cagaptay says.

Trump has now pushed things to the brink, demanding Erdogan's full surrender. "There will be no normalization of relations now without Brunson’s unconditional release," according to Cagaptay.

Erdogan might still have a way out. He could release Brunson, Cagaptay explains, but use his control over the media to frame the move as part of a wider deal that doesn't actually exist. 

So why hasn't he done it? Originally, Erdogan wanted to use Brunson as leverage to reduce the punishment on Halkbank and discourage further investigation of the bank by the Treasury Department. Now he's in a bind, but one that has a silver lining.

"Erdogan didn’t want this crisis with Trump, but now he’s looking at how he can intertwine it with the other crises he faces," most notably the long-anticipated economic meltdown which Erdogan is now blaming on U.S. sanctions, despite having largely caused it with his own economic policies.

"Erdogan is a master of turning situations to his advantage," Cagaptay says. "His base buys into his rhetoric on this, that other countries don’t want Turkey to be a great power."

What to watch: Both leaders have been have been shocked at various stages here, says Aaron Stein of the Atlantic Council — Trump that Brunson wasn't released despite his efforts to "buddy up" to Erdogan, Erdogan that his long-term bet that no U.S. president would risk losing Turkey as an ally has been called. 

"They made a bet on the old rules with the new guy."

Stein on Turkey's decision to continue to hold Brunson

The bottom line: "Political ties will remain tense until Erdogan finds a way to release Brunson and sell it in Turkey," Cagaptay says, though he isn’t expecting the U.S.-Turkey alliance to collapse entirely. "Military and intelligence cooperation remains strong. That could be the foundation of a reset when it eventually comes."

Go deeper: How U.S.-Turkey relations reached a breaking point

Trump didn't start the fire, but he added plenty of fuel.

Turkey

Axios AM

President Trump attacked the social-media giants today for "totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices," fueling an issue that has been gaining traction among conservatives in the ramp-up to midterms. Trump tweeted after "Fox & Friends" hit the issue.

Be smart: Tech companies are now jammed between calls for bans on conspiracy/hate speech/fake news and a coordinated conservative uprising about being muzzled by liberal CEOs. 

In the conservative lexicon, "shadow banning" is the new "witch hunt." 

What's next: Well-wired Republicans tell Axios that activists have begun pressuring Republican state attorneys general to act against social platforms on the basis of consumer fraud.

Andy Surabian, a populist strategist and adviser to Don Jr., tells Axios that the issue of conservative censorship by social media "has been bubbling up on the right for years and in the last few months has exploded."

"[C]onservatives don't trust these big social media outlets."

"They claimed they were just coming for Alex Jones, but then we all looked around and saw a big fat target on all of our backs."

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged the issue during a massive interview blitz this week, telling the WashPost that Twitter is experimenting with ways to promote alternative viewpoints in the timeline to reduce "echo chambers."

Dorsey called into Sean Hannity's radio show on Wednesday and said: "We do not shadow ban according to political ideology or viewpoint or content. Period."

Earlier this summer, the Post reported, Facebook and Twitter sought "to assuage conservative leaders who have sounded alarms — and sought to rile voters — with accusations that the country’s tech giants are censoring right-leaning posts, tweets and news."

"Tucker Carlson Tonight": "The left used to understand that free speech is for everybody. But they don't anymore, as shown by Big Tech's censorship of controversial media figure Alex Jones."

Go deeper ... Axios Pro Rata podcast: Dan Primack talks to David McCabe, "Inside the Twitter shadow ban controversy."

The new tech political crisis: censorship

In the conservative lexicon, "shadow banning" is the new "witch hunt."

Censorship

Media

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Several wanted to fiddle with the punctuation, some wanted to add nice things about John Brennan; others thought it would be wiser to pare them back.

But in 12 hours, a couple of former CIA senior aides pulled off a first in American history. CIA directors who had served every previous president going back to Ronald Reagan had signed on to a letter doing something they would never have imagined doing: publicly criticizing the president of the United States. 

They were objecting to President Trump's announcement that he was stripping the security clearance of Brennan, who was CIA director under President Obama.

“I call it the rigged witch hunt, [the Russia investigation] is a sham,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal. “And these people led it!”

And there may be more coming ... The WashPost's Karen DeYoung and Josh Dawsey report: "The White House has drafted documents revoking the security clearances of current and former officials whom President Trump has demanded be punished for criticizing him or playing a role in the [Russia] investigation."

"Trump wants to sign 'most if not all' of them, said one senior White House official."

"[C]ommunications aides ... have discussed the optimum times to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles."

The letter's startling roster includes former CIA directors Webster (Reagan, George H.W. Bush), Gates (George H.W. Bush), Tenet (Clinton and George W. Bush), Goss (George W. Bush), Hayden (George W. Bush), Panetta (Obama) and Petraeus (Obama). 

"As former senior intelligence officials, we feel compelled to respond in the wake of the ill-considered and unprecedented remarks and actions by the White House regarding the removal of John Brennan’s security clearances," the letter begins. 

The addition of this "subject to" was one of the late edits: "You don’t have to agree with what John Brennan says (and ... not all of us do) to agree with his right to say it, subject to his obligation to protect classified information."

Nick Shapiro — a former CIA deputy chief of staff in the Obama administration, who helped orchestrate the letters — tells me that a major concern of many of the signatories was President Trump's implicit threat to current intelligence officers:

"It’s setting up a system where the national security and intelligence apparatus is being told: 'You better just agree with the president, and you can't give him news he doesn't like.'"

"That's a very dangerous thing: It's the exact opposite of the climate and culture you want in your intelligence team."

The letter was endorsed by 15 former intelligence officials of the director or deputy director level.

But other CIA alumni wanted to join in. So late yesterday, a second letter was circulated, signed by 60 former CIA officers (analysts, station chiefs, operations officers, a former President's Daily Brief briefer):

"Our signatures below do not necessarily mean that we concur with the opinions expressed by former Director Brennan or the way in which he expressed them. What they do represent, however, is our firm belief that the country will be weakened if there is a political litmus test applied before seasoned experts are allowed to share their views."

Another person coordinating the letters tells me: "[R]equests from many other senior CIA alumni who would like to have signed it are pouring in."

Be smart: Some of the former officials feared they would just inflame Trump, who could point to them as the "Deep State" he rails against. They ultimately decided they couldn't stay silent. But neither letter includes the word "Trump."

Go deeper: See the names of everyone who signed both letters.

Inside the security clearance revolt

CIA senior aides pulled off a first in American history.

Axios

Saturday's top stories

White House counsel Don McGahn cooperating "extensively" with Mueller

The big picture: Why scooters have faced backlash

Twitter CEO defends company after Trump's discrimination claims

Go deeper: How U.S.-Turkey relations reached a breaking point

The new tech political crisis: censorship

Inside the security clearance revolt

Report: Bomb that killed children on bus in Yemen was U.S.-made

Trump says social media censorship discriminates against Republicans

Go deeper: People are noticing California’s huge property tax loophole

Tech's most egregious violations of user privacy

Mueller recommends up to six months of jail time for Papadopoulos

The police technology revolution no one is hearing about