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President Trump said the U.S. Navy will start guiding ships from foreign countries through the Strait of Hormuz from Monday and warned that if Iran tries to disrupt the process, the American military will use force. 

Why it matters: This move that Trump called "Project Freedom" is the most significant step by his administration to try and reopen the key strait since Iran shut it down early in the war. 

While Trump claims the move is "humanitarian," it is a clear U.S. challenge to Tehran's effort to control the strait. An Iranian military response could spark a confrontation or even an escalation back to war.  

The latest: The new Hormuz Strait initiative will not necessarily include U.S. Navy ships escorting commercial ships, according to two American officials.

One of the officials said U.S. Navy ships will be "in the vicinity" in case they need to prevent Iran's military from attacking commercial ships moving through the strait. 

The officials said the U.S. navy is going to provide commercial ships with information on the best maritime lanes in the strait especially when it comes to using lanes that were not mined by the Iranian military.

What he's saying: Trump wrote on Truth Social that countries from around the world that are not involved in the war but have ships stuck in the strait have asked the U.S. to help free them.

Many of these ships are running low on food and other supplies for their crews and suffer from health and sanitary problems, Trump said.

'The Ship movement is merely meant to free up people, companies, and Countries that have done absolutely nothing wrong — They are victims of circumstance. This is a Humanitarian gesture on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran," Trump said. 

"We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business," he added. 

"If, in any way, this Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully."

The intrigue: It was not immediately clear whether this move was coordinated with Iran in any way. 

Iranian officials did not immediately respond publicly to Trump's announcement.

The big picture: Trump wrote his representatives "are having very positive discussions" with Iran and stressed these discussions "could lead to something very positive for all." 

The U.S. sent on Sunday another amended draft for an agreement to end the war in response to Iranian officials' latest proposal, sources said.  

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details on the new initiative and further context.

Trump: U.S. Navy will "guide" ships out of Strait of Hormuz from Monday

It's the most significant step by Trump's administration to try and reopen the key strait that Iran shut down early in the war.

Close-up of President Trump  with gray hair in a dark suit, white shirt, and red tie, wearing a small American flag pin; he has a serious, furrowed expression.

President Trump speaks at the White House last month. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Trump-iran

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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.

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Axios 2028

Senior Democrats are rebooting an influential foreign policy group to help potential 2028 presidential candidates and bring together national security specialists who could staff the next Democratic administration, Axios has learned.

National Security Action has picked Maher Bitar, who has worked for Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House, to lead the group going into the 2028 primary season.

Why it matters: Founded in 2018, National Security Action (NSA) influenced Democrats' messaging on foreign policy in the 2020 election and ultimately helped staff much of President Biden's national security team.

That included then-National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who co-founded NSA.

The group aims to have a similar influence in the 2028 election and the next Democratic administration.

Driving the news: Bitar, the national security adviser and chief counsel to Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), told Axios the group will host retreats, conduct polling, and be a "hub" to think through the party's foreign policy "to be ready for 2028 and beyond."

Bitar was coordinator for intelligence and defense policy on Biden's National Security Council.

Ben Rhodes, who founded the group with Sullivan and is on its board, said the group's "two most interesting projects to think about are the pipeline of people who might work on campaigns and populate a Democratic administration, and then the ideas that can form a progressive or Democratic foreign policy going forward."

"I think the next Democratic administration should look quite different [from the Biden administration]," he added. "It's kind of time to pass the baton so there's a really great opportunity to try to talent spot, and help elevate some different voices."

The big picture: NSA's challenge will be navigating the divides on foreign policy in the Democratic Party that are much deeper than they were during President Trump's first term.

80% of Democrats now view Israel unfavorably, up from 53% in 2022, before Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, per Pew. The party is also unsettled on issues like tariffs, China and artificial intelligence.

That skepticism has split the party and made some on the left wary of people who served in the Biden administration.

As Axios CEO Jim VandeHei noted in his C-Suite newsletter Saturday, 40 of 47 Senate Democrats voted to block arms sales to Israel last month.

Among them: every Democratic senator viewed as seriously weighing a White House bid — Arizona's Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, New Jersey's Cory Booker, Michigan's Elissa Slotkin, Georgia's Jon Ossoff and Connecticut's Chris Murphy.

What they're saying: "The center of gravity has shifted on the relationship with Israel, and there will be a debate about the nature of the relationship going forward," said Sullivan, who rejoined NSA's board after leaving the Biden administration.

"Obviously, National Security Action is not going to resolve that debate, but it's going to try and ensure it's as healthy a debate as possible.… "As we look at what foreign policy will look like following Trump 2.0 there are just a lot more fundamental questions that are going to need answering."

Rhodes said that "in Trump 1, there was a sense that if a Democrat won, that the foreign policy would look familiar to the past — Obama policy with obviously some adjustments. Bernie [Sanders] obviously would have taken it further to the left, and Biden took it to the right."

"I think right now it's a wide-open question as to what Democratic foreign policy is," he said, "and who the practitioners are of that foreign policy."

Bitar made clear that NSA would continue to be a "big-tent" organization to bring together people across the party, with an emphasis on the next generation of leaders.

The intrigue: Sullivan and Rhodes were colleagues during the Obama administration, co-founded NSA and remain on the board, but Rhodes said that "I think Jake and I obviously moved in different directions" since founding NSA.

"We'll both be involved.… I've obviously moved in a more progressive direction on Israel and other things, and I am not shy about making my views known, and so I want to help facilitate the inclusion of more progressive perspectives and ideas and people."

Scoop: Dems' foreign policy group prepping for '28

It aims to help potential presidential candidates and address party divisions.

Illustration of a donkey wearing a pair of binoculars around its neck.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro secretly helped a Republican state treasurer's 2024 reelection bid after the official's Democratic opponent had criticized Shapiro as a potential VP pick, a close Shapiro ally said last week.

Bob Brooks, a Shapiro-backed candidate for the U.S. House, made the surprising comment Wednesday to a small group of Democratic college students. Axios obtained a recording of his remarks, which also were confirmed by a person at the meeting.

Why it matters: Helping a Republican over a Democrat — especially in response to personal criticism — could become a liability if Shapiro runs for president in 2028, as many expect.

It also could feed the idea — held even by some Shapiro supporters — that he can be vindictive, take critiques too personally and be willing to push aside allies to get ahead.

Zoom in: Brooks' comments referred to summer 2024, when Shapiro was being vetted by Kamala Harris' team as her possible running mate.

The Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania treasurer at the time, Erin McClelland, had publicly questioned whether Shapiro could be a subordinate to a female president.

Brooks, who's also the president of Pennsylvania's firefighters union, told students at Lehigh University last week that Shapiro had asked his union to back Republican Stacy Garrity over McClelland in the 2024 state treasurer's race.

"That was a request, ironically, from Gov. Josh Shapiro because Erin McClelland was running against her," Brooks told the students.

Brooks added: "Josh Shapiro had requested because Stacy, er, Erin McClelland came out hard about something on Josh Shapiro, and really, the Democratic Party as a whole turned on Erin McClelland. And he said, 'I would like you guys to endorse Stacy Garrity.'"

Brooks mentioned Shapiro's move after a person at the Lehigh gathering asked Brooks why his union had backed Garrity in 2024.

What they're saying: Asked to comment for this story, Brooks said in a statement: "I misspoke and made an inaccurate comment."

"Many people in our party — including organized labor across the commonwealth — were upset with McClelland's bad-faith attacks against our governor. The governor did not ask my union to make any endorsements."

Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder said Brooks' Wednesday comment was "inaccurate," adding, "The governor did not ask Bob Brooks to make any endorsements in that race — and the only races he is focused on are winning up and down the ballot this November."

Spokespeople for Shapiro and Brooks declined to make them available for interviews. A Garrity spokesperson did not provide a comment.

Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association secretary-treasurer Pat Martin said McClelland didn't apply for the union's endorsement in 2024.

Shapiro is close to Brooks and has gone all out to support him in his bid for a U.S. House seat, encouraging him to run and then appearing in a direct-to-camera TV ad for Brooks in a crowded Democratic primary.

Between the lines: The episode described by Brooks on Wednesday appeared to reflect Shapiro's penchant for hardball political tactics — even against fellow Democrats.

Harris' team heard complaints about Shapiro from Pennsylvania Democrats as it vetted him for the VP nomination. Harris eventually chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Shapiro wrote in his memoir that he took himself out of contention to be Harris' No. 2 late in the vetting process.

Flashback: McClelland's break with Shapiro went public in July 2024, when she posted on X: "I want a VP pick that's secure enough to be second under a woman, is content to be VP & won't undermine the president to maneuver his own election & doesn't sweep sexual harassment under the rug."

That was a reference to Shapiro's former top aide, Mike Vereb, being accused of sexual harassment in 2023. Vereb stayed in his position for months after a complaint was filed, and Shapiro's administration reached a settlement with Vereb's accuser for $295,000.

Shapiro maintained he didn't know about the complaint by Vereb's accuser until months after it was made. The governor declined to endorse McClelland in 2024.

State of play: Garrity won reelection to her state treasurer post in 2024 — and, in a twist, is challenging Shapiro for governor this year.

Pennsylvania's Democratic Party has called Garrity an "election denier" with an "extreme MAGA agenda."

Garrity spoke at a rally at Pennsylvania's capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, that called for decertifying the state's vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Later, at a Donald Trump rally in 2022, Garrity said, "We know that he won."

More recently, Garrity has tried to walk back some of her past comments about the 2020 election.

Shapiro is heavily favored to defeat her, given his double-digit lead in polls and massive fundraising advantage.

Scoop: Shapiro boosted Republican to retaliate against fellow Dem, ally says in recording

The claim could could hurt Shapiro if he runs for president in 2028, as many expect.

Josh Shapiro on stage with a microphone, wearing a blue suit

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at the NFL Draft last month in Pittsburgh. Photo: Lauren Leigh Bacho / Getty Images

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President Trump told reporters on Saturday that he could order renewed military action against Iran if it "misbehaves."

Why it matters: While the U.S. and Iran are still exchanging drafts of a framework agreement to end the war, Trump is also seriously considering ordering new military action against Iran to try and break the current stalemate. 

What he is saying: "If they misbehave, if they do something bad — but right now, we'll see. It's a possibility that could happen, certainly," Trump said when asked whether he could order fresh strikes. 

Driving the news: Iran on Thursday gave the U.S. a 14-point updated proposal for a framework agreement.

According to two sources briefed of the proposal, it set a one-month deadline for negotiations on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, end the U.S. naval blockade and permanently end the war in Iran and in Lebanon.

Per the Iranian proposal, only after such a deal is reached, another month of negotiations would be launched to try and reach a deal on the nuclear program, the two sources said.

Trump was also briefed on Thursday by CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper about new plans for military strikes against Iran. Cooper then left for the region, and on Saturday met soldiers on the USS Tripoli in the Arabian Sea.

What to watch: While Trump said Friday that he wasn't satisfied with the Iranian proposal, on Saturday before leaving Palm Beach to Miami he told reporters he was going to review it on the plane.

"I'm looking at it. I'll let you know about it later... They told me about the concept of the deal. They're going to give me the exact wording now," he said.

Shortly after, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he "can't imagine that it would be acceptable" and stressed Iran "has  not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years."

Trump says new strikes possible if Iran "misbehaves"

Trump is seriously considering ordering new military action against Iran to try and break the current stalemate.

President Trump standing on an airport tarmac, with limousines behind him and microphones below and in front. 

President Trump speaks to reporters at an airport. Photo: Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images)

While AI was trained to write like humans, these large language models are eroding the unpredictability of our writing and shifting the way we talk. 

The big picture: Researchers found that AI pushes users toward a more standardized speaking and writing style, reducing variations in sentence structure and vocabulary.  

The University of Southern California study analyzed scientific journals, local news articles and social media and found writing style diversity dropped sharply after ChatGPT's release.

ChatGPT's favored words — such as "delve," "meticulous," "boast" and "comprehend" — are showing up more in everyday conversation, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development found after reviewing 740,249 hours of content.

The intrigue: "People get used to this idealized, very predictable form of language, and even people who are not using it, in order to have that sense of powerful, influential writing, they start writing more like LLMs," Morteza Dehghani, a USC professor who oversaw the study, tells Axios.

Alex Mahadevan, chief AI instructor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, tells Axios that AI writing is noticeably "soulless" and "mediocre," even though it is grammatically correct. "There's no art in it."

Between the lines: Emily Bender, a linguist at the University of Washington, said she does her "very best not to read any synthetic text." But "oftentimes people will send me something and I won't know."

AI use is on the rise, making it difficult for those seeking to avoid LLM-generated content. According to a 2025 Brookings survey, 32% of small businesses use AI for customer service and outreach, and 16% of individuals said they use LLMs for communication or social media. 

Zoom out: Bender warns that chasing "ChatGPT level polish" dulls authentic voices and encourages what she likes to call the "'LinkedIn average," or the bland corporate speech users on the networking site often use.

Mahadevan says he misses "good bad writing," in which prose is so poorly written that it's engaging and uniquely human. He added that he now tries to avoid the supposed telltale signs of AI in his writing, such as em dashes. 

"I have been second-guessing myself, thinking, 'Well, sh*t, is someone going to think this was written with AI?'"

Zoom in: "There is value in the struggle of writing, because we learn to express ourselves, and we learn to do the thinking that happens as we're writing," Bender says. 

"Each time we choose not to do that, we are losing out, both individually and societally," she says.

AI is changing how we write and speak

Researchers found that AI pushes users toward a more standardized speaking and writing style.

Illustration of a framed painting of a robotic William Shakespeare.

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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.

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News and analysis of the scientific advances fueling AI and quantum computing, revolutionizing biology and medicine, and tackling climate change. Science is changing the world and colliding with the global politics that shape it.

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The United Arab Emirates is leaving OPEC. Saudi Arabia is ending its splashiest foreign sports venture. The two U.S. allies are in the midst of a messy divorce, even as both face fire from Iran.

Why it matters: One year after President Trump's grand tour of the Gulf, the region's vision of a geopolitically stable post-oil future — powered by tourism, AI and American capital — has taken a major blow.

The trillions of dollars in investment pledges that Trump secured on his trip are in limbo.

So is the American "golden age" he claimed would be bankrolled in part with Gulf money.

The big picture: Trump's trip may prove the high-water mark for the idea that the future of artificial intelligence, global investment and geopolitics would all flow through the Gulf. 

As Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez told Axios, no one is rushing to build $20 billion data centers in Saudi Arabia or the UAE after Iran proved it can strike them with cheap drones.

Gulf leaders have spent a generation perfecting the Dubai model — selling stability as a luxury good to foreign tourists, expats and investors. Iran's attacks on luxury hotels and airports have undercut that premise.

Between the lines: The Saudi sovereign wealth fund's exit from LIV Golf, after pouring more than $5 billion into the PGA competitor since 2022, is the first major casualty of the kingdom rationing cash as oil exports sink.

Riyadh's era of blank checks for prestige projects — boxing superfights, comedy festivals, the gleaming "linear city" of NEOM — is under severe strain ahead of the 2034 World Cup.

The UAE, which pledged $1.4 trillion in U.S. investments last spring, is now leaving OPEC to pump oil on its own terms.

The UAE made the announcement the same day Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman convened a summit of Gulf leaders in Jeddah. The Saudis were blindsided and livid, according to a source briefed on the discussions.

Friction point: The UAE's break from the Saudi-led oil cartel is the latest fracture in a regional rivalry driven by clashing alliances and views on Yemen, Sudan and Palestine, as well as personal animosity between the two leaders. The Iran war has only deepened the rift.

UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed hoped war could be averted and lobbied Trump against it. But once it began, he pushed for a fight to the finish, determined that Iran not emerge emboldened.

Saudi Arabia's ruler, MBS, had the opposite outlook — initially pro-war, then eager for an off-ramp once the damage to his oil-driven economy came into focus.

Qatar, meanwhile, has absorbed a major blow to its gas exports and decades-long efforts to balance relations with the U.S. and Iran after coming under direct attack. 

The UAE is now leaning into its Abraham Accords vision and partnership with Israel, which supplied missile defense capabilities for the first time early in the war. 

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is aligning more with Turkey and Pakistan.  

Trump still hopes to broker a historic Israel-Saudi normalization deal, but Saudi attitudes on the matter have cooled since the war began.

Behind the scenes: The Trump administration was slow to grasp how serious the rift between the UAE and Saudi Arabia had become — and chose not to get involved as it deepened, U.S. and regional sources told Axios.

Early on in the crisis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Riyadh and Abu Dhabi that the U.S. wouldn't pick sides, sources said.

Trump envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner — who has close ties to both leaders and business interests across the region — also stayed out, wary of a rift with either side, U.S. sources said.

Senior officials are deeply concerned that Washington's two most important Arab allies will emerge from the war more adversarial than ever.

Reality check: The Gulf states still have deep reserves of energy and capital, plus a security relationship with Washington that the war has only strengthened.

Some analysts see the Iran crisis as a temporary shock for the Gulf economies, not an existential crisis.

The bottom line: A year after his Gulf tour, Trump's promised investment bonanza has collided with the consequences of his Iran war. Fixing the damage may take longer than the time he has left in office.

The year that shook the Gulf

The region's vision of a post-oil future has taken a major blow.

Illustration of a map of the Gulf with abstract images of barbed wire, Saudi Riyals, UAE Dirhams, and a silhouette of two Arab businessmen talking. 

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

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Artificial intelligence is wiping out some entry-level work that trains the next generation of elite lawyers.

Why it matters: Big Law's entire business model depends on armies of junior associates learning on the job. If AI erases that rung, the profession faces a long-term talent crisis.

The big picture: The legal profession's most important classroom, the early-career grind of junior and summer associates, is quietly reshaping, as the path to partnership is being rewritten in real time. 

Firms are racing to "extract the knowledge of their lawyers" and embed it in AI workflows, client portals and self-service tools, Stanford Law professor David Freeman Engstrom tells Axios.

That could mean "getting ready for a world in which you need fewer human lawyers," he said.

Yes, but: Tiffany J. Tucker, assistant dean for career development at the University of Houston Law Center says AI may create new legal jobs rather than erase entry-level ones.

Students with AI skills are becoming "the more attractive candidates," she said. "If you don't have prowess using AI, you're going to be left behind."

Engstrom said AI also may allow for new legal business to emerge for needs not met currently.

State of play: Firms are not just experimenting with AI — they're restructuring around it.

Major firms use AI for research, litigation prep, document review and case law.

Judges themselves are beginning to use AI tools for drafting and summarizing opinions.

Zoom in: A&O Shearman and Harvey announced AI agents for complex legal workflows, to be used internally and sold to clients and other law firms.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison began testing AI tools like Harvey across its lawyers in 2023 and has since embedded them into everyday legal work, from drafting to document analysis.

Friction point: Some major firms are already adjusting their headcounts as the "efficiency paradox" takes hold. AI speeds up work, reducing the need for billable human hours.

Clifford Chance, one of the largest international law firms, announced last year it was cutting jobs, citing increased adoption of AI tools, per the Financial Times.

A major 2025 legal market report found firms have "reduced the pace" of associate hiring or cut the size of summer associate programs — the high-paid internships used to wine and dine potential associates later.

What they're saying: Nik Guggenberger, a University of Houston Law Center professor, tells Axios that junior work has always served two purposes: billing and training.

"If more and more of that work that trains junior associates is being automated, then there's no real material anymore for them to train on."

Guggenberger said if the profession moves to partners and AI agents, it becomes very hard to break in.

Between the lines: If AI removes the low-level reps, firms must invent a new apprenticeship system or risk creating lawyers who can supervise AI outputs without having built the judgment to know when those outputs are wrong.

Engstrom said the next year will be crucial as firms figure out how to use client data, build AI workflows and answer sticky consent questions.

As AI automates some law firm work, the traditional "leverage model"— the pyramid system where a few partners sit atop a massive base of billing associates — is facing a structural threat.

The bottom line: The future lawyer isn't a document reviewer. They are a "symphony conductor" who pieces together AI outputs, data and legal scenarios, Engstrom said.

Those who can't wield the baton — and the algorithm — will find themselves without an orchestra.

AI threatens Big Law's talent pipeline

Illustration of a small lawyer looking up at one side of scale while a robot hand presses down on the other

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

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Spirit Airlines is going out of business, canceling all of its flights and stranding current travelers — marking the end of the runway for a company that offered cheap flights to America's budget travelers.

Why it matters: The company's demise — which comes after two bankruptcies and a failed attempt to secure a government bailout — marks the first death of a major U.S. airline in decades.

Zoom in: Spirit — which has about 17,000 employees and contractors — announced early Saturday that it will immediately wind down.

The company said passengers who booked flights with credit cards or debit cards will automatically get refunds.

"Guests who booked flights via a travel agent should contact the
travel agent directly to request a refund," the company said in a statement."

But for anyone who bought their flight via "voucher, credit" or Free Spirit points, any compensation "will be determined at a later date through the
bankruptcy process."

Affected passengers can visit SpiritRestructuring.com for more information.

"For more than 30 years, Spirit Airlines has played a pioneering role in making travel more accessible and bringing people together while driving affordability across the industry," Spirit CEO Dave Davis said in a statement. 

"However, the sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks ultimately has left us with no alternative but to pursue an orderly wind-down of the Company. Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure. This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted."

Spirit Airlines shutting down, canceling all flights

Spirit Airlines is going out of business, canceling all of its flights, offering refunds and stranding current travelers.

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