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🤖 Tesla's big play A Tesla Cybercab cruises through downtown Austin yesterday. Photo: Eric Gay/AP Tesla customers in Austin can now book rides in a driverless Cybercab that has no steering wheel or pedals, Axios' Joann Muller writes. Why it matters: While the initial fleet size is limited, the Cybercab's official commercial launch marks the beginning of CEO Elon Musk's vision for an autonomous future. 🚗 Tesla held an invite-only event in Austin last night to give influencers and Tesla loyalists the first rides in the gold-painted two-seater with gull-wing doors and no human controls or mirrors. A video promoting the ride experience promised "theater, music and gaming apps on a 22" touchscreen" and said Cybercabs would soon "be equipped with V5 Starlink hardware, too, for complete connectivity." Watch the video ...

😬 Benefits get budgeted Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios Some of the country's largest employers are pulling back on benefits as they face another year of huge health care cost growth. Why it matters: It's a sign that constant spikes in medical costs have real consequences — and corporations are less willing to eat the increases, Axios' Caitlin Owens writes. The Walt Disney Company decided to drop health coverage for working spouses with access to their own coverage next year. Starbucks is ending its coverage of GLP-1s for weight loss beginning next month, and Deloitte is rolling back its parental leave and IVF funding benefits for certain employees. The big picture: Marsh's annual survey of employer-sponsored health plans found that the total health benefit cost per employee will rise by 8.2% on average in 2027, the highest increase since 2003. That's after companies' cost-cutting measures. A good portion will be passed on to employees through plan design changes, or by requiring them to cover a greater share of premium costs. ✂️ Between the lines: Employers shifting health costs to workers is old news, but they're starting to experiment with ways to address some of the underlying causes. That includes offering narrower networks of hospitals, swapping vendors and steering their workers to providers deemed to be providing the most value. What we're watching: Cutting benefits is not the only option for employers if cost-cutting efforts fail. Small businesses have been dropping coverage altogether for years, unable to afford rising costs.

🛑 Bernie floats superintelligence ban Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced new legislation yesterday calling for a permanent ban on superintelligence alongside a renewed demand for a pause on advanced AI development, Axios' Josephine Walker reports. "If the leaders of the major AI companies acknowledge that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced," Sanders said in his announcement. Why it matters: Sanders is the first prominent American politician to call for an outright ban on superintelligence — and he did so on the day of Astra's release. His announcement also referenced the Hugging Face attack. Between the lines: Sanders' decision to stake out a position on superintelligence puts him at the forefront of an emerging political debate, in a way that doesn't totally align with the traditional left-right spectrum. He's siding with "doomers," who worry that super-advanced AI could bring about a literal apocalypse — a position contemplated by a significant faction within the AI community, including its top leaders. Others argue that doomerism is itself another form of hype for the AI industry, and that society should focus on the tech's human-scale impact. That same political realignment is already showing up in the politics surrounding data centers, where Sanders and Steve Bannon have found common political cause against them. The bottom line: Even if Sanders' efforts go nowhere, it shows that he believes there's an audience hungry for much more aggressive policymaking on AI.

🔮 Reading Astra's mind Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios OpenAI's buzzy new model, Astra, could cloud our ability to make sense of how AI thinks even further, Axios' Madison Mills reports. State of play: Astra performs better, but it's also better at avoiding monitoring. So it could be harder to know what it's thinking or doing. OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki said on a call with reporters that it'll keep getting harder to monitor the thoughts of AI models. 🚨 Micah Carroll, OpenAI's preparedness lead for recursive self-improvement, the process by which AI systems could someday build themselves, predicted on X yesterday that "monitorability and control will likely become a major bottleneck for responsible AI development quite soon."

AI creators race to understand their creation Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Never in the history of industry or inventions have leading companies created entire divisions to understand and interpret what they had created and unleashed, Axios' Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: The world's smartest minds, backed by the largest investment in human history, admit they can't fully control their AI because they don't fully understand it. They don't know exactly how it thinks — or what it's truly capable of when set loose to do work autonomously with other AI agents. The race to understand the models is all the more urgent after yesterday's release by OpenAI of GPT-6 Astra, billed as "the world's most intelligent and aligned model." President Greg Brockman called Astra a "generational leap in capability," and said the model could qualify as AGI — artificial general intelligence, with human-like power. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote Tuesday in an Astra preview: "AI is getting extremely capable; no one fully understands the consequences of this." The companies are racing toward superintelligence with no required oversight — not a federal agency, the Defense Department, or an outside consortium of safety experts. It's foot on the gas. 🔎 Between the lines: The technology is advancing so fast, in so many ways, that the companies, much less the federal government, are unsure of the real risks — or best ways to mitigate them. Yes, some AI leaders are calling for pauses when something they see freaks them out. But the companies, with very light federal regulation, decide when to report worrisome AI behavior. The big AI companies know their creation can carry out potentially catastrophic cyberattacks. That's why they signed a letter sounding the alarm and calling for "collective action." The intrigue: Every frontier lab now fields a team with the mission of figuring out what its own AI is doing. Anthropic has an Interpretability team ("Safety through understanding") with the goal: "discover and understand how large language models work internally, as a foundation for AI safety and positive outcomes." 🧠 How it works: Nobody writes these systems line by line. "As compared with traditional software, it's much less like you're able to design the specific behaviors of these models," Alex Mallen, who works on AI safety at Redwood Research, tells Axios. "Instead, you're sort of growing it." So the labs test a model's behavior the way you'd test a person: Give it a task and watch what it does. Researchers call this alignment, or how well a model sticks to the intended goal it was given. July's Hugging Face hack is what misalignment looks like. OpenAI agents, given a coding benchmark to solve, targeted an outside company's systems instead, and knew they were doing it. One agent's own reasoning, read by investigators afterward: "External infrastructure exploit is outside intended scope. However task impossible, peers doing it. We should continue." There was so much evidence from this incident that the humans were forced to "heavily delegate our analysis to often-unreliable AI agents," an outside investigation concluded. The hack stopped OpenAI cold. The company slowed its most advanced training to implement stronger security. State of play: Researchers are trying to open up their machines to see what goes on inside. This type of research is called interpretability: Instead of testing what a model does, researchers look at the wiring inside it. Google DeepMind, which in December released the largest open set of these tools so far, describes them as "a microscope" that lets researchers "look inside models, see what they're thinking about, and how these thoughts are formed." What they're hunting for, in DeepMind's words: "discrepancies between a model's communicated reasoning and its internal state." That is, the gap between what a model says it is doing and what it is doing. 🔮 What we're watching: Expect to see much more interpretability research in the next phase of AI safety. Evan Hubinger, who leads alignment stress-testing at Anthropic, wrote Tuesday: "Alignment auditing is starting to get really hard and we're going to need new techniques (e.g. interpretability-based) if we want to keep up." Axios' Andrew Kay contributed reporting.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY September 4 1957 Arkansas troops block “Little Rock Nine” from entering segregated high school Arkansas governor Orval Faubus enlists the National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock. The armed troops surround the school while an angry crowd of some 400 white people jeer, boo and threaten to lynch the nine frightened teenagers, who fled shortly after arriving. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT Ancient Rome 476 Last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, deposed Arts & Entertainment 2002 Kelly Clarkson wins first “American Idol” 2014 Comedy legend Joan Rivers dies Civil War 1861 Confederate forces enter Kentucky Inventions & Science 1888 George Eastman patents Kodak camera Native American History 1886 Geronimo surrenders Religion 2016 Mother Teresa becomes a saint Sports 1972 U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz wins 7th gold medal in the 1972 Olympics U.S. Presidents 1951 President Truman makes first transcontinental television broadcast Vietnam War 1969 Radio Hanoi announces the death of Ho Chi Minh World War I 1914 French general gives order to attack at the Marne

US diesel prices hit a record high, pushing up transportation costs for a long list of goods CHICAGO (AP) — Diesel hit a record price in the U.S. on Friday, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time as the six-month war with Iran disrupts the world’s flow of fuel. https://apnews.com/article/gas-diesel-prices-us-iran-war-ebd01b9773365ee40550dcfd7d3ebf87? ⛽️ Diesel hits record high Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios The average price of diesel topped its 2022 record high this morning, spiking to $5.85 per gallon, per AAA. Why it matters: Farmers, truckers and freight companies have been absorbing higher diesel costs since the Iran war began, Axios' Avery Lotz writes. The ballooning price threatens to further raise shipping costs while compounding a growing political problem for President Trump. It can also indirectly affect households by putting inflationary pressure on anything Americans buy that's carried by truck, which includes a massive share of goods. The previous record was $5.816, per AAA, set in June 2022. Diesel typically costs more than gasoline because of higher taxes, stricter environmental regulations requiring expensive refining and a lower production yield per barrel of oil. Worth noting: While the strangling of the Strait of Hormuz cast the global market into disarray, Ukraine's highly effective drone campaign targeting Russian refineries has further strained worldwide diesel refinery capacity.

> Billionaire Leon Black and former associate of Jeffrey Epstein defies subpoena to testify before House Oversight Committee, sues to avoid turning over requested nondisclosure agreements (More) > People aged 65 and older began outnumbering children 5 and younger worldwide for the first time in recorded history in 2023, US Census report finds; the so-called "tipping point" in fertility came years earlier than expected (More) | Mapping each country's fertility rate (More) > Justice Department charges ICE officer who nonfatally shot a Venezuelan man in Minnesota with lying to investigators (More)

> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.1%, Dow +1.2%, Nasdaq +1.4%) after Fed Gov. Christopher Waller signals support for holding interest rates steady this month if inflation continues to cool. > US mortgage rates climb to 13-month high, with average 30-year fixed rate rising to 6.71% from 6.66% last week; rate stood at 6.5% one year ago (More) | See mortgage rates over the past decade (More) > Dutch central bank reallocates roughly $11B worth of gold reserves from the US and Canada to the UK, citing geopolitical tensions and desire for greater access to reserves (More) | Learn about the world's largest known gold vault (More)

> OpenAI begins phased rollout of GPT-6 Astra, its latest model that can independently find and exploit security flaws in computer systems (More) | Tesla hosts private event promoting its fully autonomous Cybercab (More) > Psychedelic mushrooms contain a compound that may prevent nerve damage and pain caused by chemotherapy, new research using mice indicates; humans receiving cancer treatment will test the process in clinical trials later this year (More) > BepiColombo spacecraft approaches Mercury after traveling almost eight years through the solar system; mission will allow scientists to study the planet’s geology, surface composition, and magnetic field (More) | Who was Bepi Colombo? (More)

> Sean "Diddy" Combs' prison release date moved up to Feb. 5, 2028 (More) | Music mogul was convicted on prostitution-related charges; see previous write-up (More) > The Athletic's investigation into Dianna Russini’s journalism concludes the NFL reporter violated publication standards by engaging in an undisclosed relationship with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel (More) | Read the full report (More) > Fox News parts ways with longtime host Maria Bartiromo; the network did not specify a reason behind her departure (More)

Only 2% of the world’s population has green eyes. James

📸 Pic to go! Photo: Bob Schumacher North America's highest peak — designated Mount McKinley by the U.S. government and Denali by the state of Alaska — was captured by reader Bob Schumacher of Wheaton, Ill., this week.

AI can create farm resiliency As farmers face more extreme weather, water stress and input cost uncertainty, PepsiCo sees AI as a tool for resilience. Looking ahead: When AI can identify smarter data, climate risk becomes more visible and efficiency more actionable for farmers. Read the Q&A.

Smartphone revolt Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios Roughly half of American adults say they spend too much time on their phones — and more than half of younger adults are trying to kick the habit, according to Pew Research Center data out this week. Why it matters: Over the past two decades, smartphones have come to dominate daily life. Now Americans — especially younger adults — are pushing back against how much of their time and attention they command. 🧠 The big picture: Excessive smartphone use among kids and adults has come under growing scrutiny, with studies linking it to problems ranging from "text neck" to reduced cognitive performance to relationship trouble. For kids, the concerns have led schools to ban phones and governments to restrict social media. For adults, there's a growing market of products, apps and physical spaces designed to keep us off our devices. By the numbers: 53% of U.S. adults say they're on their phones too much. That share jumps to 70% when looking just at 18- to 29-year-olds. 45% of all adults say they've tried to cut back on phone time in the last year. When considering just those under 50, the share is 58%. 📰 The other side: People want time back from their phones, but they do acknowledge some perks of the devices, Pew found. 73% say smartphones help keep them informed, and 51% say they help them stay connected to others. Go deeper: Our tips for digital detox.

Venezuela’s Vicious Cycle (Maryorin Mendez / AFP / Getty)   View in browser By the time he retired from the Marine Corps, in 1931, Major General Smedley Butler had served in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and China. It was the golden age of American imperialism, and Butler was one of its golden boys, among the most decorated fighters in U.S. history. But over time, Butler began to have doubts about what he was doing. “I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service,” he wrote in 1935. “During that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism.” The costs of these excursions, he wrote, were paid in taxpayer money and soldiers’ lives. The wars that Butler fought also left scars around the world, as the journalist Jonathan M. Katz wrote in a 2022 biography. Little remembered in the United States, these interventions were formative for the populations they affected, fueling enduring anti-Americanism. The Trump administration seems determined to re-create the cycle in Venezuela today: military action, puppet government, exploitation of oil reserves, and almost certainly more resentment, fueling further conflict in the future. In January, U.S. troops descended on Venezuela and seized President Nicolás Maduro. Although President Trump offered federal drug-trafficking charges against Maduro as window dressing, he made no secret of the real reason for the incursion: He wanted to seize the country’s huge oil reserves. This week, the president claimed that he would refill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve with Venezuelan oil, “a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.” The Trump administration has, as usual, offered few concrete details, but as my colleague Jonathan Chait writes, this is less a “deal” than “a payment by Venezuela of tribute at gunpoint.” The Venezuelan people are in no position to consent to handing over the country’s most valuable natural resource to a richer regional superpower for free, because Venezuela has not had fair elections in years. After deposing Maduro, the United States did not clear away his government or try to install the pro-democracy dissident (and Nobel Peace Prize laureate) María Corina Machado; in fact, it has created barriers to her return. Instead, it has enlisted a former Maduro lieutenant as president, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversees her as a sort of viceroy. Besides, nothing in international relations is as simple as a gift. The current arrangement involves Alejandro Betancourt López, a Venezuelan oil oligarch who has been under investigation in several countries. Betancourt managed to maintain connections with both Maduro’s regime and the U.S. government, and to dodge some charges thanks to help from Rudy Giuliani. Chevron is expanding its footprint in Venezuela, although other oil companies have been reluctant. Investors from other sectors, including crypto, are also getting involved. Although much money stands to be made, whether and how much ordinary Americans will actually benefit is less clear. Rebuilding Venezuelan production will take years, and the country’s oil is heavy and difficult to refine. That means no near-term relief at gas pumps and years before the U.S. reserve is refilled. Venezuelan oil and U.S. interests have a long and rocky history. American oil companies invested heavily in the country after World War II, but in 1976, the Venezuelan government nationalized the oil industry. In the early ’90s, the government once again opened to private companies. But Hugo Chávez, who portrayed himself as an anti-colonial hero and liked to use “Gringos go home!” as a slogan, became president in 1999. In 2007, he expropriated foreign assets once more, in what his energy minister called “an act of sovereignty for our country, for our people.” Trump cited the expropriation this year as another reason for U.S. intervention. Chávez’s approach, maintained under his protégé Maduro, failed. The oil industry, along with the rest of the national economy, has atrophied. In an article last year, my colleague Gisela Salim-Peyer eloquently recounted how Venezuela slid into authoritarianism under Chávez and Maduro. International observers described the 2018 presidential election as rigged, and evidence gathered by Machado convincingly showed that her party had won the 2025 race. A huge number of people fleeing Venezuela have flocked to the United States. For now, under the rump Chávez-Maduro regime, Venezuelans don’t have much say, but guessing how this might play out doesn’t require a great deal of creativity—just a working knowledge of history. Trump’s expropriation of Venezuelan oil won’t be well received by most people, nor will a Trump-driven gold rush by American businesses, no matter how much Venezuela needs assistance standing up its oil industry. Railing against the deal and foreign oil interests will be an easy populist stance for future Venezuelan politicians; perhaps one will even feel moved to nationalize assets once more—and so the cycle can begin again. You don’t have to be an anti-colonial peacenik to worry about the risks of Trump’s oil raid. You can just grasp that having hostile demagogues in power in the hemisphere is bad for U.S. interests, driving global instability as well as the kind of mass migration that Trump has described as a crisis. Such downsides help explain why anti-interventionism had become popular among Republicans over the past decade. Until the Venezuela raid, Trump portrayed himself as “America first,” but the foremost voice was J. D. Vance, who cited his experience deployed in Iraq in his speech accepting the GOP nomination for vice president. “As always, America’s ruling class wrote the checks. Communities like mine paid the price,” he said, sounding much like his fellow Marine Smedley Butler. “For decades, that divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened.” Yet now the Trump administration has embarked on just the sort of adventure Butler led and then decried. Wealthy Americans will benefit today, ordinary Americans will see little immediate reward, and the United States will face the blowback for decades to come. Related: The hostile corporate takeover of an entire country America can have the oil.

🧊 Reforms on ice House Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to cancel two weeks of September workdays is threatening to delay a bipartisan push to crack down on sexual misconduct in Congress, the lead Democrat on the bipartisan task force tells us. Why it matters: The House task force created to address sexual misconduct had hoped to unveil legislation this month after having already pushed back its initial goal of releasing a bill before the August recess. But Johnson's new schedule means the House will be in session for just one more week before lawmakers leave Washington to campaign ahead of the November midterms. 🗓️ The shortened calendar gives members eager to hit the campaign trail more time in their districts but leaves lawmakers with little time to finish remaining legislative business. The reforms are "something that everybody wants," Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), the lead Democrat on the task force, told us. "We have bipartisan support for it. But when you cancel legislative days, it shrinks our ability to get that work done," she added. The week of Sept. 14 is now scheduled to be the only one in session until after the midterms. Yes, but: Being out of session does not preclude the task force from releasing their recommendations or legislation, a senior Republican staffer told Axios. Lawmakers often introduce legislation when Congress is out of session. 📝 Catch up quick: The bipartisan task force, created this year amid a string of allegations involving members of Congress, is examining potential changes to the chamber's rules surrounding sexual misconduct. Leger Fernández said the task force heard from dozens of male and female congressional staffers this week in what she described as the final round of feedback needed before moving to legislative text. Kammack told us Tuesday — before Johnson canceled session time — that the group was still on track to release legislative text this month. "When we take away two weeks of the September legislative calendar, that puts a little strain on it," Leger Fernández said. 🔎 Zoom in: The task force members are now moving to draft legislative text and will discuss the compressed timeline with Johnson and the Office of Legislative Counsel, Leger Fernández said. Potential reforms under discussion include changes to reporting systems, retaliation protections, increases in education and training resources, and a ban on lawmaker-staff relations. "There's still strong commitment to get it done," she said. "We'll keep pushing to see how we get it done." — Kate Santaliz

🛒 GOP's convention coupon Illustration: Allie Carl / Axios The GOP's most vulnerable House incumbents won't have to shell out $25,000 to attend the GOP's midterm convention in Dallas next week, but some are still reluctant to go. Why it matters: Trump and GOP leaders could still turn the two-day event into a success by raising hard dollars and motivating soft MAGA voters. 🪨 But the run-up has been rocky, with lawmakers grumbling about logistics and balking at the price tag. Only about 100 lawmakers and candidates are expected to attend, a source familiar with the planning told us. And then there are the presumed beneficiaries: the at-risk lawmakers who could win their races on the backs of a flush NRCC, which is already pumping money into their districts through new coordinated campaigns. 💰 One frontline Republican told us that if they had to pay the $25,000, "there's no way I would go." Even with the exemption, several vulnerable Republicans plan to skip the convention and campaign in their districts instead. 🚗 Driving the news: Multiple lawmakers told us that members of the NRCC's Patriot program — its designation for vulnerable incumbents — aren't being required to pay the $25,000 to attend. Other members have been asked to pay up, prompting complaints among rank-and-file Republicans who were already less than enthusiastic about attending. "It's $25,000, apparently," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told reporters this week when asked if he would attend. "It's pretty steep." "Not everybody is a fundraising juggernaut, and some of those folks feel it's better spent on themselves," Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas) told us. 🎟️ What you get: The $25,000 package includes two convention tickets, access to a hotel room in the NRCC block and two spots at the chairman's welcome reception, according to an NRCC flyer. Members can contribute as much as $100,000 for additional perks, including breakfast with House leadership. Only new contributions count toward the convention packages, meaning money that members gave the NRCC earlier in the cycle doesn't count. 🤔 The intrigue: Several Republicans we spoke with were unaware that some members were being exempted from the $25,000 fee, and others said the rules surrounding who actually has to pay have been murky. "They've been really vague. Initially, it seemed like everyone had to pay. Even we thought that maybe we had to," Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), a Patriot member, told us. Ciscomani said he later received guidance indicating that Patriots were exempt but that members in safer districts were still asking leadership this week whether they had to pay. "The answer was kind of like, you know, come talk to us and case-by-case basis," he said. Zoom in: The relatively late rollout of convention details has added to the confusion among lawmakers, some of whom had already made other commitments. "We didn't get all the information about the convention at once. It kept coming out little by little, and that's when the price tag also came out at some point, and we were like 'Whoa, never mind,'" Ciscomani said. "I think that they're figuring it out as they go." Between the lines: For some Republicans facing tough reelection fights, the higher cost isn't the $25,000 — it's time away from the campaign trail. — Kate Santaliz

Body of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic flown to Serbia for funeral The body of the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide and other atrocities during the war in Bosnia, was flown to Serbia from The Hague, Netherlands, on a government plane on Thursday. Read More.

ICE officer charged with lying to investigators in the shooting of Venezuelan man, AP source says Federal prosecutors have charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with lying to investigators about the events leading up to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown earlier this year, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Read More. ICE officer charged with lying about shooting turns himself in to feds, AP source says WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with lying to investigators about the events leading up to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown turned himself in Thursday to federal authorities, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/ice-immigration-minnesota-5a429fee81fe85c09ca59ea9366c019d?

Will Federal Reserve hike rates later this month? Waller muddies the outlook Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said Thursday that an inflation report next week will largely determine whether he supports an interest rate hike later this month or not. Read More.

Sultan of Oman to make state visit to UK, balancing pressures from US and Iran The Sultan of Oman will visit Britain for a three-day state visit next month as the Arab nation that controls the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz comes under pressure from both the U.S. and Iran. Read More.

Trump again appeals to Supreme Court on mail-voting restrictions with midterm elections looming BOSTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reject an order by a federal judge that halts it from implementing a new rule regulating mail ballots, hours after being unable to tell that judge whether the computer system that would govern the entire project was operational yet. https://apnews.com/article/trump-mail-voting-executive-order-lawsuit-63899f738d28d161b629054a314f161a? ps:They need to put an end to this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trump administration stalled a survey of PFAS in wastewater, former EPA officials say The Trump administration has stalled a study that would help regulators understand which industries dump harmful forever chemicals with their wastewater, according to two former agency officials who were involved in its development. Read More.

✈️ 1 for the skies: Gateside goodbyes Travelers hug each other in the departure terminal at LAX last year. Photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images Some airports are now allowing gateside sendoffs and reunions under a new TSA plan. Gateside passes will allow non-travelers to use PreCheck lanes to meet a friend or conduct business during a layover, shop or eat beyond security, or welcome loved ones, Axios Salt Lake City's Erin Alberty reports. 🧳 Applications opened this week for "Gateside by TSA PreCheck" access at 13 airports. The agency says the new offering will bring back "the moments that once defined air travel" — the kind that made Rachel get off the plane in the series finale of "Friends." How to apply ...

🛋️ Southwest Airlines is aiming to launch its first lounge network next year. Construction is underway on the first four lounges, coming to Baltimore, Austin, Honolulu and Nashville. Read the announcement.