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Gov.-elect Donalds talks humility, higher ed, college sports in post-victory speech In his first public appearance since his historic electoral victory, Gov.-elect Byron Donalds delivered a brief speech Thursday calling the results humbling. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/11/12/gov-elect-donalds-talks-humility-higher-ed-college-sports-in-post-victory-speech/?

American Student Finds Cobra Seal at Gezer A few days after arriving in Israel, while on a study tour of Tel Gezer, 17-year-old American high school student Shiloh Attoun saw an object on the side of the road. The small item turned out to be a 3,300-year-old scarab seal with an inscribed face depicting two upright cobras. Shiloh described how we happened upon the find during his group’s first field excursion: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-egypt/american-student-finds-cobra-seal-at-gezer/? Is the “Brother of Jesus” Inscription on the James Ossuary a Forgery? The purported ossuary (bone box) of James, the brother of Jesus, is back in the news, as questions concerning its authenticity continue to plague the world-famous relic. The James Ossuary, as it’s come to be known, is a limestone bone box that bears an Aramaic inscription reading “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” Controversy—including charges of forgery—has surrounded this ossuary since the Biblical Archaeology Review first reported on the artifact in 2002. The saga of the James Ossuary culminated in 2012 with the acquittal of Israeli antiquities collector (and owner of the ossuary) Oded Golan in a seven-year “forgery trial of the century,” but the story isn’t over yet. In “Predilections—Is the ‘Brother of Jesus’ Inscription a Forgery?” in the September/October 2015 issue of BAR, Hershel Shanks reviews the latest argument against the authenticity of the inscription. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/is-the-brother-of-jesus-inscription-on-the-james-ossuary-a-forgery/?

SpaceX’s big day SpaceX's Starship is seen in space after launching from Starbase, Texas, on September 28. (SpaceX/UPI/Shutterstock) SpaceX faces a crucial test today as it attempts for the first time to bring every part of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, back to dry land — intact. The mission, set to launch between 5:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET, could move the company closer to its goal of a fully reusable rocket system that would dramatically cut launch costs and potentially transform space exploration. + Read more: SpaceX is set to make an audacious grab for ‘holy grail’ of rocketry + Meanwhile: Ukraine says SpaceX-owned Starshield is restricted again

Jensen Huang summoned to testify before Congress Jensen Huang, former CEO of Nvidia. (Getty Images) Lawmakers are demanding answers following a series of scandals that forced Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to resign Thursday. Three Republican-led House committees have sent Huang a letter requesting his testimony on December 1. The Senate Banking Committee has also summoned Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to address “serious concerns about our national security.” + Catch up: Latest in the Nvidia crisis + Looking ahead: The AI boom was built around Jensen Huang. Now what? Schmer faces underdog challenge for leadership Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced he would challenge New York Sen. Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader, launching an uphill battle to lead the chamber’s Democrats beginning in 2027. The move comes as progressive Democrats see their sweeping midterm victory as an opportunity to push for more ambitious reforms and a new direction for the party. + Analysis: Senate leadership showdown could fracture Democratic post-election unity + For subscribers: JD Vance is considering not running for president in 2028

How one man’s face is used as bait for countless romance scam victims For more than eight years, romance scammers have stolen Hunter Bigham’s photos to create hundreds of fake online profiles that have been used to trick lovesick men and women out of their money. The losses he’s tallied just from victims who have contacted him have reached roughly $1.4 million. Read more. Why this matters: When many victims realize they’ve been duped, they dig — eventually finding Hunter. As the face of scammers’ schemes, people like Hunter are highly visible. As victims of identity theft, they are virtually unseen, left to handle the fallout alone. Some victims, wrongly believing that Hunter is the scammer, threaten to hurt him, his family and themselves, injecting a thread of dread into his daily life. At its peak, Hunter says, up to 15 victims a day contacted him. His requests to internet platforms to remove the fake profiles have been largely rejected, and his complaints to the FBI have gotten him nowhere. For a gay man in the American South who fought to live his true identity, the theft of it has been particularly agonizing for Hunter — as has the suggestion that he try to stop the scammers by erasing himself from the internet. Few in the Western world are untouched by scams. Ninety-eight percent of Americans suspect they have been targeted with scam messages, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Learn all about the scam tactics used to manipulate victims WATCH: Meet Hunter and hear his full story PHOTO ESSAY: How being used as romance scammers’ bait upended Hunter’s world

Fallout from the Nvidia scandal may dampen the exuberance around the AI boom Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's stunning resignation has sent ripples through the global technology industry, with rival chipmakers itching to take advantage of the uncertainty. Read more. Why this matters: Some of Nvidia's biggest rivals, such as Broadcom, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, saw their shares advance Thursday following Huang’s departure as investors predicted that its customers will look to diversify their suppliers. In the end, analysts say, this might not be a bad thing. “This could turn what has effectively been a monopoly into a horse race again, as competitors rush to meet growing demand,” said Bret Greenstein, chief AI officer at the global consultancy West Monroe. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Who is Colette Kress, Nvidia’s interim CEO? Jensen Huang built the company that powers AI. Now Nvidia must find a way forward without him Advocacy groups sue AI giants to freeze new models, warning of ‘catastrophic’ risks

Trump bluntly tells JD Vance to shift focus from Iran to targeting ‘corruption and crime’ at home President Donald Trump on Thursday directed Vice President JD Vance to shift his focus away from the Iran war and instead devote himself to fighting what the president says is corruption and crime in Democratic-controlled cities and states. Read more. What to know: Vance has been blunt in blaming the war — and the economic reverberations it has caused — for Republicans’ sweeping losses in last week’s midterm elections. “We don’t need a deal with Iran,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday. “Those days have long since passed.” Trump earlier this week said he believed the war “militarily is effectively over,” and appeared to double down on that message by pointedly directing Vance “to focus his complete and total attention” on his anti-fraud campaign. Democrats have promised intense oversight of Trump’s business dealings and other targets when they take control of Congress in January after voters identified corruption as one of their top concerns. Trump’s post about Vance and the Iran war was, in part, responding to a flurry of reports about Democrats’ plans. But it also came after The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that Vance was weighing engaging in a new round of direct talks with a senior Iranian official. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Van Hollen to challenge Schumer for Senate Democratic leader Republicans score rare blue-to-red flip in Maine during midterm landslide Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction is making a statement. Just look at his sweatshirts Trump praises Democrat Scott Colom for showing up to Mississippi rally and courting MAGA supporters Navy has quietly fired some commanders and other officials, drawing congressional pushback Trump’s Justice Department faces a new era of scrutiny under a Democratic-led Congress Senators probe RFK Jr.'s Samoa trip testimony after AP and Guardian showed documents that refute it ps:Well he wont have far to look will he!!!!!

📀 1 for the road: DVD comeback Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios DVD sales and rentals are on the rise after a yearslong decline as more people — especially younger cinephiles — rebuild their physical media libraries, Axios San Antonio's Megan Stringer reports. Case in point: Adult DVD rentals from the San Antonio Public Library have surged 39% since 2022. DVD sales jumped 20% at Half Price Books' San Antonio locations in the most recent fiscal year. "It's the hunt, the find, sharing it — it's all part of the process," says Matt Dalton of Half Price Books. "There's a younger generation shopping our stores, and I can see them get excited when they're flipping through the bins or going through the aisles and finding that thing and holding it up. It's pretty exciting."

🤠 America's cheapest burgers Data: DoorDash. Graphic: Jim Sergent/Axios The cheapest burger meal in America can be found in Laredo, Texas, at $12.75. The most expensive is in Anchorage, Alaska, at $27.88, Axios' Jim Sergent writes. Of the 100 cities in DoorDash's cheeseburger index, California has seven of the 10 most expensive. Texas has four of the cheapest. Read on.

D.C. gunman, victim identified It took just minutes for a gunman to shoot five people and upend one of D.C.'s busiest neighborhoods yesterday morning, Axios D.C.'s Anna Spiegel writes. What we know: Interim police chief Jeffery W. Carroll identified the suspect as 55-year-old Matt Wade Lambert, an emergency room doctor who lived in the apartment building connected to VIDA Fitness. The man killed was 46-year-old James Stuart, the building's manager and a Northwest D.C. resident, Carroll said. Police believe the shooting was linked to an ongoing dispute between Lambert and his condominium association. Lambert had been fighting the association over alleged leaks and mold, per court records. He filed a lawsuit against the group in March 2025. Months later, he told now-Washington Sun reporter Michael Brice-Saddler that he'd spent nearly $200,000 on legal and engineering fees. In those interviews, Lambert said he knew Stuart's daily gym routine. Read on.

🥊 Unlikely MAGA allies Some of Senate Democrats' most surprising allies in the next Congress could hail from the right wing of the Republican Party, Axios' Stef Kight reports. Why it matters: Democrats are on track to need only four GOP votes to break filibusters next Congress. They could find those votes from a bloc of GOP senators with a shared appetite for taking on corporate power. 👀 Enter Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). Each has already worked with Democrats, and their votes could put legislation over the top. Zoom in: Hawley has co-led multiple pieces of legislation with progressive star Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this Congress. He's been scathing in his post-election critiques, telling reporters this week: "This Congress did not come and work for the people. This Congress came and worked for AI companies, and it worked for data centers, and it worked for big tech companies." Keep reading.

Post-Jensen era Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images With rival chips getting better and recent software breakthroughs, the tech ecosystem has achieved what would've seemed impossible a year ago: a viable path around Nvidia, Axios' Ina Fried and Bradley Olson report. But replacing a CEO willing to bankroll startups, backstop billions in cloud debt and aggressively fund rivals to the AI giants will be much harder. The next chapter without Jensen Huang will be more cautious, but the industry is capable of absorbing the change, for two key reasons: 🦾 New chips: The progress of custom chips from Google, Amazon, Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as new deals with Broadcom and Nvidia rival AMD, means customers have options. 🏛️ Washington: China hawks are ascendant in D.C. — and the departure of Huang, an advocate for keeping AI chip sales to China open, could accelerate a crackdown on controls that was already underway. Cutting off those routes could help protect America's lead and offer a major pre-IPO boost to Anthropic and OpenAI. Two reasons a weakened Nvidia could roil the industry: 💰 Finance: The company's checkbook will be far more difficult to replicate than its computing power. Nvidia has made $530 billion of off-balance-sheet commitments and guarantees, according to data firm SemiAnalysis. 👀 Open models: Huang has been the most enthusiastic funder and champion of the Western open-model ecosystem — giving developers cheaper alternatives to the expensive offerings from frontier AI companies. Read on.

🏛️ Schumer's new challenger Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) announced last night on MS NOW's "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" that he'll challenge Chuck Schumer for majority leader. Van Hollen — who, at 67, is nearly a decade younger than Schumer, who turns 76 later this month — was immediately endorsed by Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, who said the American people want "bold leadership." Why it matters: The attempt to oust Schumer underscores deep divisions plaguing Democrats, despite the party's midterm romp, Axios' Kathleen Hunter and Justin Green write. 📺 Van Hollen said his bid was "about answering the call of the American people. ... We saw a huge outburst of democracy on Election Day." Voters sent a message to "reject the status quo and to reject business as usual," he added. Van Hollen acknowledged he's the "underdog." But he told Psaki he has "more than 10" senators on his side. At least six senators-elect — El-Sayed, Adam Hamilton (Kan.), Juliana Stratton (Ill.), Peggy Flanagan (Minn.), Troy Jackson (Maine) and Annie Andrews (S.C.) — have said they won't support Schumer for leader.

Democrats' social media trap Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are both cautious, calm, compromise-minded leaders fantasizing about a serious, sensible Democratic-run Congress, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. But social media is a temptress no party leader has tamed. The seduction of attention, likes and followers invariably proves too strong for the savviest, most self-promotional politicians to resist. Why it matters: That's the lesson of the Internet Era of American Politics — the algorithms always win. 💥 A few provocative members of Congress and online activists dominate the national conversation because they master the biggest social media platforms. That creates the impression that their views reflect a party, or a nation, when in reality they don't. And it shapes the party's image and agenda. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, told us: "Governing isn't about getting the most followers on X — it's about delivering actual results ... It's easy to scream and yell, and say no — it's much harder to figure out a way forward." By the numbers: Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed had 1.6 million Instagram followers as of Sept. 13. Today: 7.6 million and rising. One clip of him pulled an estimated 50 million-plus views across X, Instagram and TikTok. Schumer, who has led Senate Democrats since 2017, sits at 466,000 Instagram followers. A man who hasn't been sworn in has roughly 15x the leader's audience. El-Sayed telegraphed this in July: "If you're Chuck Schumer, I'm pretty damn dangerous!" True. Jeffries has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has 9.8 million on her personal account alone. 📱 Yes, President Trump remade the GOP. But social media sucked in countless others to try to copy him, pushing rhetoric or ideas few politicians would've touched in the past. You see this in the rise of celebrity politicians who do little legislating but lots of instigating. You see this in the explosion of not just Instagram, X and YouTube followers by politicians, but also in the many starting their own shows — unthinkable a decade ago. Several see themselves as content producers: California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas host podcasts while doing pretty important day jobs for big states. Trump started his own social media platform, Truth Social. You see this in the daily media feeding frenzy when someone, somewhere goes viral because they lit up social media with a meme or menacing post. 🪤 The trap is springing before Democrats have even been sworn in: Several incoming senators have publicly said they won't support Schumer as leader, calling for new blood and more fight. James Talarico of Texas has sidestepped the question for months. Petitions to replace Schumer passed 100,000 signatures a day after launch. At Crooked Con, the post-election summit hosted in Washington last weekend by the parent company of "Pod Save America," the crowd booed and jeered his name all day. The pressure worked: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who's thinking about a 2028 presidential run, announced last night on MS NOW he'll challenge Schumer for majority leader. (More in next item.) Doug Sosnik, a top official in Bill Clinton's White House and closely followed analyst of Democratic politics, told us: "You would never know it from the internet or press coverage, but the fact is there are only 130,000 members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)." "It has taken a while, but I think that Democrats have finally figured out that X/Twitter is not the real world," Sosnik added. "The best proof point of Democrats' 'getting this' was our success across the entire country." 👀 What we're watching: The biggest siren song of the algorithm this next year will be impeaching Trump. Schumer and Jeffries have tried to set a disciplined path focused on affordability, not impeachment. Trump is prone to taking provocative actions that would juice talk of impeachment. A crowded presidential primary field will make the topic even more tempting — a massive distraction for the new Democratic majorities. Reality check: Schumer only needs about 29 of his members to vote for him in a secret caucus vote. He'll likely win the room. But he's losing the feed, and the feed sets the narrative. Among the senators-elect who say they won't vote for Schumer are Adam Hamilton of Kansas and Troy Jackson of Maine. Running against your own leader is now a red state play, too. 🪖 Accountability creep: In December, Jeffries waved off a Hegseth impeachment push. On Sunday, he said he was a "hard yes." (House Republicans tanked the effort on Tuesday.) Bernie Sanders, the incoming HELP chair, says Democrats may go after RFK Jr. next, alongside aggressive investigations into Trump's staff and family. To be fair: Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky forced the vote, and Jeffries tied it to an Iran war he says has driven up prices. But removal would take two-thirds of the Senate, which Democrats don't have. The bitter truth is there's little market for moderation or sanity or heads-down, excruciating policymaking. This wasn't always true: Pre-internet, politics wasn't minute-by-minute combat and most media played by similar rules and stuck to daily rhythms. The bottom line: Democrats won the election on prices. They'll lose the majority on posts. Axios' Alex Thompson contributed reporting.

New Nvidia CEO Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned yesterday amid reports of extramarital affairs and an investigation into whether he was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a successor. Huang faced mounting pressure after admitting to infidelity amid reports linking him to Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed whom US officials suspect of spying for China. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported a second affair with a senior executive who reported directly to Huang, while Reuters reported allegations of a third affair yesterday, after his resignation. Independent directors and outside counsel are examining potential espionage risks, while the FBI is conducting a separate inquiry. Nvidia has lost more than $550B in market value since its board announced an investigation Sunday. (Explore a timeline of the scandal.) Huang cofounded Nvidia in 1993, transforming it into an artificial intelligence powerhouse. Hear how he went from a Denny's dishwasher to one of tech's most influential leaders—and see how his departure could shake the entire AI industry.

Microsoft outage shows the risks of relying on a single technology provider for essential services A global Microsoft outage this week disrupted email and other workplace tools, plunging business chatter and everyday services into disarray worldwide and highlighting the risks of depending on one of just a few major providers of essential technology. https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-outage-outlook-email-365-status-down-d92547a821930290db2964388016979a? Microsoft’s global meltdown Pedestrians pass a Microsoft office building in New York City. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) A massive Microsoft outage that began Thursday around noon ET has left millions worldwide without access to their email and other essentials of modern office life. Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft services have been disrupted, though traffic is “being gradually restored,” the company said today. The fallout has affected banks, governments, and courts across multiple countries, as well as airlines. In the US, city governments nationwide reported major email disruptions, while some businesses couldn’t collect payments because they were unable to print invoices. So how did this happen? Ironically, it appears to have started with a software update intended to make Microsoft’s services better. Instead, the rollout went awry, setting off a cascade of disruptions. Microsoft said in a service update that it is working urgently to stabilize its servers and restore normal operations. The good news, relatively speaking, is that Microsoft says there’s no evidence of a cyberattack. + Live updates: Where things stand + Read more: Access to Outlook, Teams and other tools affected

🛒 Paying it forward Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Today's dose of kindness comes from reader Jane Remsen in Gloucester, Mass.: "During Christmas 2024, a woman in front of me in the checkout line randomly paid for my groceries. She said, 'The world needs more random acts of kindness.'" I have now paid for someone's groceries behind me in the line almost every month since then, and when someone asks me why, I repeat: 'The world needs more random acts of kindness!'"

Food gets a second chance Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios America tosses 94 billion pounds of its food each year. But many local organizations and volunteers are redirecting that food and turning it into meals for people in need. Why it matters: As nearly 50 million Americans struggle with food insecurity — lack of consistent access to nutritious food — these local groups are tackling two problems at once: food waste and hunger. 🍲 Zoom in: Cincinnati has a robust food rescue network. Local organizations recovered 17,629 tons of food in 2024 — the equivalent of 29 million meals, Axios Cincinnati's Kristen Swilley reports. Our Daily Bread, Cincinnati's largest soup kitchen, has relied entirely on rescued and donated food from restaurants and businesses throughout its 41 years of operation. Demand has doubled since 2016. "We literally could not do what we do without rescued food," executive director Georgine Getty says. 🧑‍🍳 In Portland, Ore., nonprofit Urban Gleaners says it rescues nearly 1.2 million pounds of food annually and distributes it to more than 8,500 families across the region each week, Axios Portland's Meira Gebel writes. The group even hosts events inviting local chefs to make gourmet dishes out of food that would have been discarded. 🎡 In Minnesota, a group called Loaves and Fishes rescued food that didn't get sold at the Minnesota State Fair, CBS reports. The food collected from fair vendors included french fries, cheese curds and bags of milk. ⚽ In Philadelphia, 20,000 pounds of surplus food from the World Cup was delivered to families in need. Many other host cities organized similar efforts. The stadium donated nearly 14,000 pre-made meals, which included salads, wraps, cookies, chips and gluten-free options. Those meals had been made for players and staff from teams including France, Brazil, Croatia and Haiti, Axios Philadelphia's Mike D'Onofrio reports. Find your Axios Local city for news about your community.

Floor fiasco backlash Surprise Republican victories on the House floor have created an opening for Democrats to criticize Hakeem Jeffries' leadership team. 🧑‍⚖️ Why it matters: Democrats pride themselves on winning tough votes. But they've been outmaneuvered three times in recent months, including twice this week ahead of the party's leadership elections. "It's really unfortunate that this happened this week when, obviously, that is a narrative we hear leadership portray," Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told us. Rep.-elect Melat Kiros (D-Colo.) said this week has "certainly not given me confidence." "We do know that the Democratic caucus has blundered before on things, like whipping the votes to protect NPR last spring," said Rep.-elect Don Leonard (D-Ohio). 😓 The other side: Some Democrats told us the absences were simply an inevitable reality of Congress, noting that several members who were absent have said they were attending to emergencies. Others said House Democrats need to do a better job of getting to votes on time: "The general consensus among the new members is on Jan. 3, it's time to lock in," Rep.-elect Matt Little (D-Minn.) told us. 👨‍⚖️ What happened: The House voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday to quash an effort by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Nearly a dozen House Democrats were absent, many of whom got caught in a traffic jam returning from an Elect Democratic Women event. Yesterday, House Republicans passed a veterans bill by voice vote despite Democratic opposition. In September, a pair of centrist House Democrats repeatedly broke with leadership to help the GOP advance key bills. 🇺🇸 The bottom line: Jeffries, when we asked about these incidents, pointed to a different veterans bill Democrats were able to force to a successful floor vote today via a discharge petition. "House Democrats once again successfully forced a vote on a piece of legislation designed to make life better for the American people," he said. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) did not respond to our question and walked off the House floor into her office. — Andrew Solender

🤝 Unlikely Democratic allies Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios Senate Democrats could find some of their most surprising allies next Congress from the right wing of the Republican Party. 🤝 Why it matters: Democrats are on track to need only four GOP votes to break a filibuster next Congress. They could find those votes from a bloc of GOP senators with a shared appetite for taking on corporate power. Enter Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). Each has already worked with Democrats on issues ranging from health care to AI and Social Security. 🎤 Who we're watching: Hawley has co-led multiple pieces of legislation with progressive star Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this Congress. Hawley is often viewed as a loner in the GOP, pairing populist economics with hardcore culture war issues from abortion to transgender care to religious freedom. He's been scathing in his postelection critiques. "This Congress did not come and work for the people. This Congress came and worked for AI companies, and it worked for data centers, and it worked for big tech companies," he told reporters Tuesday. He's scoping out potential bipartisan deals: "You want to raise the minimum wage? I'm for that. You want to work to get gas prices down? I'm for that. I am open to anything to bring down the cost of health care," he said. 🏥 Zoom in: Watch the health care space, specifically undoing cuts passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and drug price controls. President Trump has specifically asked Congress to codify his most favored nations drug pricing deals, which could give Republicans an opening to work with Democrats. Hawley and moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were among the loudest GOP voices opposing the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act credits last year. Both sit on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, which oversees some health care issues. 💰 Zoom out: Social Security and tech safety issues could also be huge areas of unexpected bipartisan work. Over the summer, Warren and Moreno released a sweeping plan to "save Social Security." Warren and Banks have tag-teamed on numerous tech and AI safety bills, including a joint statement on Nvidia this week. Hawley is also a major critic of AI. Schmitt worked with Warren in 2024 and 2025 to challenge Big Tech's dominance of Pentagon AI contracts, and with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in July to crack down on search engine monopolies. What to watch: While there will be fewer this Congress, Democrats will also have a club of more moderate Republicans they can try to pick up too. Murkowski, along with Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), will be top targets. — Stef Kight

Hindsight Is 2006 (Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty; Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty.)   View in browser Last week, Democrats dominated elections as Donald Trump, a lame-duck Republican, waged an unpopular war in Iran that he started and that a majority of Americans want to end. Notice the parallels to 20 years ago: In 2006, Democrats dominated the midterms as George W. Bush, a lame-duck Republican, waged an unpopular war in Iraq that he chose to start and that a majority of Americans wanted to end. Back then, with Democrats in control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in 12 years, The Atlantic asked 44 foreign-policy specialists about withdrawal from Iraq. Most people surveyed for this 2007 article predicted that policy would move in the direction that voters wanted: an end to the war. Around that time, 130,000 to 150,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq. Seventy-three percent of respondents said that America would not have a significant military presence in Iraq (defined as 50,000 troops or more) five years in the future. And they were correct––although that oversimplifies what came next. Revisiting what happened with regard to Iraq is a helpful reminder that winning elections by campaigning against a war is far easier than actually ending the conflict. In January 2007, days after the Democratic-majority Congress was sworn in, Bush gave the anti-war coalition the opposite of what it wanted: He told the public that he had already begun “the surge,” which would increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq to roughly 170,000. Democrats in the House passed a nonbinding resolution disapproving of the policy. Nearly two months later, they passed a $124 billion emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan, which also mandated that within months the United States would start pulling troops out of Iraq. But Bush vetoed the bill, arguing that “setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure,” and that the U.S. should not tell enemies its plans. That December, under pressure to support the troops, Congress approved $70 billion in additional funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. The following year, as conditions in Iraq improved, Bush began reducing America’s military presence and handing security matters over to the Iraqis. Barack Obama, who had campaigned on ending the “dumb war,” won the White House and continued winding down military activity. By 2012, nearly all U.S. forces were gone—but that didn’t last. Obama ended up redeploying troops to Iraq in 2014 to respond to the rise of the Islamic State. President Trump, who also criticized the war in his 2016 campaign, kept soldiers there to continue fighting ISIS. Not until his second term, earlier this year, did the final withdrawal of U.S. forces occur. All told, America’s military stayed in Iraq for years under multiple Congresses and presidents who won elections by appealing to voters who wanted the war to be over. The Atlantic asked the foreign-policy experts one other question back in 2007: How should the United States withdraw from Iraq? The most popular answer (46 percent) urged a phased withdrawal to minimize chaos; the least popular answer (5 percent) favored an “immediate, full-scale withdrawal.” Today, most Americans want the war in Iran to end, but how it should end is less certain. Here the Iraq withdrawal ceases to be a close parallel: America seems less able to dictate events in Iran, because that war is being waged against an intact regime, rather than against insurgents after a military victory, and Iran’s ability to challenge American interests––by closing the Strait of Hormuz, attacking American military bases, and striking U.S. allies in the region––could complicate plans. Plus, America’s enemies in Iraq did not have the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon in 2006. Iran’s ability to go nuclear is contested, and if it obtained “a nuclear weapon during my term,” Trump told 60 Minutes over the weekend, “I would be excoriated far worse than what’s happened.” He may be right. As much as Americans want the war to conclude, they also overwhelmingly agree that Iran should not possess such a weapon. But Trump’s statement elides confident claims he made last year about bygone missile strikes destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities, undermining his own public rationale for war. Come January, America will once again have a Republican president who maintains that he made the right call by going to war and a congressional majority under pressure to end the war. If Trump presses ahead, knowing he’ll never face voters again, Congress could stop him if it is willing to cut off military funding for Iran operations. But do Democrats have the votes to do so and the willingness to live with the results? As in 2006, lawmakers tend to hesitate when foreseeing potential political risks—in this case, being blamed for an American loss or a nuclear Iran. Instead, they may be tempted to take measures short of actually forcing Trump’s hand. Already in June, the Republican-controlled Congress passed a bipartisan resolution telling Trump to get congressional approval to continue the war or to withdraw the military from Iran. When he ignored the legislation, lawmakers let him keep fighting anyway without consequence. Trump has since acknowledged that the war helped Democrats win the House and the Senate, and said that he expects the conflict to end soon. But today, in announcing that Vance, an Iran-war skeptic, will no longer take part in negotiations, Trump seemed to abandon the idea of a diplomatic resolution. “We don’t need a deal with Iran,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!” It seems possible that Americans will be clashing over Iran policy for years to come. The history of the Iraq War suggests that, even when voters want peace, finishing conflicts that a president favors is far harder than starting them. Related: Trump could leave the Iran mess to his successor. The U.S. and Iran are fighting a massively asymmetrical war.

The average US 30-year mortgage rate falls to 7.11% this week, its fourth straight decline The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell for the fourth straight week, offering more relief for prospective home shoppers at a time when many have put off buying a home due to elevated home loan borrowing costs and prices. Read More.

Advocacy groups sue AI giants to freeze new models, warning of 'catastrophic' risks A coalition of online safety and consumer advocacy groups on Thursday sued five of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies to halt further development, alleging the tech giants can’t prevent their own creations from causing “catastrophic” harm. Read More.

What we know after Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia's CEO Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned from his top post at the chipmaker he co-founded, after reports of the tech titan's extramarital affairs came into the spotlight this week. Read More. Jensen Huang built the company that powers AI. Now Nvidia must find a way forward without him Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday, capping a spectacular downfall for a poster boy of the artificial intelligence boom whose exit following reports of extramarital affairs now thrusts the chipmaker into an uncertain future. Read More. Who is Colette Kress, Nvidia's interim CEO? Longtime exec takes top spot after Jensen Huang resigns Nvidia has appointed a 13-year veteran executive behind some of its biggest financing deals as interim CEO after the abrupt resignation of its longtime leader shook Silicon Valley. Read More.

⚓️ 1 for the road: SS United States goes under The SS United States docked in Philadelphia in 2020. Photo: Hannah Yoon/Bloomberg via Getty Images The historic SS United States now rests underwater about 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach in the Florida Panhandle, Axios Philadelphia's Mike D'Onofrio reports. Last night's controlled sinking stretched on for hours, ending around 10 p.m. when the ship fully disappeared into the water. (Watch a video.) 🚢 So ends the vessel's strange odyssey from the country's largest ocean liner to a Philly landmark to the world's largest artificial reef and scuba site. Plans to turn the ship into a hotel, restaurant or casino were all torpedoed by colossal costs. Go deeper.