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Trump orders the Navy to return to an older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers The directive issued Thursday comes after years of President Donald Trump railing against the new, magnetically powered catapult system that shoots fighter jets off the deck of the carriers. Trump has long said he prefers the older tech. Read more. Why this matters: The move would likely cost billions of dollars. It would revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain. It also comes at a time when the U.S. military is trying to find funding from Congress for all its desired equipment and as the Navy is struggling to fill its ships with enough sailors. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ New aircraft carrier heads toward Middle East after reports of issues on long-deployed USS Lincoln 2 UAE tankers attacked while transiting Strait of Hormuz, and other news from the Middle East

THIS DAY IN HISTORY August 14 2003 Blackout hits Northeast United States A major outage knocks out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET, 21 power plants shut down in minutes. Fifty million people were affected. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT Arts & Entertainment 1985 Michael Jackson takes control of the Beatles’ publishing rights Crime 1751 A daughter poisons her father 1994 The terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal is captured Sports 1971 Pitching ace Bob Gibson throws first no-hitter U.S. Presidents 1935 FDR signs Social Security Act 1795 George Washington signs Jay Treaty with Britain World War I 1917 China declares war on Germany World War II 1945 Japan’s surrender made public on V-J Day

AI perception bubble Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios Simon Hernandez-Arthur — the new author of Axios Communicators, our weekly newsletter covering the biggest trends in the comms industry — writes: AI has become an everyday tool for communicators, but many of the audiences they're trying to reach remain deeply skeptical of how it's being used. Why it matters: Communicators risk getting stuck in a pro-AI bubble, where the ubiquity of the technology among colleagues and executives makes it easy to overlook the skepticism — and sometimes outright hostility — it generates. Half of U.S. consumers prefer to give their business to brands that don't use generative AI in consumer-facing messages, advertising and content, according to a Gartner survey from earlier this year. Younger consumers were particularly skeptical: 57% of Gen Z and millennials said generative AI has made content quality worse. Keep reading.

🗳️ AI scrambles political map Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The search for a winning AI message is pushing candidates and lawmakers into unexpected political territory, Axios' Maria Curi writes. Why it matters: AI is redrawing traditional political alliances, pitting factions of both parties against each other and creating surprising new coalitions. Three ways AI is scrambling the political map: Trump world vs. Tea Party on data centers. Tea Party-linked Humans First is pressing Republicans to confront growing opposition to data centers, casting it as a MAGA issue — but Trump world is keeping its distance, with administration sources saying the group has no White House influence. Centrist Democrats vs. progressives on data centers. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and progressive state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez joined forces on the state's first-in-the-nation data center moratorium. But Gonzalez is pushing Hochul to go further with a three-year ban, testing how closely the party's two wings can align. Libertarians and progressives on surveillance. In Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Republicans are joining Democrats in pushing safeguards against government and industry misuse of AI-powered surveillance. Keep reading ...

🤖 OpenAI sheds execs in pre-IPO refresh Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios 💰 Breaking: OpenAI is on track to generate annualized revenue of more than $40 billion based on its current performance — roughly doubling the total from the end of 2025, Bloomberg reports. (Gift link) A wave of top OpenAI executives — including Sam Altman's top deputy, the chief operating officer and the chief revenue officer — has left in the span of a month as the company retools its leadership ahead of an expected IPO, Axios' Madison Mills writes. Why it matters: Co-founder Greg Brockman is getting more involved across every level of the company to build out a leadership team he hopes will catapult OpenAI past Anthropic in enterprise adoption. 🔬 Zoom in: OpenAI chief revenue officer Denise Dresser is leaving less than a year into the role. The lab appointed Dali Rajic, most recently president and COO of Google-owned cybersecurity company Wiz, to replace her. Dresser's exit comes the same week OpenAI executive Brad Lightcap — the company's former COO — announced his departure, along with the head of ethics, head of safety and chief futurist. Fidji Simo, the No. 2 at the AI lab under CEO Sam Altman, left last month after taking a leave of absence for health reasons.

Exclusive: New Bibi, Trump rift Axios' Barak Ravid, who has closely covered President Trump's relationship with Bibi Netanyahu and Israel going back to the 2016 election, writes: When Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump met in the Oval Office two weeks ago, the president asked the Israeli prime minister how he was doing in the polls ahead of the Oct. 27 election. Netanyahu paused. Then one of his advisers piped up: "Mr. President, he is winning," the aide said, according to a U.S. official familiar with the exchange. Why it matters: Netanyahu isn't winning. And Bibi wants an endorsement from Trump, who so far hasn't given it, despite being asked about it repeatedly by reporters. That White House scene, first reported here, captures the tension. The president could still change his mind. But with just 74 days left until Israel's election, time is running short for Netanyahu. 🖼️ The big picture: In the first few weeks of the war in Iran, some of Trump's close advisers were confident he would endorse Netanyahu. But as time passed and the war bogged down, the two men's foreign policy goals — and their domestic political interests — started to diverge. More and more daylight has opened between them over the last three months — not just on Iran, but on Lebanon and Gaza as well. Two senior U.S. officials said that while Trump likes Netanyahu on a personal level, he's been frustrated by his decisions and policies. "Bibi is his own worst enemy," Trump said, according to two people who spoke to the president about Netanyahu recently. Behind the scenes: Several Netanyahu political adversaries have expressed concern that Trump will endorse the incumbent leader, two of their aides told Axios. According to two sources with knowledge of the outreach, those opposition figures back-channeled messages to Trump and his aides through mutual friends, donors and other political allies, urging the president to remain neutral. A former U.S. official briefed on the situation claimed that Netanyahu's weakness in polls has deterred Trump from getting involved. The intrigue: Trump was asked by reporters four times in recent weeks whether he endorses Netanyahu. Each time, he has stopped short of doing so. In several recent interviews, Trump praised Netanyahu for being a "great wartime prime minister," but each time referred to him in the past tense. 👀 What to watch: The Israeli election is crucial for Trump's Middle East agenda for his final two years in office, especially with the Iran crisis in a "no deal, no war" limbo. Trump also wants to push forward his Gaza peace plan, make progress in negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, cinch a security agreement between Israel and Syria and, most importantly, broker a historic peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

August 14, 2026 Questioning God “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20) Whenever one begins a question with “why,” he should realize that the answer must necessarily be theological, not scientific. Science can deal with the questions of “what” and “how,” sometimes even with “where” and “when,” but never with “why”! The “why” questions have to do with motives and purposes, even when dealing with natural phenomena. (“Why does the earth rotate on its axis?” “Why do we have mosquitoes?”) Even though we can partially explain such things by secondary causes, we finally encounter a first cause, and then the “why?” can be answered only by God. The wise thing to do is simply believe that He has good reasons for everything, whether we can discern them now or not. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). God the Creator “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11), and it is our high privilege simply to trust Him, not to question Him. On the other hand, He often asks us: “Why?” “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” Jesus asked His disciples when they thought they were in great peril (Matthew 8:26). “If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” (John 8:46), He would say to those who question His Word. To those who doubt His deity, the apostle Paul, speaking in His name, asks, “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8). As the popular chorus goes, “God specializes in things thought impossible!” Our God is omniscient and knows what’s best; He is omnipotent, so He can do it. He is all-loving and will surely do what’s best for those who trust Him. HMM

Of the 9,000 Blockbuster stores that existed in the early 1990s, only one remains. The last Blockbuster on Earth is located in Bend, Oregon, USA. James

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage beats a slate of fringe candidates in election boycotted by major parties CLACTON-ON-SEA, England (AP) — Nigel Farage regained his seat in Parliament on Friday, beating a field of fringe candidates led by trash-can-wearing comic Count Binface in a special election boycotted by mainstream parties that called it a farce. https://apnews.com/article/britain-politics-farage-binface-clacton-election-reform-uk-16f5c7deff9de672c1c9b1950513b52f?

🏜️ Parting shot: Into the maze Photo: Bill Pearson Reader Bill Pearson of Philadelphia captured this view along White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park in Utah last year. It's his favorite for its surreal landscape and maze of canyons.

A Different Standard View in browser In January, the Trump administration attempted to fundamentally change the way the United States handles childhood immunizations. Following a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC updated its vaccine schedule to recommend that some shots no longer be given to all children. A federal court undid the effort in March. In an executive order in May, Donald Trump called on states to adopt the narrower schedule anyway. On Monday, Trump issued a new executive order on the same subject, focused on lowering the number of vaccines that the government recommends for all children. As I wrote earlier this week, this White House has a habit of doubling down when it doesn’t get its way. But only states have the power to put these proposals into practice—and many state policy makers, concerned that the White House is contradicting existing research, aren’t keen to follow its guidance. According to the new executive order, preventive shots for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue, and other diseases should be recommended for “high-risk” groups only. The order also calls to split up vaccinations for measles, mumps, and rubella—the two-dose MMR shot that has been a standard recommendation for U.S. children for decades—into three separate stages, and directs the attorney general to pursue legal action against states that don’t respect “parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations, and equal protection under the law.” (The order says it will align U.S. policy with the best practices of other countries, such as Denmark, but the experts I spoke with highlighted that what works in one country won’t necessarily work in another.) The mandate may not have any legal authority to compel states to change their guidelines in the near term, although the invocation of the attorney general suggests that litigation may be on the horizon. And the single-disease vaccines that the executive order encourages aren’t yet available in the U.S. But this week’s order risks creating even more uncertainty about vaccines than already exists. “If you set out to write a policy that confuses people, it would look a lot like this one,” Jake Scott, an infectious-disease specialist at Stanford, told me. Between the policy priorities of the Trump administration and the guidance of public-health experts, Americans have been stuck in a state of vaccine whiplash. When the American Academy of Pediatrics broke with the government earlier this year over its proposed vaccine schedule, the chair of the organization’s committee on infectious diseases told reporters that the recommendations are a “strong departure from the medical evidence and no longer offer the optimal way to prevent illness in children.” Some state lawmakers have been fighting over how best to adapt to the CDC’s changing guidelines; Kansas’s GOP-dominated legislature tried to bring the state’s vaccine rules into alignment with the CDC’s, only for its Democratic governor to veto the effort in April. And many other states have publicly said that they will reject the guidelines. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has questioned vaccines’ safety in the past, has been driving the discussions of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, as my colleagues Tom Bartlett and Katherine J. Wu reported. And although the secretary has moved away from explicit anti-vax rhetoric in recent months (following a reported White House push for health officials to stick to messages with broad public support), vaccine skepticism clearly lingers within the administration. During the press conference for Monday’s executive order, Trump suggested that the MMR vaccine could be “quite lethal.” There is no evidence for this. Measles, though, can kill: Last year, the U.S. saw its first deaths from measles in a decade. Rethinking MMR at this moment poses extreme logistical challenges. Even if pharmaceutical companies opted to invest the time and money to introduce these shots to the American market, splitting up the doses would create new problems for caregivers. “We are essentially tripling the operational labor required of the parent or guardian (who must now schedule three separate appointments for their child),” Maimuna Majumder, a Harvard epidemiologist, told me in an email, which is “all but guaranteed to result in missed vaccines.” In the meantime, the executive order risks misinforming Americans who are already unsure of how they feel about vaccination. The Kaiser Family Foundation released a study in June suggesting that about a third of American adults fall into a “mixed middle group” of vaccine skepticism—they believe some myths and reject others. My colleague Nick Florko, who covers public health, told me that these are the people most likely to be swayed by the administration’s latest push: “Those are the folks that might see this and think, Okay, maybe my belief that I want to delay this vaccine is well founded because the federal guidance now says that we should do that.” Under the White House’s rubric, the Americans who most need clear guidance are those who stand to lose. Related: Kennedy’s handpicked vaccine committee is a mess. (From 2025) The U.S.’s most concerning anti-vaccine policy

📺 Dems cry foul 😡 House Democrats are crying foul over a new Republican ad campaign touting swing-district GOP lawmakers' pre-recess support for a bill banning members of Congress and their families from buying individual stocks. Why it matters: Democrats groaned that last month's vote on the Stop Insider Trading Act amounted to a big Republican setup. Now they're fuming that the trap has been sprung. 💰 Issue advocacy group Choose Freedom Inc. has put a whopping $9 million into running the spots across nearly 20 congressional districts, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. "Corrupt congressmen treat the House floor like a trading floor. Thankfully, Congressman Rob Bresnahan voted to stop it," one of the ads says. Catch up quick: Democrats complained that the bill the House passed in July applies only to the legislative branch and has carveouts for holding and selling pre-owned stocks as well as for buying pooled investment vehicles such as mutual funds and ETFs. House Democrats also fumed at the inclusion of an unrelated provision in the bill requiring photo ID to vote in federal elections — and in the end, only 13 of them voted for it. 💬 What they're saying: "To call this a stock trading ban is disgraceful," Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, told us in an interview. "I don't know how anybody would sign off on this," he said of the ad campaign. "This is why people in America hate politics. This is really as reprehensible as I've seen." Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said Democrats "will pass a bill that bans owning stock and include the administration" within "the first 100 hours" of a Democratic House majority. 🔥 "This was such an obvious setup, and we just fell right for it," said one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to contradict their party leadership's messaging on the vote. Between the lines: Some Democrats bitterly noted the irony behind the group praising Bresnahan (R-Pa.) specifically on stock trading, pointing to the considerable public scrutiny he has faced on the topic. "For Rob Bresnahan in particular, who is the poster child for a member who is making countless trades, it is despicable. It's reckless. He should be ashamed of himself," Morelle said. Bresnahan has denied having any personal involvement in his trades, and his portfolio's activity has reportedly slowed in recent months. The other side: "Calling someone else 'shameless' is a masterclass in projection after Morelle refused to vote for the bill," the Bresnahan campaign said in a statement to us. "Perhaps next time he can put his name on common-sense legislation that would benefit the American people instead of crying that someone else actually did something to solve the problem." — Andrew Solender

GOP polling surprise President Trump's top political hands had some surprising advice for Senate Republicans last week: Talk more about health care. Why it matters: Trump and the MAGA base are fixated on the voter-ID and proof-of-citizenship SAVE Act. But Republican message testing from Trump's own pollster suggests candidates are better off focusing elsewhere. 🚗 Driving the news: Top Trumpworld campaign officials, including James Blair, pollster Tony Fabrizio and Senate Leadership Fund executive director Alex Latcham, briefed senators and aides Aug. 5 on the midterms. ❗️ They presented polling on the party's strongest potential campaign messages, according to slides we viewed. One of the strongest: going after health insurance companies. Republicans had a 46-point advantage when calling for greater transparency around insurers' profits, claim denials and wait times for patient care while hitting Democrats for "lining insurers' pockets." Banning congressional stock trading and cracking down on fraud also emerged as potentially powerful issues, with 44- and 38-point advantages for Republicans, respectively. 🤔 The intrigue: Messaging on the SAVE Act had far less upside, giving Republicans just a 14-point advantage over Democratic messaging on the issue, according to the results shared in the meeting. "Voters prefer a Republican who supports the SAVE America Act by double digits over a Democrat who opposes it. We have a litany of policies that deliver for Americans and will put us over the top in November," a source familiar with the presentation said. Between the lines: Health care has long been a weakness for Republicans. The decision to let enhanced Obamacare tax credits expire last year was broadly unpopular. 🥊 Now, Republicans see an opening to go on offense by making insurance companies the enemy. 🎧 What we're hearing: Blair said to expect MAGA Inc. and Republican National Committee money to start flowing into midterm races soon, though he did not specify when or where, according to two sources familiar with what was said. National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) echoed the message. "Good news coming our way is what they basically indicated," he told us in a brief interview after the meeting. 😫 Anxiety has grown in GOP campaign circles over when, where and whether Trump will unleash the more than $400 million sitting in MAGA Inc. to boost Republicans in the midterms. "I control it," Trump told Punchbowl News when asked about the super PAC. "I could spend it on pretty much anything I want." But he added, "I'm going to help Republicans." 👀 What to watch: The RNC coming online in the midterms would be a major boost. The committee has $128 million in cash on hand. By comparison, the Democratic National Committee has $16 million, plus $18 million in debt. ⚖️ A recent Supreme Court ruling also allows the RNC to spend unlimited amounts in coordination with candidates, meaning the money can stretch further through lower TV ad rates unavailable to super PACs such as MAGA Inc. — Stef W. Kight

Britain records its hottest day of the year as summer heat grips parts of Europe, in photos Britain is enduring another summer heat wave after recording its hottest day of the year Thursday. People also have been seeking relief elsewhere in Europe as another spell of intense summer heat grips the region. Read More.

Magnetic 'Goody King' toys recalled over ingestion hazard after two children receive surgery About 213,500 “Goody King” magnetic building toys were recalled in the U.S. on Thursday, due to an ingestion hazard posed that has resulted in at least two children receiving surgeries. Read More.

Huge explosion at ammunition factory in Rome causes fright but no injuries An explosion sparked by a fire at an ammunition factory sent up a towering plume of smoke Thursday in the town of Colleferro near Rome but no injuries were reported, local officials said. Read More.

Fireworks light skies over Pakistan’s capital as crowds celebrate Independence Day Fireworks burst over Pakistan’s capital at midnight as jubilant crowds poured into streets across the country to mark the 79th anniversary of independence, waving national flags and chanting “Long Live Pakistan.” Read More.

Congo’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak reaches a sixth province Congo’s Ebola outbreak has spread to a sixth province after a death was recorded in the previously unaffected Bas-Uele province, the head of Africa's CDC said Thursday. Read More.

Luigi Mangione expected to plead guilty in federal case in UnitedHealthcare killing, AP source says NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty as early as Friday in the federal case accusing him of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to a person familiar with the matter. https://apnews.com/article/luigi-mangione-plea-unitedhealthcare-ceo-4fa5e27b6baef00f8465e78243a2d58e?

📸 Pic to go: Eclipse from space Animation: CIRA/NOAA A NOAA weather satellite had one of the best seats in (or above) the house for yesterday's total solar eclipse. Above, you can see the Moon's shadow fall across the Earth from the Arctic Ocean down to Western Europe. More eclipse photos.

💰 A Powerball ticket sold at a western Illinois gas station was the sole winner of last night's $1 billion jackpot. Go deeper.

⚓️ The Pentagon is sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for a record 200 days, and lawmakers and others have raised concerns about conditions aboard the ship. Gift link.

🥇 Gold goes bananas Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Gold prices rose to their highest level in more than two months yesterday, hitting $4,465 an ounce, Axios' Emily Peck reports. The last time gold rose 13% or more in a month was September 1999 — more than a quarter-century ago. 🖼️ The big picture: Gold's ascent signals that investors are expecting less inflation. When the Iran war started, they generally believed inflation would heat up, and interest rates would rise. 📈 Yes, but: Last month's Fed meeting reassured many investors that interest rates weren't about to rise — and gold started climbing. Yesterday's relatively benign inflation report offered even more assurance. Go deeper.

Put it on his tab Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Suzanne Plunkett - Pool via Getty Images The East Wing is gone, a new helipad is spreading across the South Lawn, and scaffolding wraps around the White House's front columns. But the price tag for President Trump's renovations is far less obvious, Axios' Avery Lotz reports. The muddled mix of funding streams includes private donors, taxpayers and, Trump has said, the president himself. 🤑 One tally finds that the president's construction projects — including his new East Wing ballroom, upgrades to Lafayette Square and more — could cost at least $927 million, The Washington Post reports (gift link). Senate Democrats are urging the Government Accountability Office to audit the ballroom project's scope and cost. The lawmakers cited a lack of transparency and "limited congressional oversight, meaningful public input, and adherence to established federal processes." (Read the letter.) 🏗️ White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement that Trump "continues to implement long-overdue and necessary renovations," calling him the "Builder-in-Chief." Ingle said the East Wing project is "inextricably tied" to security concerns, and pointed to an alleged plot to attack this summer's UFC fight on White House grounds. Keep reading.