President Biden is being pressured to grant a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey — a Black nationalist who was influential to Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and later generations of Black Panther Party activists.

Why it matters: The Jamaican-born Garvey was convicted of mail fraud on June 21, 1923, in a case that supporters have long said was politically motivated and aimed at discrediting his growing popularity among Black Americans amid lynchings and racial violence.

The big picture: The pardon request comes as lawmakers push for more clemency actions before Biden leaves office and after the president's unpopular decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden.

• Last month, President Biden commuted the sentences of 1,500 Americans in home confinement during the pandemic and pardoned 39 others, setting a record for clemency in one day, according to the White House.

Catch up quick: Part of the Congressional Black Caucus, led by Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), sent a letter in late December urging President Biden to exonerate Garvey.

• Garvey's 91-year-old son, Dr. Julius Garvey, has also publicly urged Biden to grant the pardon, which he and others have sought since 1987.
• They say a pardon would correct a century-old injustice.
• "His name needs to be cleared. The purpose of the pardon is really to exonerate, " Dr. Garvey, a retired cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon, told Axios.

Flashback: The elder Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914, which championed Black pride, economic independence and Pan-Africanism.

• He advocated for Black-owned businesses and a "Back-to-Africa" movement envisioning a unified Africa led by Black people.
• Seen as a hero in Jamaica, many of Garvey's ideas about economic empowerment and global unity remain relevant today.
• Some Black critics, including W. E. B. Du Bois, denounced his Black separatist views and his relationship with the Ku Klux Klan, who shared Garvey's goal of racial separatism.

Garvey was convicted of mail fraud for promoting stock sales for his Black Star Line shipping company with allegedly misleading materials, including an image of a ship the company had not yet acquired.

• Garvey's prosecution was closely tied to the efforts of J. Edgar Hoover, who later became the first director of the FBI. Hoover's actions are seen as a systematic effort to undermine Black leaders.
• Garvey served two years in prison before President Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927, but he was deported to Jamaica, and his conviction was never overturned. He died in London in 1940 at the age of 52.

What they're saying: "Biden pardoned his son, which is something that he claimed he wasn't going to do because his son was found guilty and pled guilty to tax evasion charges," Dr. Garvey said.

• "So it's a no-brainer—why couldn't he pardon Marcus Garvey? Or why wouldn't he pardon Marcus Garvey?"
• "We don't know that there's any specific reason why he shouldn't, except the general attitude, which is systematic.

The Biden administration did not respond to requests for comment to Axios.

Between the lines: "This isn't just about Marcus Garvey—it's about correcting history," Justin Hansford, a professor at Howard University's School of Law and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center, told Axios.

• Hansford, who first learned about Garvey while reading "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," said he was surprised to discover that Malcolm X's parents were Garveyites.
• Hansford has dedicated years to studying Garvey's case, authored a book about him, and has relentlessly advocated for his exoneration through legal means. He was deeply affected by Garvey's legacy.
• "He was painted as a fraudster and a con artist by those who sought to silence him," the professor said.
• "History is the lens through which we see the world," Hansford explained. "If we don't correct these wrongs, we teach our children that the fight for freedom is something to be punished—not celebrated."

The bottom line: Dr. Garvey emphasized that the fight to clear his father's name will continue regardless of who is in the White House.

• "We haven't asked (President) Trump before, but it was raised by Roger Stone, one of Trump's supporters, some years ago," Garvey said. "We'll see how it goes, but it's important for me that my father's name is cleared. We'll continue our efforts—whoever is president."

Filing a legal complaint is rapidly becoming the self-publishing option of choice for individuals looking to make explosive public allegations — regardless of whether they actually care about a judge finding in their favor.

Why it matters: In an era of steadily declining trust in media, the dry formalities of a legal template provide not only an imprimatur of institutional credibility, but also the freedom to go into extreme amounts of detail without seeming petty, tedious or self-indulgent.

Driving the news: Actress Blake Lively is in a war of legal filings with her co-star Justin Baldoni.

• Lively's complaint immediately changed her public reputation.
• As communications guru Lulu Cheng Meservey said on X: "What happens with the legal complaint from here? In my opinion, it doesn't even matter. She's won."
• Baldoni then filed his own lawsuit laying out his side of the story. It's framed as a defamation suit against the New York Times, but in practice fires back in the PR war with Lively. (The Times denied defaming Baldoni.)

Flashback: Similar tactics were employed by actress Sophie Turner, who fired off a legal complaint against her soon-to-be ex-husband that invoked international child abduction clauses through the Hague Convention.

• Legal filings have also been part of Drake's arsenal in his longstanding rivalry with Kendrick Lamar.
• Women have used lawsuits as a way to go public with accusations that powerful men — including Sean Combs and Leon Black — have committed sexual assault. (Both denied wrongdoing and neither were convicted of a crime, but the suits impacted both of their careers — and, in the case of Combs, helped land him in jail.)

When billionaire investor Bill Ackman wanted various Business Insider journalists and editors to be fired for publishing a story about his wife, he made public a 77-page letter from his lawyer, Elizbeth Locke.

• "The demand letter reads remarkably similarly to the pleadings of a lawsuit," Ackman noted on X. "If needed, we can convert the demand letter into a complaint and file a lawsuit."
• Ackman was clear that his end goal was to "end Business Insider's unethical and unprofessional practices" — which is not the kind of thing that can be forced by a judge in a court of law.
• Ackman demanded that then-Business Insider editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson be fired — something that Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of BI's parent company, reportedly seriously considered.
• Carlson has since departed the company for other pursuits, taking BI founder Henry Blodget with him. John Cook, the editor of the contentious articles, also departed, for the Wall Street Journal.

Where it stands: The internet has given the power of the printing press to everyone — but for that very reason, self-published posts on X or Medium or a personal blog are often treated with a healthy degree of skepticism, and serious journalists often avoid reporting on them.

• By framing allegations in the form of a legal complaint, accusers give themselves an institutional imprimatur, much as Émile Zola did when he published "J'Accuse" on the front page of the newspaper L'Aurore.

The bottom line: Lawsuits are often used just as a way of inflicting expensive litigation on others. Now they're also being used to try to bring about outcomes no jurist can hand down in judgment.

Six days of funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter, who died at home Sunday at 100 years old, began on Saturday with a procession in Georgia.

The big picture: Carter is the country's longest-living former president and the first to reach 100 years old.

State of play: Memorial events include a departure ceremony at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Georgia followed by a trip to Carter's childhood home in Plains, a motorcade to Atlanta and moment of silence at Georgia's State Capitol, per the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region.

• An arrival ceremony and service at the Carter Presidential Center follows with Carter lying in repose from 7pm Saturday to 6am Sunday.

President Biden named former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, actor Denzel Washington, billionaire George Soros and Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2, among 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Saturday.

Why it matters: The award is the nation's highest civilian honor.

What they're saying: President Biden thanked the awardees at a White House ceremony on Saturday and said they embody the nation's creed "e pluribus unum, out of many one."

• "As cultural icons [...] dignified statesmen, humanitarians, rock stars, sports stars, you feed the hungry," he said.
• "You give hope to those who are hurting, and you craft the signs and sounds of our movements and our memories."

Zoom in: This year's recipients posthumously include activist Fannie Lou Hamer, whose work fighting racial injustice of the Jim Crow era helped pave the way for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Other awardees include: Basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson, conservationist Jane Goodall, designer Ralph Lauren, chef José Andrés, actor Michael J. Fox and entrepreneur Tim Gill.

Also on the recipient list, are Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, soccer player Lionel Messi, Bill Nye of the popular 90s TV show "Bill Nye the Science Guy," writer George Stevens, Jr. and David Rubenstein, co-chairman of The Carlyle Group.

Biden posthumously awarded the honor to the 25th secretary of defense Ashton Baldwin Carter, former attorney general Robert Francis Kennedy and businessman George Romney.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with the president's remarks.

An Arctic outbreak partially tied to the polar vortex encircling the far north is set to bring some of the coldest air in years to locations east of the Rocky Mountains during the next two to three weeks.

Threat level: A high-impact winter storm will bring more than a foot of snow beginning Saturday to places that are unaccustomed to such amounts, including the Kansas City metro area and near St. Louis.

• The storm will help pull more bitterly cold Arctic air southward on its heels, as blustery winds kick in from the northwest. Most of the U.S. will see temperatures dip down to the freezing mark.
• With temperature anomalies of 15°F to 25°F below average for this time of year, the cold will be noteworthy more for its duration than its intensity, however.
• Computer models are still hinting that even more intense cold could move south out of the Arctic later in late January.
• Since January is typically the coldest time of year, any negative temperature departures from average can result in significant cold.

More than half the U.S. population is expected to see temperatures drop to 32°F or below during the next seven days — with many seeing far colder temperatures.

Where it will snow and how much

Zoom in: The National Weather Service is warning of "major" winter storm impacts across central and northern Kansas, into Kansas City, where more than a foot of snow could fall this weekend.

• Unusually heavy snow will also accumulate near St. Louis, where "major" impacts are likely, according to NOAA's Winter Storm Severity Index.
• For these regions, "This could be the heaviest snowfall in over a decade," the NWS stated via a post on X.
• Another area of major winter storm impacts is forecast for the Mid-Atlantic, specifically the Baltimore-Washington corridor, where more than 8 inches of snow could fall between Sunday night and Tuesday morning.
• If these amounts verify, it would be the biggest snowstorm in these areas since at least 2022.

The NWS warns areas with major impacts could see "dangerous to impossible driving conditions" along with "considerable disruption to daily life."

Between the lines: Perhaps the biggest winter storm-related threat is freezing rain.

• To the south of the extensive snow shield, a strip of damaging ice will build up on trees and power lines, potentially knocking out electricity to millions of people from Nebraska to West Virginia.
• Such outages could last many days, particularly because of the lack of experience with such hazards in this region.
• "Widespread tree damage and long-lasting power outages [are] possible in areas with over a half-inch of ice accumulation," the NWS stated.

The intrigue: After this storm exits into the Atlantic on Tuesday, forecasters will be eyeing both a lobe, or piece, of the polar vortex swirling over Canada, which could be directed southward into the U.S. in about a week.

• Also facing scrutiny will be the potential for any other major winter storms given the cold air entrenched across the U.S.

Fun fact: The annual meeting of meteorologists from around the U.S. and abroad takes place next week, and is infamous for prompting its own extreme weather.

Go deeper:

Arctic blast tied to polar vortex puts U.S., Europe in deep freeze

Polar vortex poised to spin into U.S., leading to frigid January

Major winter storm to usher in Arctic blast for 230 million people

The outgoing Biden administration has pointed to its investments in U.S. manufacturing as signature economic achievements. One big question now is how much of that the new Trump administration will change or scrap.

• As it happens, an 11-month-old paper offers a preview.

Why it matters: The man tapped to be President-elect Trump's top White House economist published a detailed critique of President Biden's industrial policies last February. It offers a sense of the strategies for reindustrializing the U.S. economy sought by those with the president-elect's ear.

• Stephen Miran, Trump's designee to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, argued that industrial policy should focus on supply-side reforms that make it easier for companies to invest in factories, and be driven by demand from the defense industry.
• He is critical of heavy subsidies for electric cars and labor, environmental, and other regulations that, in Miran's view, make the U.S. too inhospitable to manufacturing.

What they're saying: "Bidenomics not only imposes onerous costs on industry in various ways — from incentives for unionization to special environmental restrictions — that raise the cost of production and work against the stated goal of expanding our industrial plant," Miran wrote for the Manhattan Institute, where he is an adjunct fellow.

• "[It] does so while targeting sectors of the economy for which there would be very little demand, absent government support to artificially lower prices," he adds.
• "A more robust form of reindustrialization would instead combine aggressive supply-side reform with demand support from defense-driven procurement," he wrote, "which would produce enormous positive economic spillovers."

Zoom in: Among other specific policies he critiques as counterproductive are EPA rules governing chipmakers, the Davis-Bacon Act (which includes wage requirements for public projects) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules on worker safety that he argues go overboard.

Flashback: Biden has made revitalizing U.S. manufacturing central to his domestic agenda — and his political identity.

• His signature legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act — were meant to deploy hundreds of billions of dollars to encourage domestic manufacturing.
• But even some allies were critical of a thicket of rules attached to those dollars that may have made it cumbersome for manufacturers to take advantage. For example, chip manufacturers are required to make child care accessible to employees.
• On net, manufacturing employment is not meaningfully higher than it was before the pandemic (12.9 million jobs in December, versus 12.8 million in February 2020).

Reality check: Miran's will be one voice among many seeking to influence Trump on industrial policy, and the CEA job is more advisory than responsible for carrying out programs.

• Much of the policy detail of the Biden-era legislation is carried out by the Commerce Department, Treasury Department, and others.
• Should Trump seek to change or repeal the laws, it will require action from a closely divided Congress in which many Republican states have benefited from the investments.

A new film looks into the growing trend of Native American tribes disenrolling members, which victims call "cultural genocide" but tribes say is necessary to weed out non-Indigenous people from its records.

Why it matters: Around 11,000 tribal members from 80 tribes have been kicked out of Native American nations over the last 15 years amid growth in casinos and intratribal fighting.

Zoom in: "You're No Indian," which is expected to premiere at a film festival this winter, explores how disenrollment is dividing tribes and affecting members across the country.

• The seven-year project by director Ryan Flynn examines how tribal members in California and the Pacific Northwest have used disenrollment to quash dissent and increase casino revenues for fewer members.
• The film shows how disenrolled members become isolated and rarely speak out in hopes of regaining their enrollment while the federal government seldom intervenes.
• Carla Foreman, a disenrolled member of the Redding Rancheria in California, said her father's health declined and he eventually died after their lineage was disenrolled despite DNA evidence.

How it works: Tribal governments can remove members for any reason since they are sovereign nations.

• Not only can they disenroll members, they can kick out deceased members, thereby ending tribal membership for all their descendants. Tribes can also reject documents and DNA tests with no comment.
• Disenrolled members then no longer have access to the federal Indian Health Service, Native American housing, tribal schools or a share of gaming revenues.
• They can no longer vote in tribal elections and can no longer claim they are Native American, in many cases.
• Tribal members who speak out on behalf of removed members can face disenrollment themselves, even if they are the last speakers of their dying tribe's traditional language.

What they're saying: "I think there's a weaponization of fear at play here," Flynn tells Axios.

• Flynn attempted to talk to tribal leaders, many of who refused to speak on camera, while some supporters of disenrollment decried interracial marriage.
• "Very few people who are proponents of disenrollment actually spoke to us because it's hard to justify."

Yes, but: Donna Featherstone of the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians in California says in the film that it's not that hard to prove that you're a member of the tribe.

• "You shouldn't have to go...through a huge book to find some thread," Featherstone says in the film.
• "It's not a disenrollment problem. It's an enrollment problem."
• Featherstone supported a faction that, in 2014, attempted a violent seizure of the tribe's casino and documents in a dispute about tribal enrollment.

The intrigue: Flynn was set to premiere "You're No Indian" with two screenings at the Palm Springs International Film Festival this weekend, but the festival abruptly canceled the screenings due to "scheduling errors."

• The festival is in Palm Springs, California, near tribes that have practiced disenrollment. "It feels like censorship," Flynn said.
• The Palm Springs International Film Festival did not respond to an email from Axios.

What we're watching: "You're No Indian" is scheduled to appear on streaming services later this year, Flynn said.

• It's expected to draw opposition from some tribes and bring out disenrolled members who have yet to speak out.

The rate on the 30-year mortgage is hovering close to 7%, a nearly 6-month high, per data from Freddie Mac out Thursday.

Why it matters: Higher rates are putting home buying out of reach for many Americans and simply turning others off from the market.

• Though home sales picked up in the third quarter, even with rising rates, they're still hovering at historic lows.

The big picture: Mortgage rates move in tandem with the rate on 10-year Treasury bonds.

• That's been rising over the past few months, as bond investors fret over whether or not the Fed will continue to cut rates, and what exactly will happen once Trump takes office.

What's next: Most forecasts see mortgage rates declining a smidge in 2025 to around 6 - 6.5% — probably not enough to jolt the moribund real estate market out of its slump.

The State Department has notified Congress "informally" of an $8 billion proposed arms deal with Israel that will include munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters as well as artillery shells, two sources with direct knowledge tell Axios.

Why it matters: This will likely be the last weapons sale to Israel the Biden administration approves.

• It comes amid claims from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters in recent months that Biden had imposed a silent "arms embargo" on Israel.
• Some Democrats pushed the administration to condition arms sales to Israel based on Israel's handling of the war effort and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but Biden declined to do so.
• This is a long-term agreement, according to the sources. Some production and delivery of the munitions can be fulfilled through current U.S. stocks, but the majority will take one or more years to deliver.

Zoom in: The sources said the arms sale — which needs approval from the House and Senate foreign relations committees — includes AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for fighter jets to defend against airborne threats, including drones.

• The sale also includes 155mm artillery shells and Hellfire AGM-114 missiles for attack helicopters.
• The proposed deal also includes small diameter bombs, JDAM tail kits that turn "dumb bombs" to precision munitions, 500-lb warheads and bomb fuzes.

What they're saying: One source familiar with the arms sale said the State Department told Congress the deal is aimed at "supporting Israel's long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defense capabilities."

• "The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, and to deter aggression from Iran and its proxy organizations. We will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel's defense," a U.S. official said.

The House voted mostly along party lines Friday to adopt a rules package that protects newly reelected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a potential ouster.

Why it matters: The new rules make it so that a vote on removing the speaker can only be brought if at least nine Republicans support what is called a "motion to vacate."

• That is a significantly higher bar than in the 118th Congress when any single member in either party could force such a motion.
• The tool was used to remove former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October 2023. Johnson faced an unsuccessful ouster attempt in April.

Zoom in: House Democrats have railed against the change, noting that for the first time in U.S. history the minority party would be restricted from introducing a motion to vacate.

• "Instead of electing a Speaker of the House, they have decided to elect a Speaker of the Republican Conference — held hostage by their most extreme members," said House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).

Zoom out: The 37-page rules package also formally eliminates the House's Diversity and Inclusion office, a longtime priority of House Republicans.

• It renames the House Oversight and Accountability Committee to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — the name it held before Republicans retook the House under President Biden.
• It also renames the Office of Congressional Ethics to the Office of Congressional Conduct, authorizes subpoenas of DOJ officials as part of Republicans' Biden probe and retains the China Select Committee.
• And it tees up votes on a dozen bills related to Israel, border security, transgender participation in sports and proof of citizenship for voting.

Between the lines: After the speaker election, in which Johnson faced a 45-minute standoff with a handful of right-wing defectors, the rules package was changed to include two new provisions.

• One provision restricts the House from holding what are known as "suspension" votes after Wednesdays. It effectively restricts GOP leadership's ability to pass major legislation with help from Democrats.
• The other removes gender-neutral language from the rules — such as changing "child" to "son" and "daughter."

President-elect Trump announced on Friday that he is appointing Morgan Ortagus, who served as State Department spokesperson in his first term, as deputy special presidential envoy for Middle East peace.

The intrigue: The appointment came with a rebuke. Trump noted that Ortagus came highly recommended but had criticized him in the past. "Early on Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson," Trump wrote.

Why it matters: Ortagus is a highly experienced national security and foreign policy expert and will be a significant reinforcement to the White House "Peace Team" that will face a turbulent region with an ongoing war in Gaza.

Driving the news: Ortagus will join a team led by Trump's close friend and confidant Steve Witkoff.

• During Trump's first term in office, Ortagus served as the State Department spokesperson under then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
• Before that, Ortagus worked for the Department of the Treasury as a financial intelligence analyst and also served as deputy U.S. treasury attaché to Saudi Arabia.
• She is an active U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer.

Behind the scenes: Ortagus is close to many senior Republicans like incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz and Trump's envoy for special missions, Ric Grenell.

• She also worked closely with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner during Trump's first term in office, and they remain close.

Tension point: During the Republican presidential primary before the 2016 elections, Ortagus criticized Trump's "isolationist" foreign policy and his personal behavior.

• After noting that past criticism, Trump added that he decided to appoint Ortagus regardless of their differences because "she has strong Republican support."
• "I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing it for them. Let's see what happens," he added.

What to watch: The priority for Trump's "peace team" will be to get a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal if one isn't concluded by Jan. 20.

• They will have to work on ending the Gaza war and laying out a "day-after" plan that will include a massive reconstruction effort.
• Witkoff and Ortagus are also expected to work on one of Trump's main foreign policy goals — reaching a historic peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
• Trump said he wants Witkoff and Ortagus to work on bringing "calm and prosperity" to the Middle East. "I expect great results, and soon!" he wrote.

A group of nearly a dozen right-wing House Republicans on Friday released a list of demands they want Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to fulfill in order to keep the speaker's gavel.

Why it matters: It's enough members to force a vote on removing Johnson later on — meaning the newly reelected speaker has to take them seriously.

• Johnson got his first taste of rebellion Friday as a trio of holdouts nearly derailed his reelection bid — with two relenting only after a 45-minute standoff.
• Now, the right-wing hardliners who voted for him only reluctantly are unveiling a checklist for how he can keep his gavel.

Driving the news: In a letter to their Republican colleagues, 11 members of the House Freedom Caucus board wrote that they voted for Johnson "despite our serious reservations" about his track record.

• The letter includes a list of demands for Johnson, urging him to modify the House calendar to have more days in session and ensure that Republicans' reconciliation package cuts the deficit.
• It also demands votes on border security, spending cuts, reversing Biden administration environmental policies and election reform.
• The letter was led by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the right-wing group.

What they're saying: There is always room to negotiate on so-called "leadership" positions under the rules; in the meantime, each one of our election certificates is still equal," the lawmakers wrote.

• "Personalities can be debated later, but right now there is zero room for error on the policies the American people demanded when they voted for President Trump ... We demand the House of Representatives deliver — quickly."

The New York judge overseeing President-elect Trump's hush money case upheld the historic criminal conviction and scheduled sentencing for Jan. 10, court documents show.

The big picture: That's just 10 days before Inauguration Day, though Judge Juan Merchan indicated in his written decision that Trump won't face jail time.

• Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts for falsifying company records, making him the first convicted felon to be elected president.

Zoom in: Prosecutors had asked Merchan to place the case on indefinite hold, but the judge said sentencing is "the most viable solution to ensure finality" and to allow Trump to pursue an appeal.

• However, Merchan wrote he's not inclined to impose jail time — even though the conviction would allow it — because prosecutors "concede they no longer view [it] as a practicable recommendation" given Trump's reelection.

Zoom out: Merchan also said that the Supreme Court's ruling that presidents have immunity from prosecution for "officials acts" doesn't apply to the president-elect.

• "Accordingly, a President-elect is not permitted to avail himself of the protections afforded to the individual occupying that Office," Merchan wrote.

Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will personally donate $1 million to President-elect Trump's inaugural committee, sources with knowledge of the donation tell Axios.

Why it matters: The donation reflects a long, collaborative relationship between Trump and Cook that included many meetings during Trump's first term, and dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month.

• Other CEOs and companies have made seven-figure inauguration contributions in their efforts to build bridges to the incoming administration.

Between the lines: Cook, a proud Alabama native, believes the inauguration is a great American tradition, and is donating to the inauguration in the spirit of unity, the sources said. The company is not expected to give.

• Cook, with a consistent presence in Washington, has made it clear over the years that he believes in participation, not sitting on the sidelines, and engaging with policymakers from both sides of the aisle.
• Apple, a huge contributor to the U.S. economy, is the largest taxpayer in the U.S. and the world.

The backstory: A front-page story in The Wall Street Journal shortly after the election, headlined "How Tim Cook Cracked the Code on Working With Trump," noted that the Apple CEO spent years building personal rapport with Trump.

• Cook "developed a meeting strategy with Trump where he would bring one data point to home in on a single issue in a meeting," The Journal reported. "That approach helped keep the meetings from spiraling in too many directions."

Zoom in: A Trump financial disclosure form released just after he left office reported that Cook once gave the president a $5,999 Mac Pro computer made at an Austin factory the two toured in 2019.

• Cook also has met with Trump at Trump Tower and at his club in Bedminster, N.J.
• Axios is told Elon Musk joined part of the Mar-a-Lago dinner.

Zoom out: Other Silicon Valley inauguration donors include Amazon, Meta, Uber and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

• Wall Street's seven-figure donors include Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, while crypto exchanges Kraken and Coinbase are also getting in on the action.
• Toyota, Ford and GM are all also donating at least $1 million.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) was reelected as the speaker of the House on Friday, securing the gavel on the first ballot.

Why it matters: Johnson appeared imperiled as three Republicans initially voted against him — enough to sink him on the first ballot.

• After a roughly 45-minute standoff, Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) switched to voting for Johnson, giving him the 218 votes he needed to secure the gavel without a multi-ballot fight.
• Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone defector, voting for Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), while all Democrats voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

Zoom in: Just before the vote began Friday, Johnson released a list of promises around spending cuts in an apparent deal to shore up his reelection.

• He said he will create a working group of "independent experts" to explore spending reforms and release a report, as well as direct committees to "aggressively" review federal funding.
• That was enough to win over roughly a dozen House Republicans who had for weeks refused to commit to voting for him, some of whom waited until the last minute to do so.

Zoom out: The Louisiana Republican, first elevated to the speakership in 2023 after Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) ouster, has faced growing anger from his right flank throughout his 14-month tenure.

• GOP hardliners have raged at him for working across the aisle to pass government spending and foreign aid bills without demanding stringent spending cuts.
• But President-elect Trump backed Johnson, urging his allies not to tank the vote and potentially imperil Congress' certification of his election victory on Jan. 6.

Between the lines: Self and Norman spoke to Trump during the 45-minute voting interlude, according to Self and another source familiar with the matter.

• They were connected to the incoming president by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who called Trump personally and handed off her phone, the source told Axios.
• Self declined to divulge details of the conversation other than saying they "discussed how we can advance the Trump agenda" and that he had a separate, one-on-one talk with Trump as well.

What they're saying: The short-lived rebellion against Johnson was seen by some Republicans as simply a play for attention.

• Said one GOP lawmaker shortly before Self and Norman flipped their votes: "They just need five more minutes of fame, it seems like."
• "A couple more tweets, a couple more five-dollar donations ... and we'll bring this thing home," the lawmaker said.

What to watch: Some GOP lawmakers worry that the difficulty Johnson faced in securing reelection is a sign of what is to come over the next two years.

• "I'm hoping that President Trump will lean in on some of these members ... we don't have time to deal with this intransigence," Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) told Axios before the vote was gaveled.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.

Local leaders are fielding tough questions over whether the New Orleans attack on New Year's Day that killed 14 people and injured another 35 could have been prevented.

The latest: Bright yellow vehicle-resistant blockades have been newly installed on sidewalks on and surrounding Bourbon Street. NBC reports the city has had them since 2017.

• In a now-viral video clip, NOPD chief Anne Kirkpatrick acknowledges that the blockades, called archers, were in storage in New Orleans, and she didn't know about them previously.

• As multiple media outlets ask similar questions, the New York Times published an article headlined "Could Better Security Have Stopped the New Orleans Terror Attack?" on Thursday. It details what it calls "a confidential security report" from 2019 that outlined how Bourbon Street was vulnerable to a vehicle attack like the one that took place this week.

Catch up quick: A man whom the FBI identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran and a U.S. citizen from Texas, made a sudden right turn onto Bourbon Street at about 3:15am local time.

• Jabbar drove his truck onto the sidewalk, bypassing an NOPD SUV that was parked in front of a broken barricade. He drove through crowds of New Years revelers for about two blocks before crashing into construction equipment.
• When Jabbar exited the truck, he began shooting, and three NOPD officers returned fire, officials have said. Two officers were among the injured. Jabbar was pronounced dead at the scene.
• Go deeper for the latest timeline and suspect details.

Context: Barricades are typically in place during busy nights at the corner of Bourbon and Canal Streets, preventing drivers from heading down Bourbon Street.

• Vehicle-resistant bollards were installed at the intersection about a decade ago, but have been out of commission pretty much ever since, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said this week, citing damage from debris like Mardi Gras beads. They've been under construction as the city prepares to host the NFL's Super Bowl in February.
• Officials do not block Canal, one of the city's most-trafficked thoroughfares.
• "We did indeed have a plan but the terrorist defeated it," NOPD chief Anne Kirkpatrick said Wednesday.

What they're saying: City and state officials this week have put up a united front against harsh questions about what could have been done to prevent the attack.

• "This type of event can happen in any city, and that's the tragedy of it," Gov. Jeff Landry said Thursday.
• In a contentious conversation with Britain's Sky News, Kirkpatrick bit back at a reporter who said the city's plan "allowed an attacker to drive into a crowd."
• "I take exception to that," she replied. "But if you were experienced with terrorism, you would not be asking that question."

Reality check: "Security experts acknowledged that it was impossible to protect every sidewalk and street party in America against a determined vehicle attack," the New York Times reported.

• Plus, experts say vehicle attacks are becoming more common because they're incredibly simple and extremely difficult to prevent, Axios' Avery Lotz reports.

Flashback: This is not the first time New Orleans officials have faced questions over actions surrounding city safety.

• At the onset of the pandemic 2020, Cantrell faced questions from national media over the wisdom of hosting a typical Mardi Gras celebration at the time. It was eventually understood to have been a superspreader event.
• At the time, Cantrell batted away the criticism, noting that Mardi Gras that year, recognized that year on Feb. 25, was still weeks before most of the country mandated social distancing.

What we're watching: New Orleans' Carnival celebrations kick off next week, and then the city hosts Super Bowl LIX before the celebrations culminate with Mardi Gras on March 4.

• Landry said Wednesday that officials recognize "we have a problem" with security, and "we're going to fix it."

What's next: New Orleans City Council is holding a joint public works and criminal justice committee meeting Monday to address additional security measures in light of the attack.

A majority of Republicans now feel confident the 2024 election results were tabulated accurately, according to an AP-NORC poll released Friday.

Why it matters: President-elect Trump for years had repeatedly and falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him, but those concerns disappeared after he scored his first popular vote win.

The big picture: A majority of Americans (57%) expressed a "great deal or quite a bit" of confidence in the accuracy of the election results at the national level.

• This figure was slightly higher among Republicans (64%) and Democrats (60%), but only 34% of independents shared that confidence.
• Republicans' confidence in the election's accuracy was high not just at the national level but also in the state (66%) and local races (71%).

State of play: The results are miles away from where the GOP stood at the start of President Biden's term, when, weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, more than 6 in 10 Republicans believed Biden wasn't legitimately elected.

• Low confidence in the integrity of the electoral system followed the party ever since. A Dec. 2023 poll found that roughly a third of Republicans even doubted the outcome of their own party's primary contest.
• Ahead of the 2024 election, another AP-NORC poll found that only 24% of Republicans expressed a "great deal" of confidence in the impending national vote count compared to 71% of Democrats.

Methodology: This AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,251 adults between Dec. 5-9, 2024 using the AmeriSpeak Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago.

• The margin of sampling error for adults overall is ±3.7 percentage points.

Go deeper: Behind the Curtain: The most powerful Republican president of the modern era

President Biden will visit New Orleans on Monday to "grieve with the families and communities" touched by the Bourbon Street terrorist attack, the White House announced Friday morning.

Why it matters: The ISIS-inspired truck attack killed 14 people and injured dozens more.

The big picture: First Lady Jill Biden will accompany the president, the White House said.

• The statement didn't give details about where the Bidens will go or with whom they will meet.

Driving the news: Monday is also Twelfth Night, which is the official start of the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans.

• Multiple parades are scheduled that night, including the Societé Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc).
• Jeanne d'Arc co-captain Antoinette De Alteriis on Thursday said its procession will continue as they hope to be a "light in the darkness."
• Carnival culminates on Mardi Gras, which is March 4 this year. See the parade schedule.

Zoom out: Biden has been in contact with Mayor LaToya Cantrell since the attack, the White House said.

• Hours after it happened, the president called it a "terrible assault," and added that "the spirit of New Orleans will never, never be defeated."
• He gave a recorded message at the start of the rescheduled Sugar Bowl too, which was played less than a mile from the crime scene.

The latest: Bourbon Street reopened to the public on Thursday with new vehicle-resistant barricades on the sidewalks. Go deeper.

Catch up quick: A man whom the FBI identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran and a U.S. citizen from Texas, drove his truck around an NOPD SUV and onto a French Quarter sidewalk in the early hours of Jan. 1, as people were out celebrating the holiday.

• When Jabbar exited the truck, he began shooting, and three NOPD officers returned fire, officials have said. Two officers were among the injured.
• See the updated timeline.
• Details about victims in the attack began to emerge as loved ones learned of their identities, though New Orleans coroner Dwight McKenna said it'll take "several days" to perform all autopsies. Go deeper.

Go deeper:

• The victims of the Bourbon Street attack
• New Orleans leaders face questions over preventability of terror attack
• New Orleans parades to be "a light in the darkness" after terror attack

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional information.

2025 begins amid fresh signs that steering global energy use away from fossil fuels will be even harder than many governments and C-suites once hoped.

Why it matters: The world is already far off pace from meeting Paris Agreement targets and emissions keep rising — even as climate harms pile up.

Here's a quick tour of the latest reality checks ...

Global coal demand is proving very persistent. The International Energy Agency's latest outlook is more pessimistic than the 2023 and 2022 versions on the most CO2-heavy fuel (h/t @JavierBlas).

• Coal use reached another all-time high last year, defying an earlier prediction of decline. But IEA sees only small growth — largely a plateau — through 2027.

The mammoth scale of AI-driven data center power needs is really coming into focus.

• A new Energy Department report sees data centers accounting for up to 12% of U.S. power demand in 2028.
• The growth is likely to boost gas in the near- to medium-term.

President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to nix Biden administration climate policies and plans to exit the Paris Agreement.

Other national targets could face peril as deadlines loom and elections unfold in Canada and elsewhere.

Big banks are recalibrating, too. In recent days and weeks, a number of Wall Street giants like Morgan Stanley and CitiGroup left the UN-affiliated Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

• Banks, however, say they remain committed to their climate goals.

Big Oil has slowed its roll. European giants Shell and BP have gotten more selective about renewables, even as they maintain 2050 net-zero targets.

• Shell has softened some climate goals, and watch BP's February strategy update after Reuters reported it will scrap 2030 oil and gas production-cutting aims.

What's next: S&P Global Commodity Insights sees overall 2025 global energy demand growth once again outstripping additions of clean sources.

• "While the supply of clean energy is growing faster than it ever has in history...it is not yet fast enough to curtail the growth in fossil fuel demand, let alone displace existing fossil fuel consumption," their recent 2025 outlook states.
• Aside from the pandemic and other big recessions, clean supply — renewables and nuclear — has never had a year that outpaced rising consumption.

The intrigue: Veteran analyst Arjun Murti, in a recent post, argued the "energy transition era" ended in 2024.

• It began 2019 with the rise of net-zero commitments and Wall Street focusing heavily on the "E" in ESG, he said.
• Now, he said, things are moving toward a "healthier" conversation centered on everyone deserving the energy abundance of the select few in Western nations.

The bottom line: National and corporate targets are "really hard to achieve in the real world," said Daniel Raimi of the nonpartisan think tank Resources For the Future.

• Still, Some nations are making progress (albeit not hitting their goals). "They are demonstrating that energy transition is possible. It just hasn't happened at a global scale yet," he said.

If Donald Trump succeeds in significantly reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China, he'll do so against the force of history — and of market expectations.

Why it matters: By placing the trade deficit with China at the top of the list of things he wants to slash, Trump is facing off against trillions of dollars' worth of deeply entrenched global trade patterns.

By the numbers: The trade deficit with China — our imports minus our exports — has been larger than $200 billion since 2005. It reached a record high of $418 billion in 2018, Trump's second year in office.

The big picture: The U.S. imports an astonishing array of goods from China, and it exports very little in the other direction.

• The tariffs imposed on China during the first Trump administration, which were then kept in place by President Biden, did relatively little to change that dynamic.
• During Trump's first term, when imports fell, exports fell too, blunting the effect on the trade deficit.
• That pattern would likely be repeated if he follows through on his pledge to impose a 60% tariff on goods from China: Our exports would end up being similarly taxed in retaliation.

The bottom line: For the time being, the market seems to be reasonably sanguine when it comes to the threat of a trade war.

• Maybe that's because no such thing has happened in the lifetimes of today's traders, and maybe it's because the sheer force of money flowing between China and the U.S. seems impossible to significantly disrupt, whatever Trump might dream.