• Russian negotiators asked the US to consider restoring direct flights between the two countries.
• The aviation industry was shaken up by air space bans after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
• Emirates and Turkish Airlines are among the carriers that continued flying to Russia after the invasion.

Russia is growing tired of not being able to fly directly to the US.

During a meeting in Istanbul, Russian negotiators asked the US to consider restoring direct air service between the two countries, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday.

Air links were singled out by the ministry as a way of improving relations between the two powers.

The statement also said that both sides "meticulously explored avenues to overcome numerous irritants inherited from previous US administrations."

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the US, Canada, and most of Europe banned Russian aircraft from their airspace.

The move shook up the aviation industry as Russia retaliated by similarly barring North American and European airlines.

Aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus also stopped doing business with Russia.

This meant some customers, such as Air India, benefited as they received aircraft previously set to be delivered to Russian airlines.

Meanwhile, Russian carriers were left scrambling for spare parts — going as far as cannibalizing older jets or relying on the black market.

Aeroflot, Russia's flag carrier, still carries tens of millions of passengers a year.

Istanbul is the most popular international destination from Moscow, with more than 133,000 seats scheduled on such flights this month, according to data from Cirium.

Turkish Airlines' Airbus A330s are scheduled to fly back and forth six times a day.

The top 10 routes also include flights to the Turkish capital operated by Aeroflot and budget carrier Pegasus Airlines.

Istanbul is closely followed by Dubai, which also has more than 100,000 seats scheduled on flights out of Moscow this month.

While Emirates offers half as many flights as Turkish Airlines between its hub and Moscow, the Dubai-based carrier uses the far bigger Airbus A380.

Qatar Airways also operates one flight a day, equal to nearly 11,000 seats this month.

These airlines operate hub-and-spoke models — taking advantage of their geography as a stopover point to link cities around the world. They would be the main options for Russians to fly to the US, or vice-versa.

Two of Aeroflot's highest-capacity international routes are to Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand — both popular tourist destinations.

Tens of thousands of seats are also scheduled from Moscow to Egyptian Red Sea resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada this month.

Many flights also operate to the capitals of former Soviet republics, such as Yerevan, Armenia; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Baku, Azerbaijan.

Minsk and Beijing also feature in the top 10 cities by number of seats scheduled for this month.

Canada's Trudeau said tariffs "will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship" while China accused US of "bullying."

Several fires continued to burn across the Carolinas after blazes broke out over the weekend.

Scientists say the iceberg in Antarctica appears to be stuck in shallow waters.

In a functioning American democracy, the separation of powers serves as a vital safeguard against tyranny.

The expense of operating the president's aircraft at an hourly rate is disputed, but appears to be between $177,843 and $206,337 per hour.

Major champion Michelle Wie West revealed that the idea for a female presence on TGL did not come about during the development of the season, but much earlier.

The Duchess of Sussex told comedian Mindy Kaling that "Markle" is no longer her name.

The latest entry in the Monster Hunter series has become the fastest-selling game in Capcom history.

"Everything in my life was going great—except for my weight." Sarah told Newsweek.

The U.S. president has accused Taiwan of "stealing" America's chip industry and has threatened tariffs.

• Special operations forces have a fast and flexible weapons acquisition process.
• It's critical to keeping operators ahead of the curve on what capabilities are needed.
• There are lessons for the larger Joint Force and Pentagon, officials said.

US Special Operations Forces know how to get new technologies and weapons to the warfighter quickly, and there are potential lessons in their approach for the broader military.

At a recent symposium in Washington, DC, speakers argued that the Pentagon needs to move faster.

"The biggest thing we need to do is really fundamentally change the culture of the Pentagon and Congress," Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat and the ranking member of the US House Armed Services Committee, said last month at the National Defense Industrial Association's US Special Operations Symposium.

"We need to speed up the pace of innovation," he said.

Special operations forces have flexible acquisition processes which not only bring operators and industry partners together but also encourage adaptations in real time.

At the recent symposium, special operations leadership, other military officials, and industry partners spoke about what works and what doesn't in acquiring new weapons and capabilities. 

SOF's agile acquisition process means that it's able to work with industry partners to get its hands on and adjust both hardware and software faster than others. Officials said its approach was a model for how to solve broader issues within the Pentagon. 

Melissa Johnson, a Senior Executive Service member and acquisition executive for Special Operations Command (SOCOM), said the strength in the process is that decision-making on what systems to acquire and when is made through close coordination with the operator, creating a stronger relationship between what the individual operator sees as necessary and what industry partners can provide. 

"I think the recipe is really simple," Johnson said at the symposium, adding that "it's the mindset and culture of being able to take the magic that happens at SOCOM, the way we do business, and how do we scale that and get that across the department."

What slows down DoD acquisition? There are a range of different factors.

As officials said recently, many of the problems are due to the way funding is appropriated and how contracting works across the services and Congress. The other complication is the requirements piece and whether some are too complicated and arbitrary for certain systems. Smith referenced lengthy and sometimes unnecessary requirements for some things, such as paint on the littoral combat ship.

It is not as though US special operations forces are not without their own acquisition problems. For instance, special operations commanders told the House Armed Services Committee last week that US adversaries are modernizing faster than they can, telling congressional leaders that sometimes technology is already obsolete by the time it's fielded.

Lt. Gen. Michael Conley, the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, said "it's this constant loop of trying to catch up with the enemy threat."

Still, special operations forces tend to move faster than the rest of the military, which is feeling the pressure to modernize for a higher-end conflict amid the emergence of newer combat technologies like uncrewed systems and artificial intelligence and the greater focus on great power competition with China and Russia.

There are lessons to be learned, SOCOM officials said, from the Ukraine war, where drone manufacturers are creating hardware and software solutions to problems on the battlefields even when countermeasures arise.

Chris Brose, the chief strategy officer at Anduril Industries, said that one of the benefits of working with SOCOM is that its work with industry partners is run differently than the requirements for building the next attack submarine or destroyer.

Brose pointed to Anduril's work with SOCOM on counter-drone systems, noting that feedback from operators on threats that outpace new technologies was key to adjusting in real time.

Others have tried this approach with industry, such as US Army Futures Command, which relied on immersive testing and feedback soldier touch points. Still, there is room for improvement in innovation and acquisition within DoD.

Adopting SOCOM's way of doing things comes down to having greater flexibility in the budget. But there's wariness from appropriators, Smith said, and that's been a big battle with questions on oversight. Not every solution presented, officials said, is going to apply to the entire military, as special operations forces purchase smaller quantities of cutting-edge technology with a smaller, flexible budget. But a general focus on problem-solving that's closer to industry could be beneficial.

After Billy Horschel handled a gator during the Cognizant Classic, one of the best reactions came from Paige Spiranac who bragged about the PGA Tour star.

The woman had defied the disease despite her brain pathology, revealing new clues to cognitive preservation.

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed a new round of tariffs targeting Canada, Mexico and China.

Tiana from 2009's Princess and the Frog was set to have her own long-form TV show, but this has now been pulled.

The White House announced on Monday that Chinese goods would be subject to an additional 10 percent tariff.

Under Trump 2.0, everything the cybersecurity industry knew about D.C. is up for debate — even who is considered an adversarial nation.

Why it matters: For decades, U.S. presidents of both parties have viewed China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as the biggest cyber threats. But that list is now in question.

---

The big picture: President Trump's push to reset diplomatic ties with Russia is likely to upend long-standing cybersecurity norms, with consequences that could play out for years.

Driving the news: The U.S. Cyber Command was recently ordered to pause planning offensive cyber operations against Russia, multiple outlets reported over the weekend.

• A senior DoD official declined to confirm the order but told Axios, "There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the Warfighter in all operations, including the cyber domain."
• Meanwhile, Trump is reportedly drafting a plan to ease sanctions on Russia and has sent back Russian cybercriminals in prisoner swaps.
• The administration has also reportedly reassigned dozens of FBI officials investigating foreign election interference — which Russia has repeatedly been accused of.
• The Kremlin has celebrated these actions, saying yesterday that the new American foreign policy "largely coincides" with its own.

Yes, but: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Sunday it is still prioritizing cyber threats from Russia, despite news reports suggesting otherwise.

• "There has been no change in our posture," the agency wrote on X. "Any reporting to the contrary is fake and undermines our national security."

Between the lines: Russia has long been a top cyber threat, hosting ransomware gangs, crypto money launderers, disinformation operations, and elite government hackers.

• Cyber Command has been a key tool in disrupting Russian cyber operations, from botnet takedowns to supporting Ukraine against Russian cyberattacks.

Threat level: A pause in offensive operations — even briefly — could take months to recover from, Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and faculty member at IANS Research, told Axios.

• Planning a cyber offense requires months of lurking and learning about a target's networks to understand their weak points.
• Russian cyber operatives could decide to completely re-wire their networks while Cyber Command has its pause in effect — and cyber adversaries from other countries could obfuscate their own activities by disguising them through known Russian tactics.
• The downtime in activity could out any United States hackers who Russia was already suspicious of and monitoring closely, Williams added.

Zoom in: The order applies only to Cyber Command, not to the National Security Agency's intelligence collection, according to the reports.

• Also, separating intelligence-gathering from operations planning is near impossible in the cyber realm. Analysts often need to collect tips and open-source information before they can confidently link particular hackers to specific countries.
• "I'm not sure how to split those hairs," Williams said. "Every intelligence asset is a potential jumping off point for an offensive cyber operation."

What we're watching: Trump has made it clear that, among the four major cyber adversaries, China is his top priority.

• Many of his administration's new cyber officials are pushing for more aggressive operations against China.
• But Russian hackers were responsible for some of the cyberattacks in recent years that were most disruptive to civilian life.

In nearly three weeks as Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. certainly hasn't allayed concerns that he'll bring his vaccine criticism — most if not all of it unfounded — into his role as the nation's top health care official.

Why it matters: Several of Kennedy's vaccine-related actions have stoked fears that the anti-vaccine movement has gained a powerful foothold within the federal government in the midst of a worsening measles outbreak in Texas, one of the worst flu seasons in more than a decade and a circulating bird flu virus that has pandemic potential.

---

Driving the news: Kennedy drew attention last week during a Cabinet meeting, when he described measles outbreaks as "not unusual" after one now hitting west Texas and New Mexico resulted in the first U.S. death from the virus since 2015 and almost half of the cases seen last year.

• He then wrote in a Fox News op-ed over the weekend that vaccines protect individuals and communities from the disease but also that "all parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine," and that "[t]he decision to vaccinate is a personal one."

The lukewarm support for measles vaccines came after a tumultuous few weeks in vaccine policy, including the Food and Drug Administration's cancellation of a March 13 meeting of a federal advisory panel to discuss the composition of next season's flu shot.

• Earlier this month, a Centers of Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel on vaccines was told that a February meeting on updating vaccination guidelines had been postponed indefinitely.
• The administration is also reviewing whether to pull $590 million in funding that Moderna received in the final days of the Biden administration to develop an mRNA vaccine for bird flu, reportedly as part of a bigger examination of spending on mRNA-based shots.
• "In isolation each of these actions have their own tolerable explanation, but taken collectively they raise the specter that RFK's trial-lawyer antipathy to any and all vaccinations continues to reign supreme," a person who worked on Kennedy's confirmation told Axios.

The big picture: Everything could still turn out fine, and the U.S. may resume business as usual when it comes to vaccines after a bumpy transition period. But it's hard to ignore the series of unusual vaccine-related decisions made over the last couple of weeks against the backdrop of Kennedy's decades of anti-vaccine activism prior to his government role.

• Kennedy said during his confirmation hearing that he wouldn't take away people's vaccines, but didn't disavow past anti-vaccine statements.
• The Trump administration clearly relishes disruptions to the status quo. It's plausible that these past few weeks are just the beginning of a brand-new, less transparent approach to vaccine policy under Kennedy's leadership — an approach that deeply alarms scientists and public health experts.

Kennedy's actions so far are "significant things, and I think it's just the tip of the iceberg," said Richard Hughes, a professor of vaccine law at George Washington University and a partner at Epstein, Becker & Green.

• "This is a man who was one of the most pivotal leaders in the anti-vaccine movement," he added. "It's not like he woke up one day and said, 'You know what, I feel different about vaccines.'"

The other side: "RFK has a mandate, under the MAHA movement, to allow for all of science to be critiqued and challenged," said David Mansdoerfer, a former senior HHS official in the first Trump administration.

• "These actions don't represent the rise of an anti-vaccine movement, they instead represent a return to science being able [to be] rigorously discussed in the public square," he said.

What they're saying: Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA's advisory committee, told Axios that the cancellation or postponement of meetings, combined with recent workforce reductions at health agencies, reflects "just a gradual sort of dismembering of the public health service."

• Offit said he didn't know the reasoning behind cancellation of the meeting on flu vaccine but that HHS officials said that they are going to make the decision about the vaccine internally within the FDA.
• "The irony to me is that Robert F Kennedy Jr. talks endlessly about transparency, and now you have meetings being canceled and decisions being made behind closed doors," Offit said.

Some advocacy groups were especially alarmed at the cancellation of the flu vaccine discussions, considering the severity of the current flu season and possibly delays formulating next year's shots.

• "Cancelling essential health advisory committee meetings without promptly rescheduling them is appalling," said Public Citizen Health Research Group director Robert Steinbrook.

Officials haven't said why the advisory panel's meeting on flu vaccines was canceled, but an HHS spokesperson said the FDA will "make public its recommendations to manufacturers in time for updated vaccines to be available for the 2025-2026 influenza season."

• HHS and CDC said in identical statements that the meeting on updating vaccination guidelines for infectious diseases was postponed "to accommodate public comment in advance of the meeting," adding that advisory working groups had met as scheduled.
• Addressing the review of federal funding of mRNA vaccines, an HHS spokesperson told Axios: "While it is crucial that the U.S. Department and Health and Human Services support pandemic preparedness, four years of the Biden administration's failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production."

What to watch: Kennedy has considerable discretion to put his stamp on vaccine policy, drug approvals and any number of other issues.

• Some critics expect more requests for vaccine safety data and the appointment of like-minded individuals to advisory panels that could influence coverage of drugs, services and devices.
• His leadership could also result in a shift of federal health funding to chronic disease or unproven cures, and away from infectious diseases.

Tina Reed contributed to this story.

• McDonald's CEO has three predictions for the fast-food industry in 2025.
• Chris Kempczinski talked about them in an Instagram video posted to his account.
• Kempczinski referenced protein, AI, and sauces.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski has some predictions for the fast-food industry this year.

Kempczinski shared three things he expects to see more of at fast-food restaurants, including McDonald's, in 2025. He commented in a video posted to his Instagram account last week.

"I love to sit with the team and make predictions about what we think is going to come in the year ahead," he said.

Here are the three things Kempczinski talked about:

McDonald's CEO predicts that diners will want more protein

"Protein is hot," Kempczinski said in his first prediction.

Many diners are looking to add protein to their diet, especially those trying to lose weight. People who are taking GLP-1 weight loss medications such as Ozempic often look for low-fat sources of protein, for instance.

McDonald's already serves several kinds of protein, from burgers to chicken sandwiches to the Filet-O-Fish, meaning that the chain is well-positioned to serve those customers, Kempczinski said in the video.

Kempczinski says fast-food restaurants will continue looking at AI

Fast food chains have spent years experimenting with AI. Some are moving ahead with bigger rollouts, such as using voice AI to take customers' orders at drive-thru lanes.

McDonald's pulled its own voice-AI ordering system from drive-thrus last year. But Kempczinski predicted that chains — including his own — will keep experimenting.

"We've got a number of teams looking at how we can use AI," Kempczinski said.

Sauces will be a focus for diners in 2025, Kempczinski says

One big theme in 2025 won't be about what's in the center of diners' plates but what kind of sauces they're using, Kempczinski said.

"Spicy is always in," he said. "I think you might see some honey or some sweet stuff."

McDonald's has gotten patrons excited about sauces before. In 2017, it brought back a limited amount of Szechuan McNugget sauce, first released in tandem with the Disney movie "Mulan" in the 1990s, after the animated series "Rick and Morty" referenced the sauce in an episode.

Do you have a story to share about working in the fast food industry? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or 808-854-4501.