Machine learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio is launching a new nonprofit lab backed by roughly $30 million in funding to make AI systems act less like humans.
Why it matters: While the move bucks a trend toward AI that acts independently, Bengio and others argue the current approach risks creating systems that may pursue their own self-preservation at the expense of humanity.
"We've been getting inspiration from humans as the template for building intelligent machines, but that's crazy, right?" Bengio said in an interview.
"If we continue on this path, that means we're going to be creating entities — like us — that don't want to die, and that may be smarter than us and that we're not sure if they're going to behave according to our norms and our instructions," he said.
Driving the news: Bengio, a Montreal-based researcher who has long warned about the risks of a technology he helped develop, has raised about $30 million for the nonprofit, dubbed LawZero.
LawZero currently has about 15 staffers, Bengio said, "but the goal is to hire many more."
Earlier this year he gave a TED Talk urging greater caution and collaboration.
The big picture: There's a growing sense of worry among critics — and even AI practitioners — that safety is taking a back seat as companies and countries race to be first with AI that can best humans in a wide variety of tasks, so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Bengio said there is also a high risk in concentrating control of advanced AI in a handful of companies.
"You don't want AGI or superintelligence to be in the hands of one person or one company only deciding what to do, or even one government," Bengio said. "So you need very strong checks and balances."
Between the lines: Bengio says a large part of the problem is how current systems are trained. During initial training, the systems are taught to mimic humans and then they're honed by seeing which responses people find most appealing.
"Both of these give rise to uncontrolled agency," Bengio said.
Some early glimmers of this are already appearing, such as Anthropic's latest model which, in a test scenario, sought to blackmail its engineers to avoid shutdown.
By contrast, Bengio says he wants to create AI systems that have intellectual distance from humans and act as more of a detached scientist than a personal companion or human agent.
"The training principle is completely different, but it can exploit a lot of the recent advances that have happened in machine learning," he said.
Yes, but: Bengio told Axios that the $30 million should be enough to fund the basic research effort for about 18 months.
But AI is expensive, and as a non-profit, it may be difficult to raise additional, larger funding rounds — as OpenAI and others have found.
Bengio says he doesn't see future funding as a roadblock, as he's certain more investors now understand the plausible risks ahead.
Governments could also be future backers of LawZero, Bengio said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday sketched an ambitious timetable for passing a compromise budget bill, telling members of the Finance Committee they need to move quickly to meet a July 4 deadline for President Trump's signature.
Why it matters: Pens need to be put down soon. Thune (R-S.D.) is signaling to his conference that debating and drafting will need to end in order to meet their deadline.
"The leadership is going to try to hit the president's goal of getting this done by July 4, which means things are going to have to move much faster," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), said the target was for the Finance Committee to get a draft out by the end of the week, describing that as "a stretch goal."
Zoom in: There are still deep concerns in the GOP conference about both the ratio of tax and spending cuts, Medicaid spending and which green energy tax cuts to preserve — and for how long.
"I didn't hear the leader say no to anybody," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said after the meeting.
"Part of what we have to do is just come to agreement on, you know, what's core," Tillis said.
Zoom out: Senators expect the White House to get more involved and help them resolve their differences in the coming days. Thune met with Trump today.
The president also spoke to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who claimed Trump "said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS," on X.
Johnson, who also said he spoke with Trump, told reporters before the meeting: "I still think that this thing has to be a multi-step process."
Between the lines: Senate GOPers have for months been telegraphing some of the policy changes they want to make on taxes.
It's long been a goal of Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to make three provisions of Trump's 2017 tax bill — R&D deduction, bonus depreciation and interest expensing — permanent.
They expire after five years in the House version.
And there's a desire to lower the $40,000 SALT deduction that blue-state House Republicans fought so hard to include in their version.
The bottom line: The Joint Committee on Taxation put its latest estimate at $3.8 trillion for how much the tax cuts in the House-passed bill will cost. That's roughly $20 billion less than their earlier forecast.
That gives the Senate a little more breathing room to make changes but not much to stay under the House's $4 trillion limit.
Freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego is already making moves to appeal to moderates and boost his national profile barely five months after winning his seat.
Why it matters: Gallego (D-Ariz.) — like a growing number of Senate Democrats— is positioning himself for a possible 2028 presidential run as his party looks to build a fresh bench after their devastating loss in November.
Gallego criticized the Democratic Party last month for "kicking people out of the tent" ahead of the 2024 election.
"What happened the last election is that we got so pure, and we kept so pure that we started kicking people out of the tent," he said at a town hall in a Philadelphia-area swing district that Trump narrowly flipped.
"It ends up there aren't enough people in the tent to win elections," he added.
Zoom in: Gallego also released an immigration reform plan that pairs liberal priorities such as pathways to citizenship with conservative principles like increased border security funding.
He had one of the best-ever fundraising debuts for a Senate Democrat, pulling in more than $1 million in his first quarter.
Axios has learned that Gallego — who kept his seat in the Democrats' column despite Trump's victory in Arizona — is planning additional stops in key battlegrounds over the coming months.
The big picture: There are signs that Gallego's appeals to moderates and conservatives are starting to make a difference for him back home.
Gallego's 50% statewide approval rating in May is higher than Trump's and Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs', according to a recent poll by Noble Predictive Insights, a Phoenix-based nonpartisan polling firm.
Gallego also doubled his overall favorability with Republican voters, with 37% of GOP voters viewing him favorably. His net favorability is higher than that of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Az.), according to the survey.
What they're saying: "Senator Gallego shows up, listens and delivers. Voters know he is fighting for them, and this has helped him build strong, bipartisan support across Arizona," Gallego's chief of staff Raphael Chavez-Fernandez told Axios.
One senior GOP operative said Gallego is the type of Democrat who appeals to the swing voters that both parties fight over at each election.
Another senior GOP aide said Gallego is what Democrats wanted Gov. Tim Walz (D-Min.) to be in the 2024 election — a veteran from a working-class background who appeals to the middle.
Wildfires in Canada have forced thousands of residents to evacuate in three provinces, impacting air quality in the U.S. — and smoke from the deadly fires has even blown across the Atlantic and reached the U.K.
The big picture: The U.S. announced Monday the deployment of 150 federal firefighting personnel to Canada to help tackle the escalating threat of the fires that researchers and officials say are being fueled by climate change.
The fires that killed two people in Manitoba have been impacting air quality across the country and into the U.S. for days, with an alert issued for the entire state of Minnesota until 12pm Wednesday ET.
Threat level: Mandatory evacuation orders have been enacted in the western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta — as Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) data showed the number of fires across Canada grew to 204 by Monday night, with six new blazes igniting and 106 burning out of control.
The premiers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan both made 30-day provincial states of emergency declarations last week.
What they're saying: "This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people's living memory," Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told reporters after over 17,000 residents were evacuated last Thursday.
"For the first time, it's not a fire in one region, we have fires in every region. That is a sign of a changing climate that we are going to have to adapt to."
Context: "Climate change is fueling devastating wildfires burning across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta through intensified heat, drought and atmospheric condition," per a Bluesky post by climate change policy research group the Canadian Climate Institute.
"Climate change is making wildfires bigger, hotter and more frequent in Canada, which is warming twice as fast as the global average."
The fires intensified during the last week of May as drought and atmospheric conditions collided with early season heat, per a report from Climate Central.
This made "high temperatures in parts of central Canada at least five times more likely than they would be in a world without climate change," according to the climate research group.
Editor's note: This a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
MAGA influencers warned of dark forces at play — and the risk of dangerous escalation — as Ukraine celebrated a historic drone operation targeting Russia's bombing fleet.
Why it matters: President Trump has not publicly commented so far on Ukraine's stunning "Spiderweb" operation, in which more than 100 drones infiltrated air bases deep inside Russia and destroyed nuclear-capable bombers.
MAGA's alarm over Ukraine's attack — and comparative silence when Russia targets Ukrainian civilians — underscores the movement's deep skepticism of the Western-backed government in Kyiv.
While Trump seeks to present himself as a neutral mediator trying to bring broker peace, large swathes of his base see Ukraine — not Russia — as the enemy.
Driving the news: Ukraine's successful operation, which took 18 months to covertly plan, delivered a major strategic coup in a war that has otherwise been mired in stalemate and trench warfare.
As Ukrainians and their allies praised the breakthrough, some MAGA influencers expressed suspicion and anger that Kyiv had not informed Trump about the operation ahead of time.
At best, MAGA treated the attack as counterproductive to nascent peace talks; at worst, they feared an attempt by Ukraine and American "Deep State" actors to drag the U.S. further into the conflict.
State of play: Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have failed so far to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire. Peace talks at the staff level have yielded little progress beyond prisoner swaps.
Top Trump administration officials — including the president himself, at times — have warned that the U.S. could walk away from the conflict completely if talks do not advance.
What they're saying: Pro-Trump influencer Jack Posobiec speculated on Steve Bannon's "War Room" Monday about whether the Biden administration could have been involved in the operation, given that planning began 18 months ago.
"Seems very much on the interior of Russia. I sure hope America had nothing to do with it," said Charlie Kirk, a top MAGA activist with close White House ties.
Rogan O'Handley, who runs the popular DC Draino X account, alleged, without evidence, that the attack was "intentionally conducted to drag America into WW3."
Dan Caldwell, a former top Pentagon official who advocates for "America First" foreign policy, warned that the operation "raises risk of direct confrontation between Russia and NATO."
"U.S. should not only distance itself from this attack but end any support that could directly or indirectly enable attacks against Russian strategic nuclear forces," Caldwell wrote.
Between the lines: MAGA has been nothing if not consistent throughout the war, treating Zelensky as a "globalist" puppet and Ukraine as a backwater of corruption.
Zelensky and any Ukrainian military operations against Russian troops have been met with hostility from MAGA for years.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure garner sporadic criticism from Trump, but mostly silence from his staunchest supporters.
The bottom line: Trump is facing pressure from multiple sides: Republican senators who want tougher sanctions on Russia, and an agitated MAGA base that sees Ukraine as the enemy.
Jewish members of Congress are worried by a spate of attacks aimed at Jews — and are openly saying they may be next on the target list.
Why it matters: There has been a sharp rise in antisemitism and threats against lawmakers in recent years. For some Jewish representatives, the two trends are eerily correlated.
"The number of times in the course of a week I'm called a 'Jewish demon' is pretty unsettling," Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) told Axios.
Landsman said "most" Jewish members are "facing these very unsettling and potentially dangerous situations," pointing to the pro-Palestinian encampment that was erected outside his house in Cincinnati.
Driving the news: Capitol Hill was rocked last month when two Israeli embassy staffers were fatally shot outside an American Jewish Committee meeting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, shouted "free, free Palestine" as he was arrested by police.
"I have had a hard time getting the image of being shot and killed out of my head. It happens almost every time I'm in a big crowd now," Landsman said in a statement after the shooting.
State of play: Concerns about Jewish safety spiked again this week after a man yelling "free Palestine" threw Molotov cocktails at attendees of a Boulder, Colorado, rally advocating for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The attack left at least eight people — four women and four men, aged 52 to 88 — hospitalized.
What they're saying: Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said in a phone interview that he "increased our investment in security" after the D.C. attack.
"It's a dangerous world," he told Axios. "I will not let this become normal ... and I will not let this force me to back away or fail to do what I need to do representing all my constituents in the 10th district."
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said: "I've always thought we were in jeopardy and jeopardized when we were on the Capitol campus."
And Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Calif.) added: "The Jewish community is very much on edge ... and elected officials in general, I think, are feeling less safe."
Zoom out: Beyond their personal safety,several lawmakers previewed a renewed push to fund the Nonprofit Safety Grant Program, particularly to provide security for houses of worship and faith-based organizations.
"We certainly need more funding there given the number of ... threats [religious institutions] are facing," said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.).
Landsman said the Trump administration "has to get these grant dollars out quicker" and that Congress "has to seriously consider taking up something around investing in law enforcement."
Ukraine over the weekend unleashed more than 100 drones on Russian military sites thousands of miles away from the front lines — a clandestine operation some have compared to Japan's surprise assault on Pearl Harbor.
Why it matters: The coordinated attacks, code-named "Spiderweb," are a serious blow to Moscow's reputation and materiel. They also comprise one of the most audacious moves in recent warfare.
How Ukraine laid the groundwork
Behind the scenes: President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack involved "one year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution."
Ukrainian intelligence operatives prepared inside Russia for months undetected, he added.
The targets were five Russian bases thousands of miles from Ukraine and from one another. Unknown to the Russian forces manning those bases, Ukraine managed to position dozens of drones nearby, hidden inside trucks.
How Ukraine's attack unfolded
Breaking it down: Zelensky said the bombardment employed 117 drones and the same amount of pilots on the ground.
Ukraine's security service, the SBU, said the drones were smuggled under cabin roofs. Those structures were loaded onto trucks, it said, and at the "right moment, the cabins' roofs were opened remotely, and the drones took off to strike their targets — the Russian bombers."
Footage shared on social media shows a small drone zipping out of a semi-truck near the perimeter of a Russian base. Another widely shared image shows rows of drones inside what looks like a wooden crate.
Once airborne, the relatively inexpensive drones sped toward Russia's far more sophisticated, but surprisingly vulnerable, bomber and surveillance fleets.
What Russia lost
Forty-one aircraft were hit, the SBU said. Targets included A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22M3 and Tu-160 warplanes. The service estimated the total damage at $7 billion.
Moscow did not confirm those numbers, claiming many of the salvos were repelled. It did admit some aircraft caught fire.
Western analysts have since pored over satellite imagery to confirm the degree of destruction. The Institute for the Study of War said Russia "will likely struggle to replace the aircraft that Ukrainian forces damaged and destroyed."
Russia has very few A-50 surveillance aircraft still in use. Disabling strategic bombers also hampers the country's nuclear capabilities.
Between the lines: Russia will still have the capability of striking Ukrainian cities and battlefield positions, though the Ukrainian strike is a reminder of the high cost for Russia of continuing the war.
What happens next
Driving the news: Ukraine's stunning haymaker landed on the eve of peace talks with Russia on Monday in Turkey.
There, Moscow presented Kyiv a "peace memo" containing largely unchanged ceasefire terms, an official told Axios.
What to watch: Russian President Vladimir Putin may feel the need to show strength and resolve after the attack, potentially by stepping up his attacks on Ukraine, analysts said.
It's also unclear whether President Trump will applaud the ingenuity of the Ukrainian operation, or denounce it — as he has with recent Russian bombardments — for undermining his ceasefire push.
Some six months after South Korea was cast into a constitutional crisis by a stunning declaration of martial law, the nation will head to the polls Tuesday.
The big picture: The election in many ways will be a referendum on impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol and his party, as whoever wins will be tasked with mending a divided South Korea after months of turbulence.
Polls will open Tuesday morning, and a winner could be declared by Wednesday, CNN reported, bringing the ongoing leadership vacuum to an end.
Here's what to know about South Korea's upcoming election:
Why is South Korea holding a snap election?
Catch up quick: Yoon was removed from office in April following a unanimous ruling from South Korea's constitutional court.
His brief declaration of martial law last December sparked mass protests and saw troops deployed to the National Assembly.
Members of the unicameral assembly swiftly blocked Yoon's order.
In the aftermath of the controversial move that sent shockwaves through Seoul's politics and stunned global allies, members of parliament impeached Yoon.
South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld the assembly's vote, triggering Tuesday's snap election.
Kim, the People Power Party candidate and the former labor minister under Yoon, opposed parliament's impeachment of Yoon, though he said he disagreed with the martial law declaration, per the AP.
The 73-year-old Kim was once a prominent labor activist before becoming a member of the National Assembly. He was imprisoned in the 1980s for leading pro-democracy protests.
While Lee is the frontrunner, Kim has been closing the gap, the Washington Post reported.
He's been scrutinized for his rhetoric about women and LGBTQ+ people.
Both candidates formerly served as governor of South Korea's most populous province.
What is the current state of South Korean politics?
With Yoon's chaos still fresh on voters' minds, both major candidates have vowed to seek a constitutional amendment to limit presidential powers, the Washington Post reported.
Whoever emerges victorious will be tasked with reorienting an increasingly polarized nation and restoring faith in a shaken democracy.
Yes, but: There are other issues at play, one being the economy.
South Korea has not been spared from the impact of President Trump's tariffs, with its shipments to the U.S. — and overall exports — falling in May.
Trump has said South Korea should pay more to host U.S. troops, calling the U.S. ally a "money machine."
The election could also have major implications for foreign relations.
Per the Times, both candidates recognize the need to deepen relationships with the U.S. But Lee also sees a need to improve ties with North Korea and China.
The nuclear deal proposal the U.S. gave Iran on Saturday would allow limited low-level uranium enrichment on Iranian soil for a to-be-determined period of time, Axios has learned, contradicting public statements from top officials.
Why it matters: White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have said publicly that the U.S. will not allow Iran to enrich uranium and will demand the full dismantlement of Iran's nuclear facilities. The secret proposal shows far more flexibility on both points.
The intrigue: Iran has consistently said it won't sign any deal that bans enrichment for civilian purposes — a red line that is irreconcilable with the U.S. public posture.
But the proposal described to Axios by two sources with direct knowledge — one of whom provided a point-by-point breakdown — would seem to offer a clearer path to a deal.
By making this offer, the Trump administration is risking backlash from its allies on the Hill and in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and dozens of Republican senators have pushed the administration to maintain red lines on zero nuclear enrichment and the full dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program.
What they're saying: The White House did not deny any of the details of the proposal described to Axios.
"President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb. Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it's in their best interest to accept it. Out of respect for the ongoing deal, the Administration will not comment on details of the proposal to the media," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Breaking it down: The proposal Witkoff submitted on Saturday describes "preliminary ideas" to be discussed in the next round of talks.
Under the proposal, Iran would not be allowed to build any new enrichment facilities and must "dismantle critical infrastructure for conversion and processing of uranium."
The proposal also states that Iran would have to halt new research and development on centrifuges.
Zoom in: According to the proposal, the nuclear deal will focus on creating a regional enrichment consortium that meets several conditions:
Iran won't be allowed to develop domestic enrichment capabilities beyond those necessary for civilian purposes.
After signing the agreement, Iran will have to temporarily reduce its enrichment concentration to 3%. This period will be agreed upon in negotiations.
Iran's underground enrichment facilities will have to become "non-operational" for a period of time agreed by the parties.
The enrichment activity in Iran's above-ground facilities will temporarily be limited to the level needed for nuclear reactor fuel according to International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines.
According to the proposal, the agreement will establish "strong system for monitoring and verification" including immediate approval of the IAEA's additional protocol.
The proposal says sanctions relief will be granted only after Iran "demonstrates real commitment" to the satisfaction of the U.S. and IAEA.
The other side: Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that the U.S. side had so far not provided sufficient assurances in terms of when and how sanctions would be lifted.
Baghaei said Tehran was still reviewing the U.S. proposal, and pushed back somewhat on the U.S. claim its offer was "acceptable" to Iran.
Friction point: The new U.S. proposal is likely to alarm Netanyahu and his aides, who have been lobbying their U.S. counterparts hard to accept only the most restrictive possible deal with Iran.
President Trump cautioned Netanyahu not to do anything that would harm the negotiations, as Axios reported.
U.S. officials are concerned he might even make his move without a green light from Trump.
Flashback: The U.S. offer is similar in many key respects to the 2015 Iran deal, though it differs in some aspects. Trump withdrew from the Obama-era deal in 2018.
What's next: A sixth round of nuclear talks is expected to be scheduled in the coming days.
A man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel demonstrators on Sunday has been charged with a federal hate crime, as the number of injured victims rose to 12, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty said Monday.
The big picture: No victims died as of Monday afternoon following an attack in Boulder, Colorado, which is being investigated as terrorism, local police said, though multiple people were left with burns and at least two remain in the hospital, according to local authorities.
Federal hate crime charges carry a sentence of up to 10 years. But when the offense includes attempted murder — as in this case — the statutory maximum jumps to life in prison, Acting U.S. Attorney J. Bishop Grewell for the District of Colorado said at Monday afternoon briefing.
The suspect faces numerous charges including 16 counts of attempted murder in the first degree, Dougherty said. If convicted, the maximum sentence would be 384 years in state prison.
A judge has set a $10 million cash-only bond.
Driving the news: The suspect, 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, yelled "Free Palestine!" as he threw the Molotov cocktails, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.
During an interview after his arrest, Soliman allegedly told law enforcement that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting until his daughter graduated.
Soliman allegedly told authorities he tried to buy a gun to carry out the attack but could not because he was not a legal citizen, Grewell said.
The suspect also allegedly stated he had "no regrets" and would conduct another attack if given the opportunity, according to Grewell and the affidavit.
What they're saying: "We will never tolerate this kind of hatred," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the hate crime charge. "We refuse to accept a world in which Jewish Americans are targeted for who they are and what they believe."
Soliman was charged with a hate crime "involving actual or perceived race, religion, or national origin."
State of play: In a Monday statement, President Trump said the attack "will not be tolerated."
"My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible tragedy, and the Great People of Boulder, Colorado!" he wrote on Truth Social.
He also blamed former President Biden for Soliman's presence in the country.
"He came in through Biden's ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under 'TRUMP' Policy," Trump wrote.
"Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland."
Context: Soliman entered the U.S. in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023, per Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.
He filed for asylum in September 2022.
Soliman was a contractor for Uber, the company confirmed in a statement to Axios. Uber said it banned Soliman's driver's account after the attack and has been in communication with law enforcement.
He met Uber's requirements under Colorado law and "had no concerning feedback" as a driver using the platform, the company added.
Law enforcement officials said Monday that Soliman wasn't on their radar before Sunday's attack and had no prior contact with him.
Zoom in: Run for Their Lives organized the walk in support of the hostages as "a peaceful walk to show solidarity with the hostages and their families, and a plea for their release."
The suspect threw a "makeshift flamethrower" into the crowd.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Monday he will seek a congressional investigation after a Department of Homeland Security officer handcuffed one of his staffers at his office.
Why it matters: The incident — part of a series of confrontations with federal immigration authorities — has further escalated tensions between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration.
What happened: DHS officers handcuffed one of Nadler's aides at his district office in New York City last Wednesday and demanded entry to the office, accusing them of "harboring rioters," video of the incident shows.
Nadler said in a CNN interview that DHS was "upset that some of my staff members were watching them grab immigrants emerging from an immigration court in the same building" and "invited some of the observers up to my office."
"They then came up to the office and demanded entrance. One of my staff members said, 'You can't come in here, you need a warrant.' They said, 'No, we don't need a warrant,' which is incorrect," Nadler added.
The staffer was later released and no charges were filed.
The other side: A DHS spokesperson said the officers "responded to information that protesters were present" in the office and "went to the location to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those present."
"Upon arrival, officers were granted entry and encountered four individuals. Officers identified themselves and explained their intent to conduct a security check, however, one individual became verbally confrontational and physically blocked access to the office."
The officers detained the staffer "for the purpose of completing the security check," the spokesperson said.
Driving the news: Nadler said on CNN that he will send House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) a letter requesting an investigation and hearing into the matter.
He said he wants Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to have to testify about it.
"The tactics were totally unacceptable," Nadler said, adding that the investigation's scope should be "generally of [immigration officials'] tactics, which are, frankly, very threatening to liberty."
A spokesperson for Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zoom out: Democrats have been ramping up their oversight of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities after Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was charged with assaulting ICE officers last month.
McIver and other Democrats have accused DHS of pursuing a flimsy prosecution in an attempt to intimidate lawmakers and discourage oversight.
Just on Monday, Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) made an unannounced visit to the Dodge County Jail, an ICE facility in their state.
Celebrations of Juneteenth, the new federal holiday that honors the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas, are growing amid a general backlash on civil rights and discussions on racism.
Why it matters: Like Pride, companies are pulling back of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives around race, and the Trump administration reinterprets Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism."
But the popularity of Juneteenth and the momentum around the holiday appears to help it expand around the country — for now.
Zoom out: Portsmouth, the New Hampshire city where an enslaved woman escaped President George Washington's pursuit, will host a gathering for Juneteenth of direct descendants of some of America's founding fathers and the people they enslaved.
Oakland, Calif.-based Red Bay Coffee will release this month a "Juneteenth Limited Release" coffee named Intango Rwanda, a light-medium roast grown high in the hills of Gatagara Village by the Dukunde Kawa Cooperative.
The Library of Congresscommemorate Juneteenth with a "program focused on the themes of family and home." The library will encourage visitors to meet a staff expert from the Manuscript Division, and learn about items from the Library's Abraham Lincoln Papers.
Organizers in Houston, north of Galveston, Texas, the site of the original Juneteenth, will host a series of events including a cook-off and a tour of historic Black neighborhoods.
Portland, Ore., will play host to another Black rodeo on Juneteenth.
State of play: The rapid commercialization of Juneteenth comes as some states pass laws limiting the discussion about enslavement in public schools and as some GOP lawmakers press for the return of Confederate monuments.
Catch up quick: This is the fourth year that Juneteenth has been a national holiday since President Biden signed legislation in 2021.
It commemorates June 19, 1865 — the day Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, with words that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed by President Lincoln more than two years before.
What they're saying: "Juneteenth is a reckoning and allows us to give the country another narrative," JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, told Axios.
Boggis said it's also a time to remind the country of important allyships between white and Black Americans that helped to end enslavement.
"That's part of the story," she said.
Zoom in: From June 8-19, artists, historians and community leaders will gather for a 10-day series of walking tours, dedications, talks and film screenings in New Hampshire, a sign of how far Juneteenth are spread.
Organized by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, the events will be held in Portsmouth, where Ona Judge, an enslaved woman in President Washington's household, escaped to freedom and defied recapture.
The events will include a conversation with Laurel Guild Yancey, descendant of Portsmouth's Prince Whipple – a Black man who fought in the Revolutionary War while enslaved by Declaration of Independence signer William Whipple.
Bottom line: Juneteenth continues to evolve and expand across the country, finding support to grow.
President Trump's Truth Social account is full of jarring juxtapositions: major trade policy announcements and presidential nominations broken up by bizarre conspiracies and personal boasts.
Why it matters: The president's words matter, whether he's moving markets with tariff threats or spreading unfounded conspiracies about his political rivals, and the White House has mimicked Trump's bellicose online persona.
Driving the news: The president late on Saturday shared an outlandish conspiracy from another user who said that former President Biden had been "executed in 2020" and was replaced by clones or robots.
Trump shared the post to his nearly 10 million followers with no context.
In another strange post Wednesday,Trump shared a meme of himself walking down a dark city street with all-cap text that read, "HE'S ON A MISSION FROM GOD & NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT IS COMING."
Pepe the frog — a cartoon symbol embraced by the alt-right — is standing in the background. The edit was credited to another account on Truth Social.
What they're saying: The White House didn't directly respond when asked about Trump sharing conspiracy theories.
"President Trump has done more than any other president in modern history to stop antisemitic violence and hold corrupt institutions, like Harvard, accountable for allowing anti-American radicalism to escalate," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email.
The intrigue: Between those two posts, Trump made and shared (real) political and economic news.
On Friday, he accused China of breaking the trade truce it reached with the U.S. The stock market immediately dropped on Trump's post.
On Saturday, before he suggested his political rival had been executed, Trump announced he'd withdrawn Jared Isaacman's NASA nomination.
He also shared highlights from his remarks at a U.S. Steel facility in Pennsylvania, where he said he'd increase tariffs on steel imports to 50% from 25%.
Trump also used his Truth Social account to endorsebooks written by MAGA-aligned playwright David Mamet and Salena Zito, a journalist who detailed the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Yes, but: The things Trump doesn't post are just as striking.
Trump didn't issue a statement on the Sunday attack near a Boulder, Colorado, rally advocating for the release of Hamas-held hostages in Gaza until Monday afternoon.
Trump condemned the "horrific" attack that he said "WILL NOT BE TOLERATED" and claimed the suspect in the attack "came in through Biden's ridiculous Open Border Policy."
The official White House X account on Sunday reposted statements from severalother administration officials condemning the attack.
Context: It's not a new phenomenon for Trump to platform unproven conspiracies and misinformation on social media or in the White House.
Per the Washington Post's count, the president made 30,573 untruthful statements during his first term, many of which he shared to Twitter.
On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump and Vice President Vancerepeated a baseless claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets.
And in a shocking Oval Office encounter last month with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump pointed to misleading images when doubling down on the "white genocide" conspiracy theory.
The bottom line: With no fact-checks or consequences for falsehoods, Trump can be, as he's shared multiple posts saying, "right about everything."
Russia presented Ukraine with a "peace memo" on Monday stating its terms for a ceasefire and peace deal, though the Russian position effectively remains unchanged, a Ukrainian official told Axios.
Why it matters: The delegations met in Istanbul for a second round of peace talks a day after Ukraine conducted a stunning drone attack deep inside Russian territory.
Driving the news: The talks ended after about an hour with no clear breakthrough beyond an agreement for another prisoner exchange. Russia continues to reject President Trump's demand for an immediate ceasefire.
Ukraine's defense minister said all POWs who are under 25 or in serious medical condition will be exchanged. The Russian side said it would hand over 6,000 bodies and at least 1,000 POWs.
The Russian position as stated in the peace memo remains "as usual," and includes demands that Ukraine withdraw from regions of Ukraine that Russia claims, a Ukrainian official said.
The Russians also proposed returning 10 children taken from Ukraine into Russia by July 10, two Ukrainian officials said, noting that was a fraction of the number of Ukrainian children held in Russia.
Zoom in: Andryi Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, said Ukraine gave Russia a list of Ukrainian children it wants returned.
The head of Russia's negotiating team, Vladimir Medinsky, denied in the meeting that tens of thousands of Ukrainian children had been abducted by Russia, calling it propaganda, according to the two Ukrainian officials.
"Stop throwing around crazy numbers. We will return everyone who is in the Russian Federation. There is no kidnapping. Russian soldiers do not kidnap. They only saved them because their lives were at risk. Do not put on a show for European compassionate aunties who do not have children themselves," Medinsky said.
What to watch: TheUkrainian aide proposed a leader-level summit before the end of June. So far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has declined to sit down with Zelensky.
Medinsky said Russia's memorandum included steps toward a ceasefire, and that Russia had also proposed a limited ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas.
Ukraine is pushing for a full ceasefire, as Trump initially demanded.
State of play: The Ukrainians sent their own written proposal to the Russians over the weekend, which included proposed confidence-building measures and some red lines around Ukrainian sovereignty.
Transgender and gender-nonconforming people were the target of over half of all anti-LGBTQ+ incidents tracked by GLAAD over the last year in a new report.
The big picture: President Trump has singled out the transgender community in several executive orders, jeopardizing federal recognition for people's declared gender identity and access to services like gender-affirming health care.
Meanwhile, ongoing court cases, including one about gender-affirming care for minors before the Supreme Court, could affect LGBTQ+ rights.
Yes, but: The challenges the community face stretch beyond legislation.
GLAAD's new Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker (ALERT) data depicts the threats LGBTQ+ people face in daily life, even as the share of Americans who are part of the community rises.
"When we allow our politicians and our leaders to spread this anti-trans rhetoric, we see the very real impacts of that on the lived experiences of trans people," said Sarah Moore, who runs the tracker for GLAAD.
Driving the news: GLAAD counted more than 930 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents from May 2024 through April 2025, 52% of which targeted transgender and gender nonconforming people, across 49 states and Washington, D.C.
The overall number of incidents is down from GLAAD's prior count, but incidents targeting transgender people were up 14% from the 2023-2024 data.
Tracked violent attacks resulted in 84 injuries and 10 deaths.
The most commonincidents GLAAD tracked were protests and rallies. The report also tracks verbal and written threats, assault, vandalism and other criminal and non-criminal incidents.
Moore says the tracker includes "every expression of hate," even if it is not criminal, because "LGBTQ people are going to experience these things as acts of hate, regardless of if they're prosecuted as that."
GLAAD said that coincides with hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in the 2025 legislative sessions.
Case in point: Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke understands the double-edged nature of representation: As the first openly transgender member of the state legislature, she's championed LGBTQ+ rights.
But Finke said she's also been the target of lies, harassment and threats.
Her first year in office brought "the most rewarding" professional experiences of her life. But it was "easily ... the worst year, personally, that I've ever had."
While the physical intimidation has eased, she faces the pressure of a national spotlight brought on in part by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's Washington bid, where Trump and others targeted his support for transgender people.
"It is building a civic society and understanding ... that trans involvement, trans presence, is a threat," Finke said. "Either we're too strong for sports or too weak for the military."
This year also brought the murder of Sam Nordquist, a Black transgender Minnesota man.
Seven people, including a woman he'd fallen for online, were charged with murder and accused of torturing him for weeks before killing him.
"The truth is that I can tell you how terrible it is for me to be constantly harassed," Finke said. "But our Black trans family are getting murdered."
The bottom line: While Finke notes acts of violence are not directly tied to the Trump administration, his policies and the "language of dehumanization and ... language of eradication" have consequences.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that Trump was elected to "Make America Safe Again for all Americans and takes all acts of violence or threats of such abhorrent behavior very seriously."
The transgender community needs federal protections, Finke said, though the odds of legislation passing now are slim. Beyond government action, cultural change must foster a safer environment, she added.
"We have to continue to make our stories known," Finke said. "That's going to continue to be hard and create pushback, but ... it's what we have to do."
New White House hiring guidelines sent out to federal agencies last week include what looks like a presidential loyalty test, say current and former federal employees and Trump administration critics.
Why it matters: Meant to serve as guidelines to focus hiring on merit, the memo is the latest move from the Trump administration to politicize the civil service, eroding, more than a century of law and tradition meant to insulate career employees from politics, critics say.
Where it stands: Candidates for civil service jobs — including janitors, nurses, surgeons, engineers, lawyers and economists — are to be asked four questions on their level of patriotism and support for the president's policies.
They are to answer in essay form, at a maximum of 200 words, and certify that they did not use help from artificial intelligence.
How it works: "How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role?" reads the third question, which is garnering a lot of attention.
It continues: "Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired."
Zoom out: These questions have nothing to do with a candidate's merit or skills, says Jeri Buchholz, a former chief human capital officer who led HR at NASA and ran HR at other federal agencies for decades.
"When you're doing hiring, traditionally by law, you have to focus on the knowledge, skills and abilities required for the position," she says.
The questions "are philosophical. They're not even aptitude related. And I'm very unclear how you score that."
Dealing with these questions could slow the hiring process, running counter to the stated intent of the guidelines to speed it up, Buchholz says.
Taken together these plans "will make it more difficult to hire, not less," a current federal HR official told Government Executive.
"A merit-based civil service that took generations to build is being dismantled via memo," writes Stanford University political scientist Adam Bonica in a Substack post on Sunday.
The other side: An official from the Office of Personnel Management defended the questions as legal and within the bounds of presidential authority.
"The President has the power of superintendence over the Executive Branch and clear statutory authority to ask these questions of prospective employees. He is not imposing a loyalty test by doing so," they say.
The law requires those who work for agencies to act consistently with the president's lawful executive orders and policy priorities, they say, making it reasonable to ask for examples that candidates are excited about.
Agencies will decide whether and how to use the questions.
The big picture: The White House has already fired or pushed out more than 100,000 federal workers, chasing away a lot of talent from the government.
Now it looks like they'll be replacing those folks with partisans, says Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
"They're emptying the shelves of the existing nonpartisan expert civil servants, and they're restocking with the loyalists," he says.
The bottom line: Trump bristled at the pushback he received from "deep-state" federal employees in his first term, and a focus this term is ensuring that does not happen again.
Read the full 30 page memo from the Office of Personnel Management.
Permits for multifamily housing have dropped below pre-pandemic and pandemic-era levels, according to Redfin.
Why it matters: A wave of newly built apartments helped curb rent hikes over the past few years. For many renters, that break is fading.
By the numbers: U.S. developers got permits to build an average of 12.4 multifamily units per 10,000 people in recent months, according to Redfin's analysis of Census Bureau data.
That's down roughly 27% from the pandemic surge (17 units) and down around 5% from pre-pandemic (13.1 units).
Zoom in: 63% of major metros are seeing fewer units approved per 10,000 people compared to pandemic-era averages.
Sun Belt metros permitted the most multifamily housing recently, meaning buildings with five or more units.
What they're saying: Builders nationwide are "pumping the brakes because elevated interest rates are making many projects prohibitively expensive," Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari wrote in the report.
The bottom line: The construction slowdown, which tariffs could prolong, risks reigniting rent inflation — especially in cities where demand still outpaces supply.
Nationally, rents ended the first quarter at $1,754, around 1% higher than a year ago, per Apartments.com.
The two most durable and decisive geopolitical topics of the 2020s are fully merging into one existential threat: China and AI supremacy.
Put simply, America either maintains its economic and early AI advantages, or faces the possibility of a world dominated by communist China.
Why it matters: This is the rare belief shared by both President Trump and former President Biden — oh, and virtually every person studying the geopolitical chessboard.
David Sacks, Trump's AI czar, said this weekend on his podcast, "All-In": "There's no question that the armies of the future are gonna be drones and robots, and they're gonna be AI-powered. ... I would define winning as the whole world consolidates around the American tech stack."
The big picture: That explains why the federal government has scant interest in regulating AI, why both parties are silent on AI's job threat, and why Washington and Silicon Valley are merging into one superstructure. It can all be traced to China.
Trump is squarely in this camp. Yet his short-term policies on global trade and treatment of traditional U.S. allies are putting long-term U.S. victory over China — economically and technologically — at high risk.
To understand the stakes, wrap your head around the theory of the case for beating China to superhuman intelligence. It goes like this:
China is a bad actor, the theory goes, using its authoritarian power to steal U.S. technology secrets — both covertly, and through its mandate that American companies doing business in China form partnerships with government-backed Chinese companies. China has a lethal combination of talent + political will + long-term investments. What they don't have, right now, are the world's best chips. If China gains a decisive advantage in AI, America's economic and military dominance will evaporate. Some think Western liberal democracy could, too.
China then uses this technology know-how and manipulates its own markets to supercharge emerging, vital technologies, including driverless cars, drones, solar, batteries, and other AI-adjacent categories. Chinese firms are exporting those products around the world, squashing U.S. and global competitors and gathering valuable data.
It then floods markets with cheap Chinese products that help gather additional data — or potentially surveillance of U.S. companies or citizens.
The Trump response, similar to Biden's, is to try to punish China with higher targeted tariffs and strict controls on U.S. tech products — such as Nvidia's high-performing computer chips — sold there.
The downside risk is slowing U.S. sales for companies like Nvidia, losing any American control over the supply chain that ultimately produces superhuman intelligence in China, and cutting off access to AI components that China produces better or more cheaply than the U.S.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently called the export controls "a failure" that merely gave China more incentive to develop its industry.
You mitigate this risk by opening up new markets for American companies to sell into ... fostering alternatives to Chinese goods and raw materials (Middle East) ... and creating an overall market as big or bigger than China's (America + Canada + Europe + Middle East + India).
But Trump isn't mitigating the risk elsewhere while confronting China. He's often escalating the risk, without any obvious upside. Consider:
Canada, rich in minerals and energy, is looking to Europe, not us, for protection and partnership after Trump insulted America's former closest ally. Trump continues to taunt Canada about becoming an American state.
Europe, once solidly pro-American, has been ridiculed by Trump and Vice President Vance as too weak and too cumbersome to warrant special relations with America.
Zoom in: Trump's tariffs spooked these two allies and many others who could legitimately form a massive, united counterweight to China. That has slowed discussions of a united front in case America and China fully decouple.
In fact, Europe and China are now talking more actively, in a sort of "the trade enemy of my trade enemy is my friend" dialogue.
Trump has tightened relationships with rich nations in the Middle East, and sees the Saudis and others as displacing European nations as part of the global American coalition. But those same nations are close to China, too, and have little incentive to pick sides so decisively.
The Trump-Biden export controls rely on countries involved in the cutting-edge chip supply chain — Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Taiwan — agreeing to harm their own companies' business in China to form a united front with the U.S. Trump has given them reason to reconsider.
Zoom out: Trump, in public, has been all over the place on China, much like he has on trade policy. He talked tough early, slapped on 145% tariffs — then sent Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent out to argue the broader trade strategy was a chess move to isolate China.
But then Trump reduced the tariffs, suggested peaceful competition was possible, and reignited trade talks. Now, he's back to talking tough and firing off social media warnings about calling them off again.
Meanwhile, China keeps racing ahead on drones, cars, quantum computing and batteries.
At the same time, Beijing holds all the leverage on the rare earth minerals the U.S. so desperately needs. And JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, just back from China, warned last week that America's internal issues leave the nation unprepared for war abroad. "If you put a team on the field and the team's torn apart, they're gonna lose," he told the Reagan National Economic Forum. "And that's kind of us right now."
The other side: Administration advisers tell us there's more coherence to the Trump strategy than meets the eye. Trump believes he'll ultimately create a coalition of willing trading partners, with more favorable terms for America, to rival China.
He also believes his tactics will nudge Canada, Greenland, Ukraine and others to share essential minerals and AI ingredients — and that U.S. workers will benefit from better-paying jobs in this new economy.
Understanding that countries need AI and just choose between the U.S. and China, Trump sees the opportunity to leverage the U.S. AI lead to both bring countries onto U.S. systems — and to get investment back into the U.S. to fund critical AI infrastructure, including OpenAI's Stargate.
An OpenAI official who has worked closely with Trump officials told us the administration excels at AI diplomacy and is executing a sophisticated strategy. "They get it," the official said, "particularly when it comes to making sure the world is going to build out on U.S.-led AI rails, while also using the interest in U.S. AI to get reciprocal investment into U.S.-based infrastructure."
The potential flaw: Trump is making an epic gamble. And China sees the opening.
Axios' Ben Berkowitz and Dave Lawler contributed reporting.
Go deeper: "Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s tenure as the nation's top health official is becoming increasingly known for abrupt policy pronouncements based on limited or sketchy evidence that perplex health care providers, industries and patients.
Why it matters: While Kennedy has branded himself as a change agent bringing "radical transparency" to a bloated federal bureaucracy and promoting "gold standard" science, the results have at times been chaotic, even exposingrifts between President Trump's circle and Kennedy's own base.
New policies that Kennedy rolled out over the preceding two weeks that limited access to COVID vaccines also evidenced what some critics characterize as an on-the-fly approach, and delivered contradictory messages on whether healthy kids and pregnant women should get the shots.
While Health and Human Services cited a lack of evidence in favor of annual COVID booster strategy for healthy people, public health experts said the administration provided scant evidence for switching from the current system. The commentary announcing the change includes just eight citations, one of which is an opinion piece from current Food and Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary.
What they're saying: HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said Kennedy is "doing what previous administrations would not" in going against the policymaking status quo.
"His approach is deliberate — not traditional for Washington, but urgently needed for a nation that has lost trust in public health institutions," Nixon told Axios in an email.
"By leveraging direct communication tools like social media, Secretary Kennedy is modernizing how HHS engages with the public, reaching Americans where they are, and with the radical transparency they deserve."
Yes, but: Health industry players have been left wondering what the actual rules of the road are, and how to implement policies that could change day by day.
"There's a new inconsistency every day," said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
"For many of us, what we're concerned about is that this is all merging into one anti-vaccine message, and it also is merging into [the administration thinking] 'We can do whatever we want from a regulatory oversight standpoint,'" he said.
The false citations in the MAHA Commission report are an example of how even pieces of Kennedy's health care agenda with broader appeal are being carried out "in a way that is unserious," said Chris Meekins, a managing director at Raymond James and health official in the first Trump administration.
Zoom out: The pace of the changes and the sometimes abrupt way they're communicated mirrors other parts of the Trump administration.
Many recent announcements out of HHS come directly from Kennedy and appear on social media before they're reflected on official government webpages. It's not dissimilar to how President Trump has taken to announcing tariff policies on social media. A Truth Social post from the president can send financial markets spiraling.
Reality check: While public health policy shifts abruptly and outside the typical channels, other HHS hallmarks like Medicare payment rules are moving through their typical processes under Kennedy, at least so far.
What we're watching: Whether Kennedy's aggressive policymaking eventually undermines his agenda by angering stakeholders who are even closer to Trump than he is.
"At the end of the day, they're going to do what they believe and what they want to do," Meekins said. "How they go about executing the agenda, I think, is very much in play."
Data: Morning Consult; Note: U.S. and Chinese respondents' views of their own country are excluded. Countries tracked include Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom; Chart: Axios Visuals
U.S. trade policy is making China great again — at the United States' expense, per an analysis from Morning Consult that looks at global favorability ratings, and finds China's rising while America's falls.
Why it matters: The drop in America's reputation is already costing the country economically — through a fall in foreign visitors turned off by White House policies, and even the decline of the dollar.
The big picture: There's potential for more damage:
"As views of the United States worsen, trade and investment opportunities for American firms doing business overseas may also diminish as consumers shun the products and job opportunities they provide," writes Jason McMann, head of political intelligence at Morning Consult.
There's also concern about a specific provision buried in the Republican tax bill that could reduce demand for U.S. assets, plus worries over losses from banning foreign students studying in the country.
The latest: America's favorability started edging up a smidge after the president agreed to slash tariffs on China earlier in May (see the chart above).
But on Friday, Trump said China "totally violated the deal," all but blowing up the fragile detente.
By the numbers: As of the end of May, China had an 8.8 net favorability rating, compared to -1.5 for the U.S., according to favorability data for last month provided exclusively to Axios by Morning Consult.
In January 2024, the U.S. rating was above 20 and China was in negative territory.
How it works: The data tracks net favorability ratings, or the share of respondents with a positive view of a country minus those with a negative view.
Morning Consult surveyed adults in 41 countries including Canada, France, Japan, Russia and the U.K.
Zoom out: The U.S. had a largely positive reputation last year — but it dropped sharply after President Trump took office.
"Since January 2025, the overwhelming majority of countries simultaneously exhibit worsening views of the United States and improving views of China," McMann writes.
"Only in Russia have views of America meaningfully improved."
Meanwhile, China's rating has been negative going back to October 2020, when Morning Consult first began tracking; it started trending into positive terrain after election day last year.
But most of the country's improvements have come since March — including a sharp tick up after Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcements.
"The reputational damage done by the "Liberation Day" tariff announcements has now sealed the deal," per the report.
