| | | | | | | Presented By PhRMA | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Jun 11, 2022 | | Happy Saturday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,196 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by TuAnh Dam. | | | | | | ⛽ 1 big thing: Biden's new warning |  Data: BLS. Chart: Baidi Wang/Axios 🚨 Bulletin: The national average price of regular gas today hit a never-before-seen $5 a gallon ($5.004). President Biden warned in L.A. last night that high prices will continue to rise for a while. - "We're going to live with this inflation for a while," Biden said at a Democratic fundraiser. "It's going to come down gradually, but we're going to live with it for a while."
Why it matters: In a report yesterday, inflation accelerated to its highest level in 41 years. Biden knows the gas and inflation data are a danger to the nation's economic health — and his own political health. Biden was speaking at the Mulholland Drive estate of entertainment mogul Haim Saban, with donors under a tent pitched on the estate's tennis court, AP reports. - Earlier in the day, Biden blamed corporate profits for inflation, saying that some companies — including shipping firms and the oil industry — are focused on maximizing profits.
Asked about Exxon profits, Biden replied: "We're going to make sure that everybody knows Exxon's profits. ... Exxon made more money than God this year." - ExxonMobil responded: "We have been in regular contact with the administration, informing them of our planned investments to increase production and expand refining capacity in the United States."
What's happening: The price of gas soared as Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted energy markets and drove up costs, even as the U.S. grapples with decades-high inflation rates. Between the lines: Yesterday's inflation report was a disaster for the "soft landing" camp — policymakers and politicians hoping to tame inflation without an all-out recession, Axios' Neil Irwin reports. - Gas prices are real-time inflation indicators for Americans.
- The gallon's months-long climb is a headwind both for consumer spending — as gas bills eat into household budgets — and politicians hoping to stay in power, Axios' Matt Phillips writes.
🔭 Coming Monday! Axios Macro, a lunchtime economics jolt by Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown. It's part of the Axios Business Suite, including Markets for breakfast and Closer at happy hour. Sign up here. |     | | | | | | 2. Exclusive: Ex-Taliban detainee secures American's release |  | | | Mahnaz Safi and Safi Rauf at JFK Airport. Photo courtesy Safi Rauf | | | | An Afghan American freed in April after being detained by the Taliban used his connections to help secure the release this week of another American — a woman held in northern Afghanistan, Axios national security reporter Zachary Basu has learned. Why it matters: The State Department, which has yet to recognize the Taliban government, didn't engage in negotiations to free 33-year-old Mahnaz Safi. - Her U.S. family reached out to Safi Rauf, co-founder of Human First Coalition, after reading Axios' account of his own months-long detention in Taliban custody.
- Rauf, a former Afghan refugee and U.S. Navy reservist who helped evacuate thousands of at-risk Afghans during the fall of Kabul, arrived at JFK Airport with Safi on Thursday.
🔮 What's next: Hostage-taking is one of the top issues that has prevented the U.S. from recognizing the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government — as well as attacks on women's rights and providing safe haven to terrorist organizations. - Rauf plans to continue his work providing humanitarian aid and helping evacuate at-risk civilians in Afghanistan. But he has urged the U.S. government to engage in diplomacy with the Taliban — like the two parties did to secure his freedom.
Share this story ... Go deeper: Rauf recounts his nightmare in Taliban custody. | | | | | | | | 3. Kavanaugh danger could tighten justice security |  | | | News crews near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in Chevy Chase, Md., on Wednesday. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP | | | | This week's late-night threat at Justice Brett Kavanaugh's suburban Maryland home reflects heightened danger for all judges, AP reports. - A proposal being considered in Congress would provide additional security measures for the justices. Another would offer more privacy and protection for all federal judges.
Round-the-clock security given to the justices after the leak of the draft abortion opinion may well have averted a tragedy. - Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, Calif., was charged with attempted murder after taking a taxi to Kavanaugh's home around 1 a.m. Wednesday.
- Court documents say he was carrying a Glock 17 pistol, a knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, a crow, bar duct tape — and hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles, apparently for stealth.
Zoom out: The situation had much in common with incidents that ended with the shooting death of a former judge in Wisconsin last week, and the killing in 2020 of the son of a federal judge at their home in New Jersey. - Security has been stepped up for the justices in recent years.
🔮 What's next: Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will take up a bill — which has bipartisan support, and has passed the Senate — to expand protection to justices' immediate families. | | | | | | | | A message from PhRMA | | Out-of-pocket costs create significant barriers to care | | |  | | | | New data show that 35% of insured Americans spent more on out-of-pocket costs than they could afford in the past month. The story: Many patients are experiencing an insurance system that isn't working for those who need care. Learn how insurance is leaving patients exposed to deepening inequities. | | | | | | 4. 📷 1,000 words | | Photo: Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images Two views yesterday of a regional government building in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv. A Russian missile hit it in March. Photo: Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images ⚡ "We are definitely going to prevail in this war that Russia has started," President Volodymyr Zelensky told a conference in Singapore today via videolink. "It is on the battlefields in Ukraine that the future rules of this world are being decided." | | | | | | | | 5. 📺 20 million watched first Jan. 6 hearing |  | | | Halftime graphic during the committee's 9 p.m. ET break on Thursday. Screenshot: NBC News | | | | 20 million people watched the first House Jan. 6 committee hearing on television in prime time on Thursday, Axios' Sara Fischer writes from Nielsen ratings. - Why it matters: More people tuned into the hearing than the first day of former President Trump's first impeachment trial in November 2019 (13 million), or the first day of his second impeachment trial in February 2021 (11 million).
ABC drew the largest audience by far, with 5.2 million viewers from 8 to 10 p.m., followed by NBC (3.7 million), MSNBC (4.3 million), CBS (3.5 million), CNN (2.6 million) and Fox Business Network (223,000). Fox News Channel didn't air the hearing and instead stuck with shows by Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. - That drew 3.1 million viewers — about normal for the time period —and a clear indication that a notable portion of the country wasn't interested in the hearings.
Zoom out: Political hearings became a point of fascination in the Trump years. - James Comey's testimony in June 2017 drew 19.5 million viewers. Brett Kavanaugh's hearing in September 2018 drew 20 million.
🔮 What's next: Several networks, including ABC and NBC, plan live coverage of Hearing 2, beginning Monday at 10 a.m. ET. | | | | | | | | 6. 🎮 1 fun thing: Hit game coming for holidays | | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment The PlayStation game God of War Ragnarok, which is expected to be a huge hit, is planned for release by Sony in November, Bloomberg reports. - This is a sequel to 2018's God of War, which sold 20 million copies.
Why it matters: Axios Gaming author Stephen Totilo tells me big-budget blockbuster video-game releases are scarce this year, as studios battle pandemic-fueled production problems. - The critically acclaimed original mixed mythological combat with the struggles of a father raising his son.
The new game is a key piece of software to help Sony work hardware woes, Bloomberg says: - Japan-based Sony hasn't been able to make enough PlayStation 5 consoles to keep up with demand. The new game will be available on both the new console and on PlayStation 4, which has sold more than 117 million units.
| | | | | | | | A message from PhRMA | | Voters want Congress to address health insurance | | | | | | | | According to a new poll, 71% of Americans would like to see Congress focus more on reducing the overall costs of health care coverage such as premiums, deductibles and copays. The reason: Many believe current health insurance coverage options are confusing and unaffordable. | | | | 📬 Invite your friends to sign up here to get their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. |  | It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 200 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | | |
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