🛒 Axios PM: Grocery price stress

Good afternoon! Today's newsletter, edited by Natalie Daher, is 665 words, a 2.5-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

In a first for an Israeli government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration voted today to fire its attorney general, who is currently prosecuting Netanyahu for corruption, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

🧨 Why it matters: The move to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sparked immediate accusations that Netanyahu was seeking to protect himself and his aides.

• The resolution is one in a series of challenges to Israel's democratic institutions under Netanyahu — challenges that began before the war in Gaza and have continued during it.

⚖️ Yes, but: Before the Cabinet vote, the Supreme Court told the government this procedure for firing the attorney general was inappropriate and made clear it would issue an injunction if it passed.

• Once the resolution passed, the court swiftly ruled that the attorney general would maintain all of her authorities and the government wouldn't be allowed to name a replacement.
• ⏳The firing won't come into effect until the Supreme Court rules on the immediate appeals against it.

📜 Justice Minister Yariv Levin denied today that the decision was connected to Netanyahu's trial and claimed that the government had reached a "red line" in its "confrontational" relationship with the attorney general.

• Baharav-Miara said in a letter she sent to the Cabinet ministers before the vote that the unprecedented decision would allow any future government to fire the attorney general for political reasons.
• She warned that her removal could influence Netanyahu's trial and other criminal investigations against Cabinet members.

Go deeper.

More than half of Americans are stressed about buying groceries — significantly more than affording credit card debt, child care or student debt, Axios' Avery Lotz writes from an AP-NORC poll out today.

• The big picture: President Trump campaigned on a promise to bring down grocery prices, but the data shows Americans are still anxious about affording these basic necessities.

🧃By the numbers: 53% of Americans said the cost of groceries was a major source of stress right now, while 33% said it was a minor source of stress.

• Just 14% said the price of groceries was not a source of stress.
• The next-highest sources of financial stress were the cost of housing (47%), the amount of money saved or earned (43%), and the cost of health care (42%).

The intrigue: 14% of adults in the poll also reported using buy now, pay later services on groceries, so they could make the purchases and pay for them in installments with services like Afterpay or Klarna.

• Read on ... Explore the data.

1. 🗞️ The New York Post will launch a daily Los Angeles-based newspaper called The California Post in early 2026, Axios' Sara Fischer reports. LA is home to the second-largest concentration of Post readers, per NY Post parent company News Corp.
2. 📈 American Eagle stock soared after President Trump hailed the company's controversial ad starring actor Sydney Sweeney. Go deeper.
3. 🛢️President Trump threatened to further raise tariffs on India over buying Russian oil, accusing the long-standing ally of profiteering. The move came after months of failing to strike a trade deal with India. Go deeper.

Headed to San Francisco? Pack a jacket — summer forgot to show up.

• The city is experiencing chilly summer temperatures not seen since 1982, Axios San Francisco co-author Nadia Lopez writes.

🥶 San Francisco's summers are famously foggy — often the source of laughs when tourists arrive unprepared — though this year's prolonged cold spell has surprised even longtime locals.

• The thick marine layer (thanks, Karl the Fog) has led to averages of 57.6°F for June and 59.4°F in the past month in what local meteorologists have been calling "No Sky July," per the Bay Area National Weather Service.

💬 "It's not record-breaking," meteorologist Matt Mehle told the LA Times. But it's been "anywhere from 20 to 30 years since we've had this cold of a summer."

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