✈️ Axios PM: Cheap flight scarcity

😎 Happy summer Friday! Today's newsletter, edited by Natalie Daher, is 752 words, a 3-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

Airline ticket prices are sky-high right now, and it's making it harder for people to find cost-saving seats, Axios' Herb Scribner writes.

• Airfares are up 4% on average in July compared to June — and higher than prices last July, The Wall Street Journal reports (gift link), citing adjusted federal data.
• It's the first increase in the category since January.

🛫 The bump is good news all around for airlines. Stocks are up, gasoline costs are down and flights are, well, pricier.

• Travel demand is also up, and there's been a recent increase in bookings across U.S. airports.
• Airlines are shrinking their schedules to increase demand and "claw back pricing power," WSJ reports.

💰 Flashback: There was concern about how 2025 would shape out for airlines due to President Trump's tariffs and shifting economic policies. That's why airlines cut prices and tried to hook flyers for the summer, according to CNBC.

Yes, but: Airline experts expect some turbulence in demand after the summer, and airlines will have to tweak prices again.

• There's already been some concern about how August will shake out since so many people moved their travel dates into early summer months, CNBC reports.
• Several carriers are forecasting a flat end to 2025, with smaller airlines saying "there's still too much uncertainty surrounding demand for the rest of the year," Bloomberg reported.

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Alaska this afternoon for their high-stakes summit, which could stretch late into the evening.

• Trump has set a Ukraine ceasefire as his goal for the summit, telling reporters on Air Force One that he's not sure one will be reached, but he's "not going to be happy" if one isn't.

On the scene: Trump greeted Putin with applause as he arrived on a red carpet. After a warm handshake, they entered the presidential limousine nicknamed "the Beast," Axios' Dave Lawler writes.

• No interpreters appeared to be present, so they likely conversed in English during the short ride to their meeting location.

Go deeper.

⚖️ D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the Trump administration today to block its federal takeover of the city police department.

• The lawsuit follows Attorney General Pam Bondi's attempt last night to appoint an "emergency police commissioner," which the city rebuffed as illegal.

⚠️ Meanwhile, D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith told a federal court that Bondi's directive "would upend the command structure" of the Metropolitan Police Department.

• In her nearly 30 years of law enforcement, Smith said: "I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive."

Go deeper: Not every Democrat is fighting Trump's D.C. police takeover

1. 🌀 Erin officially became the first hurricane of the Atlantic's 2025 season as it approached the northwest Caribbean today. Forecasters expect Erin to intensify into a major Category 3 or 4 hurricane over the weekend. Go deeper.
2. 🔍 Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called for an investigation into Meta following a report that the company let its chatbot flirt and engage in romantic role-play with children. Go deeper.
3. 💰 The Trump administration is exploring using funds from the CHIPS Act — passed under President Biden — to finance an equity stake in Intel, Bloomberg reports (gift link). The move could involve converting existing Intel grants into equity or allocating new funding that could help the struggling chipmaker, whose stock rallied off the news today.

Bonsai bandits have hit several U.S. cities lately, but the Des Moines Botanical Gardens keeps its precious collection behind barbed wire and monitored by cameras, Axios Des Moines co-author Jason Clayworth writes.

🌳 Bonsai is the art of cultivating miniature trees in containers, with origins going back thousands of years to ancient China.

• The plants serve as a living record of international tradition and local heritage.

📹 Des Moines added its security measures after historic heists over 20 years ago — well before the recent rash of bonsai thefts in New Orleans and Minnesota.

• During a 2004 theft, investigators believe someone scaled a roof and dropped into the garden's courtyard. The stolen plants weren't recovered.
• In 1997, two men recovered a stolen tree and said they bought it at a local tavern for $300, according to local newspaper reports at the time.

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