⚽️ Axios PM: Big Airbnb score

🗓️ Happy in-between week. Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 744 words, a 3-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

Airbnb hosts in World Cup cities in North America are set to score big during the June and July matches, Axios' Sami Sparber reports.

• 📈 Rates are up over 40% compared to 2025 in some cities with matches, per short-term rental data firm AirDNA.
• ⚽️ And that's just for the early group stage games.

💰 Airbnb itself says U.S. hosts could earn $4,000 on average by renting out their homes during the tournament.

• 🗽 Hosts in New York and New Jersey could see $6,000 in average earnings from games at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, including the July 19 final.

🧳 About 2.1 million tourists will visit the 11 U.S. host cities next year — including an estimated 232,000 Airbnb guests, per a study commissioned by the company.

• Homeowners should review local short-term rental rules before renting out their spaces.

✈️ Tourism is the main moneymaker for World Cup cities, Andrew Zimbalist, a professor emeritus of economics at Smith College in Massachusetts, tells Axios.

• While local businesses (and short-term rental hosts) may see a boom, economists say the tournament's impact is more complicated than organizers project.

🇺🇸 What's next: The first U.S. match — USA vs. Paraguay — kicks off June 12 in Los Angeles.

• Bookings for that date already average $387, AirDNA says — up 20% year over year.

Go deeper.

President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon at a vital moment for the Trump-backed ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

• 🏗️ The Mar-a-Lago face-to-face comes as progress on that plan is slowing ahead of a planned second phase, which calls for rebuilding Gaza as a demilitarized zone under international supervision.
• Trump wants to start that phase "as quickly as we can," he told reporters before the meeting. "But there has to be a disarmament, we have to disarm with Hamas." (CNN)

📰 AP: "Both sides accuse each other of violations, and divisions have emerged among the U.S., Israel and Arab countries about the path forward."

• "There are thorny logistical and humanitarian questions, including rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza, disarming Hamas and creating a security apparatus called the International Stabilization Force." (Go deeper.)

🇷🇺 In a call with Trump today, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that a Ukrainian drone attack targeted one of his official residences.

• 🇺🇦 Ukraine immediately denied the claim, which comes amid high-stakes negotiations on a U.S.-driven plan for peace between Ukraine and Russia.

Still, Putin told Trump that Russia would revise its negotiating position based on the alleged attack — the latest indication the Kremlin is disinclined to accept that deal.

• Go deeper.

Starting January 1, the first 10 Medicare-negotiated prescription drugs to treat diabetes, heart failure and cancer will be available.

A new AARP report confirms these lower prices will cut seniors' out-of-pocket Rx spending by as much as 50%.

Read the report.

1. 🌨️ Hundreds of thousands of people have lost power, and hundreds of flights have been canceled, amid a major winter storm affecting the Upper Midwest over to New England. Temperatures are plummeting across much of the country as an Arctic cold front rushes in. Go deeper.
2. 🇨🇳🇹🇼 China staged its largest war games around Taiwan, showcasing Beijing's ability to cut off the island from outside support in a conflict. The drills are the largest to date by total area, and closer to Taiwan. —Reuters
3. 🚇 NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in at an iconic-yet-abandoned subway station, Streetsblog reports. Mamdani said: "When Old City Hall Station first opened in 1904 ... it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples' lives." Go deeper.
4. 🗞️ The Minnesota Star Tribune printed the last paper at its Heritage Center plant in Minneapolis yesterday. The paper will now be printed in Iowa. The plant produced the daily miracle for 38 years. But now the "Strib" is moving printing to Des Moines to save money as print circulation declines. (Registration required)

You can maximize your 2026 vacation time by turning scattered days off into longer breaks, Axios' Ashley May writes.

• Many Americans feel guilty using vacation time. But research shows that unplugged time away from work is linked to better well-being and reduced burnout.

🏖️ Here's how to get the most out of your vacation days by combining them with federal holidays and weekends:

• Around New Year's Day, take off: Friday, Jan. 2 (4-day break).
• Around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, take off: Friday, Jan. 16 or Tuesday, Jan. 20 (4-day break).
• Around Presidents Day, take off: Friday, Feb. 13, or Tuesday, Feb. 17 (4-day break).

See the rest.

New report: By negotiating Rx prices, for the first time ever, Medicare will save seniors —and taxpayers — billions in 2026.

But beware: Big drug companies want to delay negotiation, keeping prices sky high. Tell Congress: Side with seniors — not big drug companies.

Oppose the EPIC Act.

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