1 big thing

What's it like to fly into the eye of a hurricane? Niala joins a team of NOAA Hurricane hunters tracking Hurricane Lee to understand the science gathered on these missions, and how it helps create the forecasts that millions depend upon.

Guests: Axios' Russell Contreras and Adriel Bettelheim; NOAA's Alan Hough, Jack Parrish and Kevin Doremus.

Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Morocco late Friday night near Marrakech. More than 2,100 people were killed and over 2,400 injured, as of Sunday. The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers continue to search through the rubble for survivors.

Guests: Axios' Hans Nichols and Stef Kight.

Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

The 2024 presidential election is looking different from elections past for a number of reasons. A former president is running against a current president, which has only happened a handful of times in U.S. history, and each of the frontrunners has a distinctly low-profile campaign for now.

Guests: Axios' Alex Thompson and Felix Salmon.

Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

It's been about a month since the Lahaina wildfire broke out on Maui, and now the local community is facing another hardship: a severe economic downturn.

The big picture: Most of Hawai'i's residents depend on tourism to pay the bills. With the drop in travel to Maui, locals and government officials are now urging people back.

Axios Today staff reading recommendations:

Guests: Axios' Sara Kehaulani Goo and Alex Fitzpatrick.

Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

It's been a rocky start to the school year when it comes to COVID. A late summer surge has already led to class cancellations in places like Kentucky and Texas. We dig deeper on how schools are dealing with this latest COVID wave.

Guests: Axios' Adriel Bettelheim and Emily Peck; Power Plays' Lindsay Gibbs.

Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

There's been a focus on the restriction or attempted restriction of voting rights in the last several years. But as Axios' Eugene Scott reports, there have been even more state led moves to expand voting access.

Why it matters: Voting could look different for many people in 2024.

Guests: Axios' Eugene Scott, Tina Reed, and Alex Fitzpatrick

Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Robin Linn, and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

Republican presidential candidates are starting to distinguish themselves in the week following the first debate. And this week it was all about Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. For our politics State of Play, we check the status of the GOP presidential primary contenders.

Go deeper (7 min. read)

Guests: Axios' Mike Allen, Alison Snyder and Sam Sabin.

Credits: Axios Today was produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Robin Linn and Ben O'Brien. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

Senator Mitch McConnell once again seemed to freeze up during a press conference yesterday, for the second time since late July. This time, he was in his home state of Kentucky and the incident sent ripples of worry through the Republican Party in Washington.

Guests: Axios' Hans Nichols, Russell Contreras and Ayurella Horn-Muller.

Credits: Axios Today was produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

West Virginia University announced this month it would eliminate 32 of 338 majors, or about 9% of its course catalog. While WVU is staring down a 45 million budget deficit, some of the biggest proposed cuts are to the languages program. And humanities scholars and others are worried this could be a blueprint for attacks on higher education.

Guests: Axios' Jennifer Kingson and Hope King.

Credits: Axios Today was produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Lydia McMullen-Laird and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

The Department of Transportation is fining American Airlines $4.1 million for tarmac delays, the largest ever fine of its kind against an airline.

The big picture: Between 2018 and 2021, American Airlines kept 43 domestic flights stuck on the ground for at least three hours, without giving passengers a chance to exit the plane. As summer comes to an end , we take a look at airline travel.

Summer reading recommendations from Rebecca Makkai:

Guests: Axios' Alex Thompson, Alex Fitzpatrick and Erin Doherty; Author Rebecca Makkai.

Credits: Axios Today was produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.