🍕 Axios PM: Hot foods in '26

🤧 Plus: "Super flu" spreads | Wednesday, December 31, 2025

View in browser   PRESENTED BY AARP   Axios PM By Mike Allen · Dec 31, 2025 🍾 Have a happy and safe New Year's! Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 494 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Kathie Bozanich for copy editing. THANK YOU, PMers, for an epic '25 together!     1 big thing: Hot food trends in '26   Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios Comfort food like grandma used to make will be one of the big culinary trends in 2026, New York Times food writer Kim Severson predicts. Severson's annual guesses come after chatting with "an army of market researchers, food company executives, restaurant publicists and cooks." 🔮 Her calls for the coming year ... 👵🏻 Grandmacore: "We're talking about the kind of warm, grounding foods your best imaginary grandma might have made, like sourdough bread, dried apples, sauerkraut and vegetables she canned herself." A candy mix of Lemonhead Freeze Drieds, Skittles Gummies and Nerds Gummy Clusters. Photo: Morgan Ione Yeager for The New York Times 🍭 Texture: "This is the generation of fluffy, chewy, smooth, crunchy, melty," Andrew Freeman, trends expert and president of consulting firm AF & Co., tells Severson. 🥗 Vinegar: "The quality and styles of vinegars available to home cooks will continue to expand, and chefs are finding new ways to use them, like spritzing thyme vinegar on warm cookies or marrying red wine and kombu jelly with raw vegetables." Gift link.     2. 🤧 Beware the "super flu"   Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios A massive surge in flu cases is rocking the country this winter, with many tied to the so-called "super flu," Axios' Herb Scribner and Jason Lalljee report. 🏥 There have been at least 7.5 million illnesses, 81,000 hospitalizations and 3,100 deaths from the flu so far this season, the CDC says. Many of these cases involve "subclade K" — a variant of the H3N2 virus, itself a subtype of influenza A. 🦠 Experts say subclade K is an example of the "super flu," referring to a strain that spreads quickly and rapidly. 🤮 Other illnesses — the "winter vomiting bug," COVID and whooping cough — are also circulating. Go deeper.     A MESSAGE FROM AARP Medicare Rx negotiations will save seniors billions     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.     3. ⚡️ Catch me up   Projection lighting to mark the opening of America's 250th year was tested last night on the Washington Monument. Photo: IMAGO/MediaPunch 🎂 The Washington Monument will "stand as the world's tallest birthday candle" starting tonight in a six-night projection event "celebrating America's story, strength, and unity" ahead of the country's 250th birthday. Go deeper. 🇮🇱 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the possibility of attacking Iran again in 2026 during his meeting with President Trump on Monday, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. Go deeper. 🕯️ Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado — a Cheyenne Indian who served as a state legislator, congressman and senator, first as a Democrat and later as a Republican — died at 92 at his southwestern Colorado ranch yesterday. A signature accomplishment: helping establish the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Gift link: N.Y. Times obit. 📝 Former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) revealed his dementia diagnosis in a statement: "My family and I now head down a path filled with moments of joy and increasing difficulties. I am grateful beyond expression for their love and support, in these coming days as in all the days of my life. Despite this diagnosis, I remain a very fortunate man." Read the letter.     4. 🎆 1 for the road: NYE celebrations begin   It's already 2026 on the other side of the world, where the new year rang in with a bang. New Year's Eve fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Photo: Izhar Khan/Getty Images People kiss during Sydney's New Year's Eve celebrations. Photo: George Chan/Getty Images Artists perform during a New Year's Eve party in Taipei, Taiwan. Photo: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images More photos.     A MESSAGE FROM AARP Medicare should keep negotiating Rx prices for seniors     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.   📬 Thanks for reading! Please invite your friends to join PM. 👆 Like this comms style and format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Bring it to your org — via hands-on training or internal comms software — to harness its power and impact.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Advertise with us. Axios, PO Box 101060, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: