🌆 Axios PM: Sticky cities

Happy Thursday! Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 694 words, a 2½-min. read. Thanks to Carolyn DiPaolo for copy editing.

🚨 Breaking: U.S. and Iranian negotiators have agreed on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.

• President Trump hasn't yet approved the plan. More from Barak Ravid.

Detroit has the "stickiest" downtown of the 30-plus U.S. cities included in a new Gensler Research Institute report, Alex Fitzpatrick writes.

• That's a combined measure of how often people say they visit a place, and how long they say they stay there.

🛞 The findings, from the design and urban planning firm's research wing, reflect the Motor City's recent success at drawing people downtown.

• New arenas and event venues (like Cosm Detroit), a hotel boom, and even better lighting to boost safety are all helping the city rewrite its outdated reputation.

🏟️ Antoine Bryant, managing director of Gensler's Detroit office, tells Axios: "Detroit has had an amazing convergence in the last five to seven years of all of our professional teams, our cultural activities, as well as a dramatic increase in food and beverage offerings, all within a very concentrated core district."

🐦‍🔥 Phoenix came in last among the included U.S. cities.

• That's maybe not a surprise, given its poor walkability and often-hostile heat.

How it works: The firm gathered feedback from 35,000 residents of 75 cities worldwide via an online survey conducted from July 8 to Nov. 4, 2025.

• Go deeper ... Read the report.

🚀 Bulletin! Anthropic today passed OpenAI as the world's most valuable AI startup: Anthropic said it raised $65 billion at a $900 billion valuation, putting it ahead of OpenAI's $730 billion. —N.Y. Times

Also today, Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.8, an upgrade to its flagship AI model with better coding and knowledge work skills, Axios' Madison Mills reports.

💪 The company says Opus 4.8 beats competitors on several key benchmarks, including agentic coding, reasoning, financial analysis and knowledge work.

• It scores well on "prosocial" traits, like supporting user autonomy and acting in users' best interest. "One of the most prominent improvements in Opus 4.8 is its honesty," Anthropic says. "Early testers report that Opus 4.8 is more likely to flag uncertainties about its work and less likely to make unsupported claims."

✨ Opus 4.8 underperforms Mythos, Anthropic's most advanced model. The company says Mythos-class models are expected "in the coming weeks."

• Go deeper ... Get Axios AI+.

As AI-native and agentic architectures emerge, the software industry is shifting from selling products to delivering outcomes.

As a result, incumbent software leaders are moving beyond incremental updates toward a fundamental "refounding" to capture value in this new paradigm.

Read the Q&A.

1. ✈️ Speaking at today's U.S. Air Force Academy commencement, Vice President JD Vance endorsed Pope Leo's manifesto on AI and encouraged the graduating cadets to "wage war justly." Vance said: "If the warfare of the future is to live up to the moral values of our ancestors, decisions over life and death must be made by humans and not machines." Watch Vance's address.
2. 👮 The DOJ has opened an investigation into whether E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who said President Trump sexually assaulted her 30 years ago, lied during civil litigation against Trump. Get the latest.
3. 😷 The Trump administration plans to send Americans who've been exposed to Ebola while abroad to a new facility in Kenya. Go deeper.
4. ⏱️ CBS names Nick Bilton, former N.Y. Times tech columnist and Vanity Fair correspondent, as executive producer of "60 Minutes," which begins Season 59 this fall. He replaces Tanya Simon and will move from L.A. to New York. More from Axios' Sara Fischer ... Read Nick's note to staff.

Music recorded in 432 hertz is going viral, with proponents claiming that it helps them focus, feel better and even relieve chronic pain.

• Yoselin Sanchez, a California telehealth worker with cervical scoliosis, tells AP that 432 Hz audio "helps me focus and be engaged with the patient I'm assisting, and it also helps me relax."

🎼 For these recordings, the A note above middle C is pitch-adjusted to vibrate at 432 Hz instead of the typical 440 Hz.

• Some people feel that the result produces a warmer, more harmonious sound that resonates with the human body and the natural world.

🤔 Reality check: There's no robust scientific evidence for any health benefits.

• Go deeper ... Have a listen.

Navigate the global economy with insights from Goldman Sachs.

Each week, Briefings delivers a snapshot of the forces driving markets, straight from the bankers and traders at the center of global finance.

Subscribe to Briefings from Goldman Sachs.

📬 Thanks for reading! Please invite your friends to join PM.