Axios AM

May 10, 2025
ποΈ Good Saturday morning. Mother's Day is tomorrow!
- Smart Brevityβ’ count: 1,687 words ... 6Β½ mins. Thanks to Erica Pandey for orchestrating. Edited by Mark Robinson.
Situational awareness: Pakistan and India have agreed to a "full and immediate ceasefire," President Trump posted on Truth Social this morning. The two countries have agreed "to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site," Secretary of State Rubio said on X. Go deeper.
1 big thing: Youth faith rising
Christianity is starting to make a comeback in the U.S. and other Western countries, led by young people, Axios' Erica Pandey reports.
- Why it matters: A decades-long decline has stalled, shaping the future of Gen Z, the drivers of the religious revival.
π‘ "We've seen the plateau of non-religion in America," says Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University. "Gen Z is not that much less religious than their parents, and that's a big deal."
By the numbers: Data from Pew shows that, for decades, each age group has been less Christian than the one before it.
- Americans born in the 1970s are 63% Christian. 1980s babies are 53% Christian, and 1990s babies are 46% Christian.
- But there was no decline from the 1990s to the 2000s. Americans born in the 2000s are also 46% Christian.
βͺ Stunning stat: Gen Z-ers β especially Gen Z men β are actually more likely to attend weekly religious services than millennials and even some younger Gen X-ers, Burge's analysis shows.
Between the lines: Young men are leading the resurgence.
- Within older generations, there's a consistent gender gap among Christians, with women more likely to be religious than men.
- Within Gen Z, the gap has closed, as young men join the church and young women leave it. If the current trajectory sticks, the gender gap will flip.
π Zoom in: Many young people have turned to religion to find community and connection after the isolating years of the pandemic, which hit Gen Z harder than most.
- In some ways, this trend mirrors men's shift to the political right. "Religion is coded right, and coded more traditionalist" for young people, Derek Rishmawy, who leads a ministry at UC Irvine, told The New York Times.
- For some young men, Christianity is seen as "one institution that isn't initially and formally skeptical of them as a class," Rishmawy told the Times.
π Zoom out: The resurgence is global.
- "In France, the Catholic Church has baptized more than 17,000 people, the highest yearly number of entrants in over 20 years," New York Times columnist David Brooks writes.
- The share of British people 18-24 who attend church at least monthly jumped from 4% in 2018 to 16% today, including a 21% gain among young men, according to research from the Bible Society.
2. βοΈ White House's large-scale firings paused
A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the White House from firing hundreds of thousands of government employees in a ruling late last night, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
Why it matters: It's the latest and broadest setback for President Trump's and DOGE's chainsaw efforts to radically slash and burn the federal government.
- The ruling pauses for two weeks firings that would block critical services for millions of Americans, including Social Security help, occupational safety and pre-school for poor children.
π State of play: In her 42-page ruling, Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, explained that the president does have the right to change the executive branch, but must do so lawfully, and with the cooperation of Congress.
- "Federal courts should not micromanage the vast federal workforce, but courts must sometimes act to preserve the proper checks and balances between the three branches of government."
π The ruling cites examples from the plaintiffs' sworn declarations to illustrate the stakes, like the termination of critical services that had been authorized by Congress, including:
- The order to fire 221 of 222 employees at The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, who research health hazards faced by mineworkers.
- A threat to cut 7,000 employees from the Social Security administration, which is already seeing long wait times, problems with its website and difficulty making in-person appointments.
3. π° Foundations unite to protect tax status
Powerful foundations from across the spectrum β including the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation β are discussing ways to protect their tax-exempt status from any incursion by President Trump, The Wall Street Journal reports.
- Why it matters: "The Trump administration hasn't explicitly pledged to revoke foundations' tax-exempt status, though it is exploring ways to challenge the tax-exempt status of nonprofits," The Journal notes.
π Community, corporate and faith-based foundations from nearly all 50 states are part of the effort, The Journal found.
- Some call it a coalition. Others say it's less defined.
"Many of the foundations have discussed whether to seek legal representation as a class or individually should their tax status come under fire," The Journal reports.
- Some of the foundations "have been covering part of the legal and communications expenses behind the effort."
4. π± Boom job: Digital creator

The number of people with full-time equivalent jobs as digital creators in the U.S. jumped from 200,000 in 2020 to 1.5 million in 2024, Axios' Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer report.
- Why it matters: Creators β or influencers β are now the largest and fastest-growing segment of the 28.4 million internet-dependent jobs in the U.S.
By the numbers: The study, from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and written in conjunction with Harvard Business School professor emeritus John Deighton, found creator jobs have grown 7.5x since 2020.
- Creator media revenue is growing five times the rate of the traditional media sector, the researchers found.
The big picture: The internet-supported economy of $4.9 trillion accounts for 18% of U.S. GDP and is the leading driver of growth.
5. π Y'all! Southern accents fading
As people moved across America for work in the late 20th century, our regional accents started to disappear. Now, we sound more and more the same.
- A series of research papers published in December documented the diminishment of the Southern accent among Black residents of the Atlanta area, white working-class people in the New Orleans area, and people who grew up in Raleigh, AP reports.
π΄ The intrigue: Southern twang has been replaced among the youngest speakers in the 21st century with a dialect that was first noticed in California in the late 1980s, according to recent research from linguists at the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Brigham Young University.
- That dialect, which was also detected in Canada, has become a pan-regional accent as it has spread to other parts of the U.S., including Boston, New York and Michigan, contributing to the diminishment of their regional accents.
6. π MAGA quiet on Putin

President Trump and Vice President Vance are publicly criticizing Russian leader Vladimir Putin in starker terms than in the past.
- But the MAGA base isn't piling on β and remains as skeptical of Ukraine as ever, Axios' Tal Axelrod reports.
Why it matters: Big voices in the base still say they trust the White House as it tries to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine β they just aren't shedding their longstanding skepticism of Kyiv as talks continue.
- Jack Posobiec, a top MAGA podcaster, told us: "In general, the MAGA base is not on board with extending or expanding the war, and trust Trump when he is in negotiation mode. But I don't think extra payments [to Ukraine] will go over well."
β‘ Catch up quick: Trump and Vance β who had an Oval Office altercation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky β have recently been name-checking Putin more.
- After Russia shot missiles at civilian areas in Ukraine last month, Trump said of Putin: "It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?'"
- Vance this week said that Russia was "asking for too much," later clarifying that Putin was seeking to control Ukrainian territory Moscow doesn't even occupy as part of a peace deal.
Still, after months of hearing about Zelensky as the chief obstacle to a ceasefire deal over his repeated requests for aid, the base has built up animosity toward the Ukrainian leader.
- Sean Spicer β Trump's first White House press secretary, who now hosts his own podcast β told Axios: "Two things can be true at once. Russia has overplayed its hand and missed President Trump's offer for a lasting peace. Ukraine is still an issue for most in MAGA world."
7. π¦ Pope's on-trend name

The first American pope's papal name is very on trend, at least here in the U.S., Axios' Asher Price reports.
- Since bottoming out at No. 486 in 1995, it's been gaining popularity at a dizzying clip β reaching a new height of No. 18 in 2023.
Trends aside, the new pope is said to have chosen his name as a nod to Pope Leo XIII, elected in 1878, who was committed to the social teaching of the church.
8. π¦ 1 for the road: That viral debate
The internet's latest obsession is a wild hypothetical: 100 unarmed men versus one gorilla, who wins?
- Nothing brings people together like a wacky online debate. So we asked the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium's expert to weigh in, Axios Columbus' Alissa Widman Neese writes.
Gorillas are "gentle giants," making the scenario of a fight even more unimaginable, says zoo vice president of animal care and conservation Jan Ramer. There has never been a documented instance of a gorilla killing a human.
- "They'll shove and punch or make a big display if their family is threatened, but we'd do the same," says Ramer, a gorilla keeper for many years who worked in Africa with the Gorilla Doctors conservation group.
π€ So, back to the original question: Who would win? Well, it depends on the competition.
- "If it's a chess match, the human wins. If it's surviving alone in a forest for 10 years, the gorilla wins. If it's tug-of-war, I think the 100 men are probably going to win," Ramer says.
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