Six in 10 U.S. adults say they won't work for organizations that fail to speak out against racial injustice, Russell Contreras writes from an Edelman Trust Barometer special report shared first with Axios.

• About the same number — 62% — say companies are "doing mediocre or worse" in living up to their promises to address racism.
• But a big majority — 72% — said they trust employers "to do what is right when it comes to responding to systemic racism and racial injustice."

Why it matters: The findings suggest that most employees favor diversity and equity initiatives — amid rising Republican efforts to restrict them, including a bill signed this week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

🧮 By the numbers: Those saying companies aren't doing enough to address racism rose 8 points from Edelman's survey last year.

• 65% of women respondents agreed, compared with 58% of men — both increases from last year.

Among employees who said their organization isn't making meaningful progress in addressing racism, unfunded DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives were the No. 1 reason.

• 73% said employers must ensure diversity across functions and levels to address racism. Hispanic employees (81%) agreed with this statement by the largest margin.
• The survey found divisions between executives who believe companies are progressing on inclusion, and employees who are far less optimistic.

💭 Lisa Osborne Ross, Edelman's U.S. CEO and senior sponsor of the study, told Axios: "I think the takeaway for business is, if you thought you were doing well, you're not."

• "Companies should respond by realizing that when you do not have a representative workforce, your work suffers."
• Companies that don't heed the call on diversity will "eventually become extinct and irrelevant," Ross said.

🖼️ The big picture: The bill signed by DeSantis is part of a larger Republican effort to stop private corporations from pursuing policies supporting racial justice, LGBTQ rights and the fight against climate change.

• Many companies have backed away from such programs to cut costs, or because of political pressure and new laws pushed by conservatives.

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Republicans are taking an early victory lap after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got the White House to the table on the debt ceiling, Axios' Hans Nichols, Juliegrace Brufke and Andrew Solender report.

• Why it matters: President Biden spent months refusing negotiations, citing a bipartisan tradition of raising the debt ceiling without preconditions. Now, there's new hope for a deal.

What's happening: Efforts by Democrats to peel off vulnerable House Republicans failed — none openly opposed McCarthy's strategy of tying spending cuts to a debt ceiling hike.

• With just two weeks until the "X-date" — June 1, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns the U.S. could run out of cash — Biden dispatched top deputies to cut a deal with McCarthy's office. Their first meeting was last night.

Between the lines: Even if Biden compromised on process, allies say, he's still in a position to win on policy.

• If Biden concedes to direct, one-on-one, negotiations, McCarthy is prepared to give ground as well. He’s open to a deal that lifts the debt ceiling until 2025 — beyond the next election.

The bottom line: Default is still possible. But now a deal is closer.

• Share this story ... Default explainer.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron won the GOP primary for governor, becoming the first major-party Black nominee for governor in the state’s history. He faces Gov. Andy Beshear (D) in November.

• Cameron, 37, was endorsed by former President Trump, and is a protégé of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Cameron won a convincing victory in a 12-candidate field that included Kelly Craft, who was U.N. ambassador under Trump. —AP

• More on Cameron.

Cherelle Parker won Philadelphia’s Democratic mayoral primary, likely setting her up to be the city's first woman mayor.

• Why it matters: Parker’s victory over several other well-funded and viable candidates reflects the power of Philly’s Democratic establishment and positions her to become the city’s first female mayor.

Parker, 50, served for 10 years as a state representative for northwest Philadelphia before being elected to City Council in 2015.

• Parker, who faces Republican David Oh in November, has embraced the police tactic of stop-and-frisk to help deter crime. She has called for hiring 300 cops for foot and bike patrols, while keeping the police budget flat.

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May 17, 1973: Sen. Sam Ervin (D-N.C.) opens the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities into the Watergate incident.

• Original caption for this photo ... Washington: General view in the packed Senate Caucus room as the Select Senate Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities opened its investigation into the Watergate scandal 5/17. Only 100 public seats were available — the remainder of the crowd were newsmen and members of Congress.

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President Biden — who leaves for Hiroshima, Japan, today — is shortening his overseas trip next week to focus on debt-ceiling negotiations.

• Why it matters: By coming home on Sunday immediately after G7, Biden will miss the first-ever visit to Papua New Guinea by a U.S. president, Axios' Hans Nichols and Justin Green report.

After Biden dropped out, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese canceled a highly anticipated summit of the Quad — a diplomatic partnership of the U.S., Australia, Japan and India — in Sydney next week.

🔥 In a scathing article, The Sydney Morning Herald said that the prime minister's "disappointment is Xi Jinping’s victory."

• Biden's "dismount" is a "personal blow for the prime minister, who was preparing to bask in the glow of hosting three of the world’s most powerful leaders in his hometown," the article adds.
• "China’s president-for-life, meanwhile, will be giddy with delight at the summit falling into disarray."

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The Secret Service is investigating how an intruder got inside White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan's home in the middle of the night a few weeks ago.

• Why it matters: Sullivan's home was breached even though he has an around-the-clock Secret Service detail, Axios' Jacob Knutson reports.

The intrusion, first reported by The Washington Post, occurred around 3 a.m. one night in late April at Sullivan's home in D.C.'s West End.

• Sullivan confronted the man and told him to leave. Agents assigned to the house, stationed outside, were unaware of the intrusion until after the man had left and Sullivan alerted them, according to The Post.
• There were no signs of forced entry — a door apparently was unlocked. The man appeared to be intoxicated and confused about where he was.

💭 Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said: "While the protectee was unharmed, we are taking this matter seriously and have opened a comprehensive mission assurance investigation."

• "Any deviation from our protective protocols is unacceptable and if discovered, personnel will be held accountable."

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Elon Musk, an early board member of OpenAI (who says he named the organization), told CNBC's David Faber yesterday: "The advent of artificial general intelligence is called a singularity because it is so hard to predict what will happen."

• "[T]here's a strong probability that it will make life much better and that we’ll have an age of abundance," Musk continued.
• "And there's some chance that it goes wrong and destroys humanity. Hopefully that chance is small. But it's not zero."

Musk video ... Transcript.

As of today, after 134 years, The Wall Street Journal will no longer use courtesy titles — Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss or Mx. (a gender-neutral honorific that first appeared in The Journal in 2016) — before last names.

• Why it matters: Courtesy titles used to be customary in American newspapers, but long ago vanished from most publications besides The Journal and The New York Times.

Editor in chief Emma Tucker said in a note to Journal staff that editors "concluded that the titles in news articles are becoming a vestige of a more-formal past, and ... can slow down readers' enjoyment of our writing."

• The change "puts everyone on a more-equal footing and will help make our writing livelier and more approachable," she said in a note to readers.

🏀 The Journal notes that honorifics were already omitted from sports coverage, "to avoid stilted phrases such as, 'Mr. Curry made seven 3-pointers.'"

• Read the staff note.