High-level exits from OpenAI pushed the firm's leaders to publicly reaffirm their commitment to safety, Axios' Scott Rosenberg writes.

• Why it matters: The company behind ChatGPT began with the nonprofit aim of responsibly building advanced AI. But it has seen boardroom battles and noisy resignations as it races to keep ahead of competitors.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman posted a note Saturday responding to criticism Friday by departing exec Jan Leike.

• Leike and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who led a team dedicated to foreseeing and preventing long-term disaster stemming from advanced AI, left OpenAI last week.
• Their team has disbanded. OpenAI says its work is being redistributed.

"[T]he future is going to be harder than the past," Altman and Brockman wrote. "We need to keep elevating our safety work to match the stakes of each new model."

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country's foreign minister were found dead after their helicopter crashed in a foggy, mountainous region of the country's northwest, state TV says.

• Why it matters: The Middle East is so fragile, and Iran is at the center of all of it.

Raisi, 63, under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month, AP reports.

• Raisi, a hardliner, was a possible successor to the 85-year-old leader.
• Khamenei announced Iran's first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, will be acting president until elections are held.

🔮 What's next: Raisi's death "is not expected to disrupt the direction of Iranian policy or jolt the Islamic Republic in any consequential way," BBC's Lyse Doucet writes.

• "But it will test a system where conservative hardliners now dominate all branches of power, both elected and unelected."

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The Biden administration released a memo to allies outlining its actions to combat rising costs — and blaming Republicans for blocking its efforts, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• Why it matters: It's an attempt to tell Americans that President Biden is focused on bringing prices down, at a time when voters are unhappy.

"President Biden's top economic priorities are fighting inflation and lowering costs for the American people," writes White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates.

• "Standing up to corporate price gouging is at the core of that fight."

Read the memo ... Share this story.

President Biden on pro-Palestinian protests while speaking at historically Black Morehouse College's commencement ceremony in Atlanta yesterday:

"I support peaceful, nonviolent protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them."

The Israel-Gaza war, he added, "is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. ... I know it angered and frustrates many of you, including my family. But most of all, I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well."

Between the lines: A small group — at least seven graduates and one faculty member — sat with their backs turned during Biden's address.

• Watch the speech ... Read the speech.

In a rare interview, with Norah O'Donnell on "60 Minutes," Pope Francis denounced conservative American bishops — and called efforts by Texas to shut down a Catholic charity that offers migrants humanitarian aid "madness."

• Why it matters: It's the first time Francis spoke at length with an English-language American broadcast network.

The progressive pontiff has become a frequent target of conservative Catholic clergy based in the U.S.

• The pope said a conservative, in that context, is "one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that."
• He added: "It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past. But quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box."

Full segment ... Transcript.

The Republican frontrunner in Nevada's hotly contested Senate race is quietly reframing his work with a conservative group he led last year, de-emphasizing its opposition to abortion, Axios' Stephen Neukam writes.

• Sam Brown — seeking the GOP nomination to unseat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) — is the most recent Republican to try to cloud their anti-abortion views ahead of the 2024 election

Why it matters: In midterms and state elections, the GOP has been punished for orchestrating the fall of Roe v. Wade.

🐘 Other Republicans have tacked to the middle on abortion:

• Arizona MAGA Republican Kari Lake, who's seeking a Senate seat in that swing state, previously supported an abortion ban in the state but has since come out against such a measure.
• Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican running for a Senate seat in heavily Democratic Maryland, vetoed a bill when he was governor that would have widened access to abortion. This week, Hogan said he's "pro-choice."

🤔 Veep watch: With former President Trump playing down abortion, insiders were surprised Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — one of the top contenders for running mate — leaned into the issue on "Meet the Press."

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Election prediction markets may be forced to shut down before November, the N.Y. Times' Jeff Sommer writes.

• Why it matters: Betting on pretty much everything is everywhere in America. The one exception: politics.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered a ban on financial exchanges known as prediction markets, "where it's possible to make wagers on who will win the 2024 presidential election."

• PredictIt — the best-known forum for election wagers — is run by a New Zealand university and a for-profit U.S. partner.
• Another exchange, the Iowa Electronic Markets, is operated by the University of Iowa's business school and has an academic exemption from the agency's crackdown.

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In a new People magazine article, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei and his wife, Autumn VandeHei, tell how they adopted their son Kelvin — now 19 and a confident, engaging college soccer player.

• "You have to go in with a clear eye that there's no easy fairy tale to foster care or adoption," Jim told People. "It is hard, but it's also beautiful and highly rewarding ... If I were to die tomorrow, I would say [adopting Kelvin] was the most meaningful decision I've ever made in my life."

Why it matters: May is National Foster Care Month. The VandeHeis hope Kelvin's story will encourage other families to take the leap of faith that they did five years ago, when Kelvin was 14.

Between the lines: The People interview dropped in conjunction with Jim's book of life and leadership lessons, "Just the Good Stuff." A chapter about Kelvin is called "Miracle Man."

• The VandeHeis got to know Kelvin years earlier, when he played with their son James for Alexandria (Va.) Soccer Association's Academy program.
• Kelvin lost his mom at 3. He was 9 when his dad died of cancer. He spent several years with relatives. But as Kelvin tells it, he became sad and angry. He reached out to the VandeHeis for help.

The backstory: "Four days after the VandeHeis worked it out with his relatives," People writes, "Kelvin was at their door with a box that contained his papers and birth certificate and a suitcase with all of his clothes."

• "I couldn't sleep thinking about how much my life was going to change and feeling helpless," Kelvin said about his first night at the VandeHeis' Virginia home.

Autumn VandeHei told People that it's "frustrating when people tell her Kelvin was 'so lucky to get you'":

"No, he wasn't. His parents died, he went through horrific loss and trauma that no child should ever have to experience ... What came out of it was not us molding Kelvin. He had put on armor and finally felt secure enough to take the armor off and fully become Kelvin."

💡 What's next: If you want more information on adoption or becoming a foster parent, here are three groups worth consulting.

1. America's Kids Belong has teams in nine states to help connect kids with families: California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.
2. The Barker Adoption Foundation is a nonprofit adoption agency licensed in Maryland, Virginia and D.C.
3. AdoptUSKids is a national project working to connect children and teens in foster care with "safe, loving, permanent families." Great stories, info.

Go deeper: Read the People story ... Get the book.