It wasn't that long ago that economists were worrying that women, especially moms, would never recover from the shock of 2020, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• But when it comes to the job market, they were wrong: More mothers are working now than before the pandemic began.

⚡ Catch up quick: From February to April 2020, mothers' employment plummeted nearly 16%, notes an analysis by the Labor Department's Women's Bureau.

• The assumption was that those who left the workforce would have a tough time getting back in, and that would likely "exacerbate inequalities" between men and women, as one academic paper pointed out at the time.

Instead, the labor market saw fast growth in 2021 and 2022, and pulled most everyone who wanted to work back to the market.

🔎 Zoom in: One driver of this growth? Remote work.

• Last year, about 24% of mothers said they worked from home at least some of the time. Rates were even higher for those whose youngest child is under the age of 6, according to the analysis.

🥊 Reality check: Progress has been uneven. Mothers lacking a bachelor's degree haven't quite returned to their pre-pandemic levels — likely because they're less likely to work in remote-friendly industries.

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Well, that was fast. A day after sources told Axios that Nikki Haley was under active consideration by Donald Trump's campaign to be his running mate, he stepped in and nixed the idea.

• "Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
• He signed it "DJT," making clear it was a personal message.

Spokespeople for Trump and Haley declined to comment on Friday when Axios asked about the possibility.

More than one-third of 18- to 24-year-olds reported no income through wages or a salary in 2022, Axios' April Rubin writes from a St. Louis Fed report.

• That's up from 22% in 1990.

Why it matters: A new generation of workers is dropping out of the workforce before even entering it.

• Some find their college degrees don't translate when applying to the skills-based jobs that employers are hiring for.

🚨 About half of workers with a bachelor's degree are underemployed or working jobs that don't require degrees within a year of graduating, according to a Burning Glass report.

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Apple is close to a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to the iPhone, Bloomberg reports.

• The agreement would bring an AI-powered chatbot to Apple's next operating system, iOS 18.
• Apple has also been in conversation with Google to use Gemini, its chatbot. But there's no deal so far.

Zoom out: Apple plans to make waves at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June with new AI features across its products.

• Go deeper: Apple's AI ambitions.

Former President Trump drew a rally crowd of 80,000 to 100,000, according to a city official's estimate, near the boardwalk in the Jersey Shore town of Wildwood in deep-blue New Jersey yesterday.

• Why it matters: The beachfront gathering was designed as a show of force at a critical moment for Trump, who faces 88 felony charges in four separate criminal cases with the election six months away, AP reports.

⚖️ Trump is back in court tomorrow. Key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, Trump's fixer-turned-foe, will take the stand in the hush-money case.

💰 High-stakes audit: Trump could owe the IRS more than $100 million, depending on the outcome of a yearslong battle over an accounting maneuver in which he "effectively claimed the same massive write-off twice on his failed Chicago tower," according to a joint investigation by the N.Y. Times and ProPublica.

• Keep reading.

There's a new, rising power source in California: A network of giant batteries soak up solar power in the Golden State during the day and store it for use when the sun goes down, The New York Times reports.

• Stunning stat: "Those batteries play a pivotal role in California's electric grid, partially replacing fossil fuels in the evening. Between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on April 30, for example, batteries supplied more than one-fifth of California's electricity and, for a few minutes, pumped out 7,046 megawatts of electricity, akin to the output from seven large nuclear reactors."

The NBA is just weeks away from inking its giant media rights deal, now expected to fetch more than $75 billion, Axios' Dan Primack writes.

🐂 The bull case: The deal being discussed is around three times the current deal value. Initial expectations had been for around 2x or 2.5x.

• That means more cash for each team.

🐻 The bear case: Most of the deal already has been baked into existing prices. The jump between 2x and 3x isn't as significant once prorated for 30 teams over 11 years.

🤔 What we don't know: Whether the windfall will significantly increase the prices paid for both majority and minority stakes in NBA teams.

The bottom line: This deal will reshape the U.S. sports media landscape, particularly if the league partners with one or more streamers.

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The 2000s are back. In the past week, we learned that "The Office," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," and "Lord of the Rings" are all returning to the screen in some form.

• There won't be a reboot of "The Office." But Peacock, its streamer, has picked up a new mockumentary show with a new cast set in the same universe, Variety reports.
• Over a decade after it was canceled in 2012, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is returning to ABC, Deadline reports.
• Warner Bros. Discovery is bringing back "Lord of the Rings" in new movies. The first film, focusing on the character of Gollum, is expected to hit theaters in 2026, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Go deeper: TikTok drives 2000s nostalgia.