CEOs are pushing to reset workplace culture — emphasizing productivity and speed over flexibility and work-life balance, Axios' Eleanor Hawkins writes.

• Why it matters: This 180-degree turn from the pandemic years is putting employees on guard, with some feeling like a more hardcore culture is the opposite of what they signed up for.

The big picture: CEOs across industries are embracing the "Big Boss Era," which has been underscored by mass layoffs, return-to-office mandates and walkbacks on DEI initiatives.

• Macro factors, including the softening job market and the threat of AI eliminating jobs, have employees on edge.

🔬 Zoom in: AT&T CEO John Stankey and Cognition CEO Scott Wu made headlines this month for notifying employees that their corporate cultures were changing, and to get on board or exit.

• "If a self-directed, virtual, or hybrid work schedule is essential for you to manage your career aspirations and life challenges, you will have a difficult time aligning your priorities with those of the company and the culture we aim to establish," Stankey wrote in an internal memo obtained by Business Insider.
• Employees at Cognition, an AI startup, were told that six days in the office and 80-hour workweeks were expected, according to The Information. "We don't believe in work-life balance — building the future of software engineering is a mission we all care so deeply about that we couldn't possibly separate the two," Wu wrote ($).

Between the lines: Return to office continues to be one of the biggest sticking points.

• Nearly half of workers say they are unlikely to stay at their job if required to go back into the office full time, according to a Pew poll.
• If given the choice, a majority (72%) say they'd choose a hybrid arrangement.

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Corey Lewandowski doesn't want to clock out of his temporary government gig. So, administration officials believe, he's avoiding clocking in, Axios' Brittany Gibson and Marc Caputo write.

• Why it matters: Lewandowski, a longtime and controversial Trump adviser, is wielding outsized influence at the Department of Homeland Security as a "special government employee" whose work is supposed to be temporary.

Administration officials tell Axios they believe Lewandowski — a constant presence with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who acts as her de facto chief of staff — has gamed the system by undercounting his work hours to avoid leaving his unpaid job when he should have.

• White House officials began monitoring Lewandowski's time at work in recent weeks, Axios has learned.

🔭 Zoom in: Special government employees, known as SGEs, are limited to 130 days per year of unpaid work. Like recent SGE Elon Musk, they can be in senior positions and still have private employment and clients, unlike typical government workers.

• The department told Axios he has worked only 69 days since he was hired shortly after Noem's Jan. 25 confirmation.
• Four administration sources tell Axios they believe that's a gross undercount, and that he's exceeded his allowed time.

🧐 The intrigue: Lewandowski's work at DHS has attracted media attention because of his close relationship with Noem. The two, married to others, have long denied rumors they're romantically involved.

• But concerns about their relationship led President Trump to nix the idea of allowing Noem to make Lewandowski her chief of staff.

"Everybody's scared sh*tless" of Lewandowski, a former DHS official told Axios. "The feeling is that if they go up against Corey, they're going to lose. And I would have to say they're right."

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President Trump just upped the ante for tomorrow's summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin — both for the war in Ukraine and his own credibility, Axios' Dave Lawler and Marc Caputo write.

• Three advisers who've been in the room as Trump discussed the summit are adamant he's not bluffing.

Why it matters: This is no longer just a "feel-out meeting," as Trump originally labeled it.

• He privately told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO leaders that his goal was a ceasefire, and then publicly threatened Putin with "very severe consequences" if he doesn't agree to stop the fighting.

A senior U.S. official told Axios: "This is Trump being the most serious he has ever been and the most direct. He wants to show the world."

• "Now the onus is on Putin: Agree to a ceasefire or show real movement or there will be severe repercussions. Putin has to show very positive movement."

Between the lines: Trump threatened "serious consequences" if Putin didn't agree to a ceasefire by last Friday, only to change course when Putin proposed a meeting.

• A second U.S. official insisted this time is different — that Putin "tapped Trump along," then requested this meeting, and now he has to deliver.

Go deeper: 3 scenarios for the superpower summit.

Several U.S. border communities saw violent crime drop below the national average in 2024, Axios' Russell Contreras writes from an analysis of new FBI data.

• Why it matters: The findings from last year run counter to claims by President Trump and GOP leaders, who painted border towns as crime hotspots because of newly arrived immigrants.

🧮 By the numbers: Eleven border cities examined annually by Axios — Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and El Paso in Texas; Sunland Park in New Mexico; Nogales and Yuma in Arizona; and Calexico and San Diego in California — had an average violent crime rate of 356.5 per 100,000 residents.

• That was a sizable drop from 2023 and was slightly below the national average of 359.1 per 100,000 residents last year.

Early numbers for 2025 indicate that overall violent crime in the border cities is continuing to drop, as Trump's lockdown of the border has greatly reduced illegal crossings.

• Keep reading.

The Israeli government is courting popular MAGA influencers in an effort to address Republican divisions over the war in Gaza, where scenes of violence and starvation have fueled global outrage, Axios' Tal Axelrod writes.

• Why it matters: U.S. support for Israel's military actions has fallen to record lows. Even within the traditionally pro-Israel GOP, younger Republicans are increasingly skeptical — questioning both the alliance and the billions in U.S. aid that sustain it.

Zoom in: Fifteen MAGA influencers visited Israel this week on a trip organized by Israel365, an advocacy group that aims to "strengthen Israel by building bridges between Jews, Christians and all who share our faith-based values."

• Israel365 was awarded a no-bid contract worth $70,000 by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to organize the trip, according to a Foreign Ministry memo obtained by Axios.

👀 The intrigue: Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast parted ways with MAGA influencer Jayne Zirkle over her participation in the government-funded trip.

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Zohran Mamdani, NYC's 33-year-old Democratic nominee for mayor, lays out his theory of the case in a TIME cover profile (live soon) out this morning:

"I think the larger struggle for us as Democrats is to ensure that we are practicing a politics that is direct, a politics of no translation, a politics that when you read the policy commitment, you understand it, as how it applies to your life."

👀 Former President Obama's orbit has taken an interest in Mamdani even as much of the Democratic establishment has shied away, N.Y. Times opinion columnist Mara Gay writes (gift link)

• Obama himself talked to Mamdani in a lengthy call in June. David Axelrod, an architect of Obama's meteoric rise, met the candidate in person at his campaign headquarters.
• Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau and former senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer have been in touch with one of his closest aides.

Full TIME story: Mamdani on his unlikely rise.

Interest in breeding smarter babies is peaking in Silicon Valley, The Wall Street Journal writes:

"Parents here are paying up to $50,000 for new genetic-testing services that include promises to screen embryos for IQ. Tech futurists such as Elon Musk are urging the intellectually gifted to multiply, while professional matchmakers are setting up tech execs with brilliant partners partly to get brilliant offspring.

"'Right now I have one, two, three tech CEOs and all of them prefer Ivy League,' said Jennifer Donnelly, a high-end matchmaker who charges up to $500,000."

Keep reading (gift link).

Heinz is serving up the summer's most divisive sip — a ketchup smoothie, Axios Pittsburgh's Chrissy Suttles writes.

• The drink — available at Smoothie King — includes Heinz Simply Ketchup, açaí sorbet, apple juice, strawberries and raspberries.

It costs $5.70 — a wink to Heinz's famous "57 varieties."

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