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⚾ 1 fun thing: GOP's "SportsCenter" moment Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) connects for a single in the fifth inning during the annual Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park on Wednesday. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images A dive to catch a fly ball earned Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) the MVP title in this year's Congressional Baseball Game — along with a bloody nose and the No. 5 spot in ESPN's Top 10 Wednesday night. Rs beat Ds, 11-2. The game drew 35,000 fans and raised $3 million for charity. Watch a video.

☀️ Chart du jour Data: Ember. Chart: Ben Geman/Axios Solar energy's share of the U.S. electricity mix was 12.8% last month, Axios energy expert Ben Geman tells us. Why it matters: It's the first time solar outpaced coal on a monthly basis, according to clean energy think tank Ember's analysis. Go deeper. ps:This is something that should've happen years ago!!! We wouldn't be in this mess if we had!!!

🚀 Extraterrestrial data centers Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios With data center protests gaining momentum on Earth, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others have been eyeing outer space — with its ready supply of unimpeded solar energy — as the next frontier, Axios' Ina Fried reports. Tech giants like SpaceX and Google as well as some startups are already working on launching data centers into space. How it works: In a report this week, real estate research firm JLL says it sees space as particularly suited to energy-intensive, but less urgent tasks. Data centers on the ground could handle real-time computing work while those in space tackle training AI models. Keep reading.

🎯 Bills target data centers Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Members of Congress are scrambling to jump on the data-center opposition sweeping local communities, Axios' Andrew Solender reports. 🧮 By the numbers: Legislative proposals to restrict data center construction were fairly rare on Capitol Hill before this year. Now, Republicans and Democrats alike are flooding the zone. In the last three months alone, more than a dozen bills have been introduced to either investigate the impact of data centers or restrict their proliferation. 🏛️ Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill to impose an outright moratorium on new data center construction "until legislation is enacted that safeguards the public from the dangers of artificial intelligence." 🤖 Reality check: The prospect of any of these bills passing is slim. AI and AI-adjacent companies are spending big through super PACs in the 2026 midterms to curry favor with sitting lawmakers and get allies elected to Congress.

🔭 Winning the future Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios The Wall Street Journal named a "Best Companies For the Future" list, based on factors that include AI readiness, talent, innovation, financial strength and resilience. The top 10: Nvidia. Alphabet. Microsoft. Meta. Cisco Systems. Salesforce. Mastercard. Amazon. Adobe. Intuit. Browse the full list ... How the companies were picked (gift link).

🛢️ China saved the oil market Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios China apparently kept the oil market from imploding in the wake of the Iran war, Axios' Emily Peck reports. The world's second-largest economy sharply cut the amount of oil it imports, taking the pressure off worldwide demand for the commodity and keeping a lid on prices. 💰 The big picture: Even as the conflict enters its fourth month, the price of a barrel of oil is still trading below $100 — defying predictions of $200 back in March when the war began. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gas is $4.11 — down 10%+ from its late-May peak. China reduced oil consumption using three key levers: Ramped up usage of electric vehicles and electric-powered rails. Used coal instead of oil to produce certain chemicals. Stopped aggressively stockpiling oil — as it did in the year before the war. 📈 Reality check: Energy prices are still way up since February, and have driven up global inflation. Go deeper.

🔎 What's in the Iran deal Ships are anchored yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman. Photo: Reuters Axios' Barak Ravid unpacks the Iran deal President Trump says is so close that he'll dispatch Vice President JD Vance to sign it in Europe as soon as this weekend: The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding calls for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen immediately without tolls, and for Iran to receive sanctions relief based on compliance, according to a diplomat from one of the mediating countries and a U.S. official. Why it matters: The MOU would extend the ceasefire for 60 days, including in Lebanon. Nuclear negotiations would be held during that time. The text includes a framework for addressing Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, though any action on Iran's nuclear program would depend on a second, more detailed accord. State of play: The diplomat from one of the mediating countries, who walked Axios through the latest text, said the U.S. and Iran "have agreed on the text of a deal," but acknowledged the deal still needed final sign-off. As of last evening, the deal had been approved on the Iranian side at high levels but likely not by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, two knowledgeable sources said. Zoom in: The MOU calls for the strait to be reopened immediately without tolls, with a return to pre-war shipping volumes within 30 days. In return, the U.S. blockade would also be lifted. 🖊 The deal, mediated by Qatar and Pakistan, will be called the Islamabad Agreement — if both sides ultimately agree to sign. Read on.

How the UFC conquered Trump's Washington Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Dana White likes to say he sells "holy sh*t moments for a living." Sunday night, the UFC CEO will attempt his magnum opus on the biggest stage in combat sports history, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: The UFC and President Trump have forged one of the most successful cultural alliances in modern politics, carrying mixed martial arts (MMA) from the fringe of American sports to a starring role in the country's 250th anniversary. 👀 Zoom in: For Trump, the UFC was a lifeline after the 2020 election and Jan. 6 left him radioactive to corporate America. White brought Trump cageside — reintroducing the defeated president as an anti-establishment icon to the young, male-heavy audience that would help power his 2024 comeback. Trump's instinct at moments of maximum legal vulnerability was to return to the Octagon, as the UFC calls its cage. Days after his first indictment in 2023, he appeared at UFC 287 in Miami; two days after his 2024 guilty verdict, he made his first public appearance at UFC 302 in Newark, N.J. For the UFC, Trump's return has coincided with a cascade of rewards: a $7.7 billion rights deal with Paramount, new partnerships with the FBI and State Department, and now a fight night on the White House's South Lawn. UFC parent company TKO says the UFC Freedom 250 — complete with a massive fan viewing experience on the Ellipse — will cost the UFC more than $60 million and lose money on paper. Still, TKO president Mark Shapiro has called the first professional sporting event ever held at the White House "the greatest earned marketing tool of all time." Journalists got a sneak peek yesterday at the Octagon at the UFC Freedom 250 set on the South Lawn. Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images The big picture: UFC Freedom 250 has been cloaked in controversy and curiosity since well before construction began on the 92-foot-tall steel "Claw" now towering over the South Lawn. 1. 🥊 The sport: To fans, MMA is what Joe Rogan calls "high-level problem solving with dire physical consequences" — a full-body chess match that fuses boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu and pain tolerance into a brutal test of skill, will and nerve. To critics, MMA remains a bloody spectacle tied to the ugliest strains of hypermasculinity, making its arrival at the White House feel jarring even as the sport has gone mainstream. 2. 📢 The promotion: The UFC built a global sports empire by functioning as the ultimate market gatekeeper, yielding immense corporate profits even while weathering antitrust lawsuits and allegations of suppressed wages. 3. 🏟️ The event: White insists the card will be patriotic, not political, promising to "tell the story of America" through historical vignettes between fights. But almost every logistical and financial detail points back to one man. Between the lines: The public isn't sold: A YouGov poll found 51% of Americans disapprove and just 17% approve of UFC Freedom 250. A watchdog group has sued to stop the event, arguing the administration approved a private spectacle on federal parkland without proper review. Even within the UFC's Trump-friendly fan base, the alliance is showing cracks: Fans have flooded promotional posts with complaints about Israel, the Epstein files and other perceived populist betrayals by Trump.

Where Trump has lost support with independents, according to AP-NORC polling WASHINGTON (AP) — Independents have grown increasingly unhappy with President Donald Trump during his second term, a new AP-NORC polling analysis finds, particularly those without a college degree. https://apnews.com/article/poll-independents-trump-approval-c44ab6c775fba86de739353217108673?

> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.8%, Dow +1.9%, Nasdaq +2.5%) after President Donald Trump calls off Iran strikes > US wholesale prices rise 1.1% in May, putting annual rate at 6.5%, the highest since November 2022 (More) | European Central Bank raises interest rates for first time since 2023 amid Iran war, becomes first major central bank to do so (More) > Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix; perks include priority rides and 10% back in loyalty credits per trip (More)

> Physicists introduce phase contrast to electron microscopes, enabling scientists to observe how molecules function inside living cells, potentially transforming our understanding of diseases (More) > Researchers discover biological driver of cocaine addiction in the liver, suggesting how the body metabolizes cocaine may predict addiction; most prior research has focused on the brain (More) | Why does cocaine feel so good? (More, w/video) > Genes inherited from now-extinct hominins strengthened ancient humans' immunity to viruses and bacteria and continue to influence skeletal development, according to a large-scale study of genomes from Oceania (More)

> Serena Williams exits HSBC Championship, her first professional tournament since 2022, after her doubles partner withdraws due to a knee injury (More) > "24 Jump Street" is in development, with Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and Ice Cube in talks to return for the third installment of the "Jump Street" franchise; plus why "23 Jump Street" was never made (More) > FIFA World Cup: Mexico's Julián Quiñones scores tournament's first goal, nutmegging South Africa's goalkeeper (Watch) | Bosnia-Herzegovina faces Canada at 3 pm ET today, while the US faces Paraguay in Los Angeles at 9 pm ET (More, w/schedule)

SpaceX’s Moonshot IPO Elon Musk’s SpaceX priced the largest-ever initial public offering, raising $75B at a roughly $1.77T valuation. Shares are set to start trading today, potentially making Musk the world’s first trillionaire and turning over 4,400 current and former employees into millionaires. Founded in 2002 with the goal of colonizing Mars, SpaceX now generates over 61% of its revenue from its satellite internet service, Starlink (watch 3-minute company overview). The decision to go public is largely driven by a need for capital to deploy AI data centers in space using Starlink infrastructure, which Musk says will overcome power constraints on Earth. Much of SpaceX’s success hinges on designing a reusable Starship rocket to reduce launch costs and increase launch cadence. Starship is also a leading contender to carry NASA astronauts to the moon in 2028. Previously, the largest IPO of all time was the 2019 listing of Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco, which raised today’s equivalent of $38B. Visualize how SpaceX's IPO stacks up here.

In the 1920s and ‘30s, many movie theaters had signs instructing ladies to "Please Remove Your Hats” to keep their elaborate headwear from blocking anyone's view. James

🚜 Parting shot! Photo: Jean Card Reader Jean Card sends this slice of late-spring life in New England: Hay harvesting in Stowe, Vt.

Perks of sports fandom Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios It's Day 1 of the World Cup, and we're in the middle of an electric NBA Finals series. If you're staying up past bedtime to watch the action, here's some good news: Research suggests watching sports — especially live — comes with key health perks. "ports fandom seems to be a win for mental health," Veronique Greenwood writes for Time. 🔎 Zoom in: Helen Keyes, a psychologist at England's Anglia Ruskin University, analyzed survey data from thousands of people to understand how sports fandom affects wellbeing. Keyes and her team found that attending live sporting events boosted life satisfaction and lessened loneliness. Researchers discovered that attending games had an even greater positive effect on life satisfaction than being employed. 💰 Reality check: World Cup and NBA Finals tickets aren't cheap. But you don't have to be in the stadium to reap the benefits. Another study revealed that even watching sports on TV boosts life satisfaction, Time notes. Plus, Keyes and her colleagues found that the wellbeing benefits of live sports held across the spectrum — from professional matchups to local amateur games. 📺 The bottom line: Throw that watch party! It's good for you.

‼️ Next bitter primary The political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is quietly putting massive sums into helping the group's chair, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), win his primary. Why it matters: The spending signals how much peril Espaillat's allies think he is facing from democratic socialist challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier. The race in New York's 13th District, which covers parts of Upper Manhattan and the West Bronx, has attracted huge independent expenditures from outside groups and national media attention. Avila Chevalier has leaned heavily into her endorsement from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The big picture: This is one of several races pitting Mamdani against the NYC establishment, most notably House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is supporting Espaillat. Mamdani has endorsed NYC Comptroller Brad Lander in his primary challenge against Jeffries-backed Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) He is also backing State Assembly member Claire Valdez in the race to succeed Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), who is supporting Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Jeffries has not endorsed in that race. Driving the news: Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the CHC's BOLD PAC, told us in a brief Capitol Hill interview yesterday that the group is "heavily invested" in helping Espaillat secure reelection. Sanchez confirmed in a follow-up interview that her group is routing most of its spending through another PAC, BOLD America. That group was launched in 2023 by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and former Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Filemon Vela (D-Texas) to help elect Hispanic Democrats to Congress. A newly released Data for Progress poll commissioned by Justice Democrats, a group supporting Avila Chevalier, has her leading Espaillat 39% to 35%, according to Semafor. By the numbers: BOLD America is, by far, the largest spender in the primary, having invested more than $2.5 million in the race, according to its FEC filings. Avila Chevalier's biggest outside backer, pro-Palestinian super PAC American Priorities, has reported spending $500,000 on the race so far. Asked about BOLD America's spending on his behalf at the Axios AM Live Summit on Tuesday, Espaillat pointed to Texas businessman Hussein Mahrouq's financial support for American Priorities. "We've got to have campaign finance reform ... because as long as we have Citizens United, you'll have an unlimited amount of money coming in from a bunch of places," the Hispanic Caucus chair added. What's next: Early voting in New York begins Saturday, with primary day set for June 23. — Andrew Solender

👀 Trump blinks first President Trump has given lawmakers what they demanded on FISA, but only after leaving Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson without enough time to stop the surveillance program from lapsing. 🛑 Why it matters: Trump's decision to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence blew up bipartisan support for renewing Section 702 of FISA. Congress left town today with Section 702 headed for a lapse despite Trump finally naming Jay Clayton as the permanent nominee. The House failed this morning to pass a short-term patch through July 2. The Senate later rejected a unanimous consent request to do the same. 📲 Trump announced Clayton after the House vote, despite vowing yesterday that he would give Pulte time to purge the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. With the House out on recess next week, Section 702 will go dark for at least a week. Clayton's "intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI. Had this nomination been made a week ago, lots of pain might have been avoided," Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, wrote on X. 🥅 Between the lines: Democrats are now signaling they want to see Clayton formally confirmed before backing a reauthorization. They'd previously argued that Trump needed to nominate a full-time person for the post. The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner (D-Va.), said: "The president could have put forward a qualified nominee from the beginning. Instead, he waited until the House of Representatives went out of town, choosing a path that raises the risk of an entirely avoidable lapse in a critical national security tool." Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former SEC chair, was reportedly recommended to Trump by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. 📺 What's next: The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to hold closed and open confirmation hearings for Clayton next Tuesday and Wednesday. The Senate will "probe the limits" of getting Clayton confirmed on or before June 19, when Pulte becomes acting DNI, Thune told reporters. 🦅 The bottom line: The White House didn't give Thune a heads-up on Clayton. Thune also wasn't present at the two White House meetings this week when Johnson had pushed to resolve the FISA standoff. — Kate Santaliz

Life Imitates Art (Kevin Carter / Getty)   View in browser No event at the Kennedy Center in recent months has drawn as much anticipation in Washington as the removal of President Trump’s name from the building’s facade. The date and time of the performance are not yet public, but residents and reporters are on alert to watch workers pull down the letters that were hastily added in December, when the institution was ungrammatically rechristened “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Already, as my colleague Janay Kingsberry reported last week, Trump’s name has been removed from the center’s website, as well as from “email signatures, email communications, letterhead, website, brochures, promotional materials, press releases, signs, references in contracts, MOUs, and other agreements.” These are signs of the center moving to comply with a judge’s ruling late last month that ordered it to revert to its statutory name. The re-renaming is a welcome win for the rule of law, but the precarious path ahead for the Kennedy Center is a useful metaphor for the United States in the Trump era as a whole. Removing Trump’s name is the easy part—a discrete step that a judge can straightforwardly mandate—but repairing the damage will be a much longer and more difficult process, assuming it’s possible at all. Trump remains in charge of the Kennedy Center, which means he could continue to wreak havoc, but he’s also threatened to just walk away, which would leave the center hollowed out and rudderless. Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the center’s board had not been given sufficient information to approve the two-year closure announced in March, but, he added, “this Court is not to substitute its judgment for the Board’s as to whether a temporary but long-term closure is, all things considered, a good idea. The Court takes no position on that question.” And as Kingsberry has reported, there is not much Kennedy Center left to keep open. The Trump-installed leadership—the president fired half of the board, replaced it with loyalists, and appointed himself chairman; many staffers quit or were fired—has driven away artists and attendees, and has left the center without scheduled programming. When the Kennedy Center was dedicated, in 1971, speakers presented it as a symbol of the nation. Its current travails are likely to be a model for the nation too. Even a hypothetical future president who has respect for the rule of law and the separation of powers will have a difficult time fixing what is broken. Such a president can remove the Ultimate Fighting Championship arena from the White House lawn or even demolish Trump’s intended ballroom, assuming it gets built. But something will need to fill the hole in the ground where the old East Wing used to sit. More important, that president will need to fix what happens inside the White House, the West Wing, and the executive-office buildings by reconstituting the National Security Council, replacing partisan hacks, and re-creating the interagency process for policy making. That damage is less visible and less easily reversed. At the Pentagon, restoring the legal name of the Department of Defense will be easy, and so will taking Trump’s name off the “Trump class” battleship, the huge nuclear-powered naval vessel he proposed last year. But replacing the ammunition used in Trump’s unauthorized and aimless war in Iran will not. A pipeline of promising officers who had the misfortune to be female or nonwhite while serving under Secretary Pete Hegseth, and as a result had their career stall rather than being promoted, will take years to refill. A future attorney general—with White House endorsement—could work to restore the independence of the Department of Justice and prevent it from becoming a tool for pursuing the president’s personal vendettas. But he or she will have a much harder time restoring the presumption of trust from federal judges that has been squandered over the past 17 months, especially given how many experienced, nonpartisan lawyers have left the department, and how many attorneys with dubious qualifications have been hired. (As former Attorney General Merrick Garland can now attest, any restoration of principles at DOJ will also be fragile without accompanying changes to the law.) Unless Congress passes a law abolishing the Department of Education, which seems unlikely, the next administration can give up on Trump’s attempt to kill the department, but the loss of thousands of experienced civil servants at that and other departments will be challenging to reverse. An Ebola outbreak has spread quickly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in part because funding for U.S. work to monitor and contain the virus was slashed by DOGE last year—some of the many cuts that DOGE made while federal spending actually grew. A future president will likely be able to fire commissioners and other officers at bodies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission—thanks, ironically, to Trump’s efforts to knock down protections around what used to be called “independent regulatory agencies.” The Supreme Court appears poised to approve Trump’s power grab, so unless Congress passes new legislation to reestablish the independent functioning of those bodies, they will forever be susceptible to political interference. Trump’s threat to walk away from the Kennedy Center suggests an additional danger: He could lose interest and doze off, as if at yet another Cabinet meeting or NBA Finals game, leaving parts of the government to fend for themselves. At one time, that might have been for the better, but in their already injured state, the neglect would probably not be benign.The successful legal battle to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center is not hollow, but it is incremental. The hardest work, for both the Kennedy Center and the rest of the nation, remains ahead. Related: How Trump’s Kennedy Center takeover failed Trump made a bad bet on the Kennedy Center. ps:Like I've said many, many times, whatever this man gets his hands on he ruins!!!!!

🪱 The CDC is taking emergency measures to fight New World screwworm after the dangerous parasite was found in U.S. cattle after once being eradicated, Bloomberg reports. Gift link.

🛰️ A new space weather satellite can more quickly detect hazardous plasma blasts from the Sun — and predict awe-inspiring auroral displays on Earth. Go deeper.

📊 SpaceX's massive IPO, visualized Data: S&P Capital IQ Pro. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals SpaceX's projected $1.77 trillion market cap would equal nearly the combined value of the 29 biggest U.S. IPOs since 2000, Axios' Madison Mills and Erin Davis report. That's based on those companies' market caps at closing time on the day they went public, adjusted for inflation. 💵 The Elon Musk-led company is set to list tomorrow on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol SPCX, with shares expected to be priced at $135. Go deeper ...

World Cup kicks off Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The 2026 FIFA World Cup gets underway this afternoon — starting what should be your new summer obsession, Axios' Ryan Deto writes. The U.S., Canada and Mexico are hosting this year's tournament. It's the largest World Cup ever, with nearly 50 nations competing. 11 U.S. cities are hosting matches, including the New York metro, Miami and Seattle. (Chicago notably didn't bid, citing the fiscal unknowns.) 🌎 The World Cup, held every four years, is the pinnacle of competition for global soccer. The 2022 tournament drew in over 5 billion viewers worldwide. It's been 32 years since the world's biggest sporting event was played on American soil. 🇺🇸 The U.S., led by forward Christian "Captain America" Pulisic, isn't considered a top contender this year. But home turf offers their best chance at victory in decades — and who doesn't love an underdog? 🏆 Meanwhile, soccer legends like Argentina's Lionel Messi and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo are playing in their final World Cup. French superstar Kylian Mbappé (12 World Cup goals overall) is chasing the all-time World Cup scoring record (16, held by Germany's Miroslav Klose). 📺 What we're watching: Today's Mexico-South Africa match (3 p.m. ET, Mexico City) kicks off the tournament. The U.S. starts tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET against Paraguay in L.A. Go deeper ... How to watch ... Full schedule.

Trump nominates US Attorney Jay Clayton to be director of national intelligence WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he is nominating Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as director of national intelligence. https://apnews.com/article/jay-clayton-pulte-trump-national-intelligence-director-b9a89bd3f1cb9c70fcca79de4c42cc99?