The Israeli cabinet will convene on Friday to approve the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, which the smaller security cabinet has already approved.

Why it matters: Approval by the full cabinet is the final hurdle before the deal can be implemented. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said the ceasefire and the process of freeing hostages are expected to start on Sunday at 4pm local time (9am ET).

State of play: The cabinet meeting was moved up from Saturday night at the urging of the director of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency, Ronen Bar, according to an Israeli official.

• That timeline would have meant the deal couldn't be implemented until Monday, and Bar urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move more quickly to avoid unexpected complications.
• But moving it up meant convening after the Jewish Sabbath began. The ultra-orthodox members of Netanyahu's cabinet said they would agree to that because the deal is a matter of life and death, the official said.

Driving the news: The Israeli security cabinet convened on Friday morning local time, ahead of the full cabinet meeting, and was briefed on the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.

• Netanyahu said during the meeting that he received guarantees from both the Biden administration and the Trump administration that if negotiations over the second phase of the ceasefire and hostage deal fail, and Israel's security demands are not met, Israel would be able to resume the war in Gaza with U.S. backing, an Netanyahu aide tells Axios.

Behind the scenes: Netanyahu's remarks at the security cabinet meeting came after ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he and the cabinet members from his party would vote against the deal but not leave Netanyahu's coalition.

• Sources in Smotrich's party claimed he received assurances from Netanyahu that the war would resume after the initial 42-day ceasefire and the humanitarian aid delivery system for Gaza would be changed to prevent Hamas from controlling the aid.
• Meanwhile, Netanyahu's ultranationalist minister of national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, held a press conference on Thursday and announced he would resign and his party would leave the coalition if the deal was approved. He said he would be ready to rejoin the coalition if Israel were to resume fighting in Gaza after the 42-day ceasefire in the first phase of the deal.
• Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir voted against the deal at the security cabinet meeting, but it still passed easily.

State of play: Ahead of the cabinet meeting Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz signed an order to release all Israeli settlers who were under administrative detention for allegedly committing and planning terror attacks against Palestinians.

• An Israeli security official who was alarmed by the decision said Katz made it for domestic political considerations and without consultation with the Shin Bet.
• "The decision gives backwind for terrorism and will destabilize the security situation in the West Bank," the official warned.

What's next: Under Israeli law, Palestinian prisoners can't be released from prison without a government vote and a 24-hour period for the public to appeal to the courts. That's why the deal, which involves the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, can't immediately take effect after the cabinet vote.

Go deeper: How two feuding presidents combined to get a Gaza deal

If capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell, as former astronaut and Eastern Airlines CEO Frank Borman famously put it, then the U.S. over the past decade or so has been a joyous church indeed.

Why it matters: We're now beginning to see signs that the days of very few bankruptcies might be coming to an end, thanks in large part to the Fed.

How we got here: The financial crisis of 2008 to 2009 saw a sharp rise in bankruptcies, as you'd expect.

• It also caused the Fed to cut interest rates to zero and to keep them there for many years.
• It led bank regulators to get stricter about the amount of risk they allowed banks to take on, even as borrowers also started to get worried about the consequences of having too much debt.
• The result was a years-long decline in bankruptcy filings, as smaller debts became easier to refinance in an easy-money era.

Where it stands: A recent uptick in the numbers suggests that era might have ended with the Fed rate hikes of 2022. As CEA chair Jared Bernstein tells Axios, "we know this variable is pretty highly elastic to rate rises."

The big picture: Bankruptcy — a process that wipes out debts and allows fresh starts — is a necessary part of any dynamic economy.

• Fewer bankruptcies isn't always a good thing. It can be a sign of excessive risk aversion on the part of both lenders and borrowers, a paucity of what John Maynard Keynes characterized as "animal spirits."
• As University of Illinois law professor Robert Lawless notes, bankruptcy filings are not a good measure of the health of the economy. "Note how bankruptcies declined as the economy went into recession in the early 2000s," he said of the chart above.

By the numbers: Bankruptcy filings by companies with assets or liabilities greater than $2 million if they're public (or $10 million if they're private) rose to 694 in 2024. That's up 9% from 2023 and up a whopping 87% from a record low of 372 in 2022, per S&P Global.

• Overall, business bankruptcies in U.S. courts rose to 22,762 in 2024, up 33% from 2023 and up 73% from 2022.
• Those numbers are less precise than they seem, since the default setting on most bankruptcy-filing software is "consumer" rather than "business" and many business filers don't check that box.
• Meanwhile, many large corporate bankruptcies involve simultaneous filings from hundreds of subsidiaries, which can result in the numbers being exaggerated.

Yes, but: The absolute number of bankruptcies is still low, even after the recent increases.

• In 1997, for instance, there were 54,252 business bankruptcy filings, and 6.1 million business establishments in the U.S., for a ratio of 0.9%.
• By 2024, that ratio had fallen to 0.3%.

The bottom line: When rates rise, they bite harder. But an economy with more bite isn't always a bad thing.

A majority of Americans across nearly all demographic groups said DEI initiatives have made no impact on their personal careers, according to a newly released Harris Poll/Axios Vibes survey.

Why it matters: Republican lawmakers and activists have vilified DEI, a term for diversity, equity and inclusion policies used by employers. Companies have responded by rolling back programs.

• Yet Americans — and businesses — have a generally positive to at least indifferent view on the subject.
• On balance, most demographic groups were more likely to say DEI benefited their career than hindered it.

Zoom out: The current enmity for DEI was on display this week in the congressional hearings for President-elect Trump's Cabinet nominees.

• At Pete Hegseth's hearing, the Defense secretary nominee railed against DEI, as did some lawmakers.
• DEI is "race essentialism," Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said. "I think the American people have spoken loudly and clearly about this."
• Trump's opposition to anything DEI-related is well known.

By the numbers: While 41% of those surveyed said they support efforts to roll back diversity initiatives, the majority — nearly six in 10 — either oppose those efforts or are unsure about them.

• 57% said DEI initiatives have had no impact on their career, while 16% explicitly said they have been hindered.
• 39% of Democrats said they have benefited from DEI, compared to 26% of Republicans.
• At least half of all demographic groups — including people of different races, ethnicities and sexual orientations — said DEI had no impact on their personal careers.
• 51% of respondents said DEI is primarily a symbolic gesture, while the rest said it is essential for equality.
• "With all the backlash to DEI, you'd expect a public mandate to do so. But Americans are telling us they see the benefits of diversity, even if their support is more mild than passionate," John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, told Axios.

The big picture: There is broad support for the idea of diversity inside companies.

• 61% of those surveyed said diverse employees have a positive impact on organizations, and 75% agreed that more needs to be done to guarantee everyone is advancing.

Between the lines: Even as they feverishly cut programs, business leaders appear to have good feelings about DEI, according to a separate survey out this week.

• Nearly three-quarters of 3,200 global CEOs and business leaders said initiatives tied to social issues — such as diversity and inclusion — have had a positive impact on their company's economic performance, per the AlixPartners Disruption Index.
• 94% of executives whose companies lead their industries in growth and profitability view diversity and inclusion as a competitive advantage.

The bottom line: There is a big disconnect between political rhetoric and reality.

Just about all the biggest names in tech will be in Washington on Monday for President-elect Trump's inauguration — a much different scene than the beginning of his first term.

Where it stands: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is the latest addition to the Big Tech guest list for Trump's swearing-in.

• Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are also planning to attend, according to media reports.
• Elon Musk will be there, too.

Most of those CEOs, or their companies, also donated money for Trump's inauguration. And Zuckerberg is co-hosting a black-tie reception Monday evening, according to The New York Times.

The number of public electric vehicle chargers doubled over the last four years, driven by a combination of increased private investment and a surge in government funding under the Biden administration.

Why it matters: EVs and charging have been a chicken-and-egg-problem that's now getting a little easier.

• People won't buy an electric car unless they're confident they have somewhere to charge it.
• Companies won't invest in charging infrastructure without enough EV owners to plug in.

By the numbers: There are more than 207,000 publicly available EV charging ports in the U.S. today — up from around 95,000 when Biden took office in January 2021.

• That figure tracks with what Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told a House committee last May. Republicans earlier had complained about delays.
• It includes 38,000 new chargers — both DC fast-chargers and slower, Level 2 chargers — that were turned on in 2024, according to the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.

Yes, but: Charging might be getting easier — but the U.S. is still far short of the estimated 1.2 million public chargers that a National Renewable Energy Laboratory report says will be needed by 2030 to support expected EV sales.

The big picture: Spurring a switch from gasoline-powered cars to battery-electric vehicles has been a key part of President Biden's climate agenda.

• He pushed a variety of policies — consumer EV tax credits, manufacturing incentives for carmakers and tougher tailpipe emissions laws — with the intent to make EVs account for 50% of new car sales by 2030.
• He also targeted 500,000 public chargers by 2030 — a goal supported, in part, by $7.5 billion allocated by Congress under the bipartisan infrastructure act.

Reality check: Electric vehicles sales are growing, but far off the expected pace.

• Only 8.1% of new car sales in 2024 were EVs, according to Cox Automotive. Still, that's a record 1.3 million EVs sold.
• Momentum was stronger in the second half, with EVs accounting for 8.7% of total sales.
• A flood of new, more affordable models could help keep that going — even if President-elect Trump kills the consumer tax credits as expected.

At least charging access is improving, and not just because Tesla opened its Supercharger network to other brands.

• GM Energy, for example, has opened more than 2,500 fast-charging stalls in partnership with EVgo and Pilot Flying J, and recently announced plans to add 500 more with ChargePoint by the end of this year.
• IONNA, the charging network founded by eight big automakers, is starting to roll out the first of 30,000 charging points by 2030.
• Electrify America added 600 new chargers in 2024, and replaced 1,000 others, bringing its network to more than 4,700.

Taxpayer-funded chargers have been slow to open, but the snags are mostly due to state and local issues like permitting, utility upgrades and in some cases, politics.

• The federal government has already shelled out $4.5 billion to support about 25,000 chargers, but only 200 have opened so far.
• Since that money's already been allocated to the states, the rest are still expected to open in the next year or two, even if Trump slows down Biden's EV policies.

Where it stands: As of Oct. 31, drivers in 61% of the most heavily trafficked corridors could access a charger every 50 miles, up from 38% in 2021, Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told Axios Pro Energy Policy. (subscribe here)

Editor's note: Cox Automotive and Axios are both owned by Cox Enterprises.

Mark Zuckerberg is living his best life in the Trump 2.0 era, despite the President-elect's campaign threat to jail him.

The big picture: Zuckerberg has spent the post-election months cozying up to Trump, including through a Mar-a-Lago visit and $1 million inauguration donation.

Zoom in: Zuckerberg has spent the post-election months cozying up to Trump, including through a Mar-a-Lago visit and $1 million inauguration donation.

• That could pay off for Meta when it comes to future regulation, particularly given the fact that Trump's antitrust regime sued the company in late 2020. The case was later dismissed.
• It's also given Zuckerberg a way to loudly hit back at a Biden administration that revived the lawsuit — and the confidence to scrap content moderation and workplace culture policies that appear to have privately chafed him for years.

Zuckerberg also might soon benefit from a ban on TikTok, even though Trump has pledged to keep the social media app alive.

• Meta would gain the most advertising spend if TikTok disappears in the U.S., according to a recent eMarketer analysis.

The bottom line: Zuckerberg is one of the world's richest people, and didn't get there without knowing how to align himself with those in power. And if he's actually enjoying his ride on the Trump train, then it's just another feather in his fortune.

Eight years ago, Donald Trump took office with a dark message about "American carnage" — a nation ravaged by crime, poverty and drugs. As he returns to the White House on Monday, his team is stressing "unity" and "light."

Why it matters: It's unclear whether Trump's inaugural message will resist his typical doomsday rhetoric about the America he's inheriting, but the inauguration festivities he's planning do suggest a cheerier tone.

Zoom in: The schedule of inaugural events in Washington this weekend reflects that optimism.

• There's a "One America, One Light" prayer service for Trump donors and a "Candlelight Dinner," also for donors. One of the three main inaugural balls will be called the "Starlight Ball."
• "Light signifies hope, it signifies a new beginning, it signifies a pathway forward. It's really something that has been a theme for the inaugural, yes, but also a guiding principle for our team over the past couple months," a person familiar with Trump's inauguration plans told Axios.

Between the lines: In a December interview with NBC News, Trump — who has suggested he'd seek retribution against his political enemies if he were elected president again — said "unity" would the major message of his inaugural address.

• "I think success brings unity, and I've experienced that," he told NBC's Kristen Welker. "... Basically it's going to be about bringing our country together."
• Trump likely wants to use his address to "make sure people know he is a president for all Americans," the person familiar with the planning said.

Some of Trump's inauguration guests also have touted such optimism. Singer Carrie Underwood, who'll perform "America the Beautiful" at the swearing-in ceremony, said her decision to participate in the inauguration was "in the spirit of unity."

Zoom out: Trump also called for national unity after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last summer, just before the Republican convention.

• In his speech at the convention — his first since the shooting — he began with a reflective, positive tone about unity.
• But after several minutes of that, Trump pivoted to an hour or so of the fiery, often grievance-filled rhetoric he was known for on the campaign trail.
• During the final weeks before the Nov. 5 election, Trump tapped into increasingly dark rhetoric. He called his political foes everything from "enemies" of the U.S. to "mentally disabled," and said the U.S. was an "occupied country" that must be "liberated" from criminal migrants who have "bad genes."
• Since winning reelection, Trump has continued to blast his adversaries and Biden administration policies.

The bottom line: The person familiar with the planning said they didn't want to speak for Trump, but he likely "does want to come out and be seen as a unifying force."

• "But ... that doesn't mean he's going to compromise on ... the policy necessarily, or campaign promises."

Go deeper: Trump picks historically young group of top officials

Chinese AI makers have learned to build powerful AI models that perform just short of the U.S.'s most advanced competition while using far less money, chips and power.

Why it matters: American policies restricting the flow of top-end AI semiconductors and know-how to China may have helped maintain a short U.S. lead at the outer reaches of the AI performance curve — but they've also accelerated Chinese progress in building high-end AI more efficiently.

Catch up quick: In late December, Hangzhou-based DeepSeek released V3, an open-source large language model whose performance on various benchmark tests puts it in the same league as OpenAI's 4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

• Those are the most advanced AI models these companies currently offer to the broad public, though both OpenAI and Anthropic have next-generation models in their pipeline.

Stunning stat: Training V3 cost DeepSeek roughly $5.6 million, according to the company.

• OpenAI, Google and Anthropic have reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build and train their current models, and expect to spend billions in the future.
• AI pioneer Andrej Karpathy called DeepSeek's investment "a joke of a budget" and described the result as "a highly impressive display of research and engineering under resource constraints."

Between the lines: In an interview last year, DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng said, "Money has never been the problem for us; bans on shipments of advanced chips are the problem."

• The V3 model was trained on Nvidia H800 chips, a less-powerful version of a chip the U.S. banned for export to China in 2022. Export of the H800 was then prohibited when the U.S. tightened controls again the following year.

The big picture: Some U.S. officials have argued for restricting China's access to advanced AI chips even further in hopes of slowing the country's development of the technology.

• On Monday, the Biden administration announced another big round of export controls aimed at choking the supply of chips to China via third-party countries.

What's next: Advances like V3 and OpenAI's powerful new "reasoning" model, o3, have lent weight to recent claims by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other industry leaders who predict the industry is closing in fast on artificial general intelligence (AGI). (Plenty of other observers remain skeptical.)

• AGI — or AI that can solve problems and perform tasks at a human or beyond-human level — is a holy grail for AI researchers, and many in the industry and U.S. government believe the technology's first developer will win a massive economic, scientific and security edge.
• Biden's latest export controls have led some observers to conclude the government shares the growing sense that AGI is close.
• "This is a 'break in case of emergency' policy, and the Biden administration identified that the emergency is that AGI is just a few years away," Gregory Allen, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells Axios.

Yes, but: AGI is also not well-defined, and both optimists and pessimists have complained that it's become a moving goalpost.

Mayors across the country, representing nearly 35 million Americans, are warning of a severe and worsening housing shortfall, according to a new survey from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The big picture: There aren't enough homes in the U.S. to keep up with demand, with some estimates putting total housing shortage in the millions of units.

• A lack of affordable homes to buy or rent are keeping prices high. That's paired with record-high mortgage rates, putting monthly payments out of reach for many.

Zoom in: Mayors from 120 cities in 43 states responded to the national survey from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the American Institute of Architects.

• The study found that the housing deficit will increase by more than two million more units in the next five years.

By the numbers: 42% of households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, mortgage payments and other housing costs, per the report.

• The median rental price increased 18% over the past three years, to $1,779.81.
• The median sale price increased 21% in the same period to $488,272, according to the report.

Between the lines: The survey found that mayors believe inaction at the federal level will exacerbate an already deepening crisis.

• 89% of the mayors surveyed indicated that flexible and direct funding for cities to stimulate housing supply, preservation, or access is important.
• While the mayors value existing federal housing programs, they strongly urged for an expansion, including of low-income housing credits and housing vouchers.

Zoom out: The cost of housing was a key issue during the 2024 presidential race, making clear it's a top-of-mind issue for Americans.

• Vice President Harris had framed the housing shortage largely as a problem of supply, Axios' Emily Peck reported. Harris' solution, broadly, was to build more homes.
• President-elect Trump painted it as mostly as a demand issue and blamed the housing shortage on immigrants.

Flashback: Today's housing shortage is rooted in the 2008 housing bust when a huge number of homebuilders went out of business, from which the industry never recovered, Peck reports.

• Go deeper: Read the 20-page report.

More from Axios:

• Why Harris and Trump can't stop talking about housing
• America's housing shortage is keeping home prices high
• America's housing shortage explained in one chart

LOS ANGELES — Elon Musk and his allies are waging a ruthless information war in California, sensing opportunity in the ashes of the most destructive wildfires in state history.

Why it matters: For decades, Republicans have tried and failed to end Democrats' near-monopoly on power in the nation's most populous state. This time, they insist, the conditions are ripe for a reckoning.

Driving the news: More than a week after the Palisades Fire erupted — and with three major infernos still burning — Republicans are still flooding the zone with allegations of gross mismanagement by California Democrats.

• For conservatives emboldened by Donald Trump's victory, the targets are familiar: DEI programs at the Los Angeles Fire Department, undocumented immigrants, red tape — even aid to Ukraine.
• Trump, Musk and other MAGA influencers have spread misinformation about water policies in California, while downplaying the role of climate change in fostering historically dry conditions.

As his allies gleefully mused about flipping California in the next election, Musk predicted the state's burdensome regulations would accelerate the electorate's rightward trend.

• "The real red pill will come when people try to get permits to rebuild their homes and face multiyear waits," Musk wrote on X, racking up nearly 50 million views on his post.
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order this week waiving permitting requirements for fire victims seeking to rebuild their homes, and has pushed to slash red tape as the GOP attacks have escalated.

Zoom in: The political danger is most acute for LA Mayor Karen Bass, a former U.S. House Democrat who was on President Biden's short list to be his running mate in 2020.

• Bass, who was elected in 2022 and is up for reelection next year, has been pilloried for traveling to Ghana a day after the National Weather Service warned of dangerous fire conditions in LA.
• Her 2022 opponent Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer and former Republican, has seized on the crisis as he weighs another run for mayor — or for governor.

Newsom — one of the most prominent Democrats in the country amid the party's post-election leadership vacuum — is widely expected to run for president in 2028.

• He's been front-and-center in countering MAGA's messaging offensive but expressed a desire to work with Trump on the recovery effort, despite their verbal sparring.
• "I get the California Derangement Syndrome. I've been living with that for years and years," Newsom told MSNBC, excoriating Trump and Musk for spreading "lies" about the wildfire response.

The big picture: Musk's bluster aside, Democrats acknowledge they face serious challenges in California that predate the fires — and that their supermajority in the legislature makes it difficult to blame Republicans.

• Crime, homelessness, illegal immigration, high prices and an intractable housing crisis helped Trump increase his vote share in 45 of California's 58 counties in 2024.
• In Los Angeles County — which shifted an astonishing 11 points to the right — a progressive district attorney was defeated by a former Republican who vowed to crack down on crime.
• California voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure, Prop 36, to increase penalties for drug and theft crimes, and recalled Oakland's mayor and local district attorney over public safety issues.

Reality check: The main beneficiaries of California's backlash have been independents and moderate Democrats — not Republicans, and certainly not the strain of MAGA Republicans publicly agitating for a revolution.

• Most Californians believe climate change is contributing to the fires, even if they're unhappy with state leadership's handling of the crisis.
• House Republicans' threat to condition federal aid to California, meanwhile, risks public blowback at a moment of vulnerability for Democrats.

What to watch: Republicans today are flush with billionaire cash and influence, much of it concentrated in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and other parts of California where supporting Trump is no longer taboo.

• Flipping the state is still a "long-term project," as pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk put it last month — but one that could be accelerated by this type of systemic shock.
• "We don't see these shifts overnight," California Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher said in a local news interview. "Texas was once a blue state, and slowly but surely it became a red state."

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has an alarm set for 4:20 a.m. But he rarely needs it — he usually beats the buzzer by 10-15 minutes.

• His first two tasks of the day: 20 minutes of transcendental meditation ... followed by four shots of espresso. He does an hour of work, then a workout, and is in the office by 7:30 a.m.

Why it matters: Zients, 58, had a lucrative run as a CEO and chairman (The Advisory Board and Corporate Executive Board) and entrepreneur — including co-founding Call Your Mother, the D.C.-area bagel chain.

• He has stayed upbeat despite running a White House that is in the dumps and ending on a very downbeat note.

President Obama brought Zients into government as deputy budget director and the nation's first chief performance officer — before making him top economic adviser.

• Under President Biden, Zients had the high-stakes, thankless role of COVID response coordinator, helping lead the U.S. back. He took a nine-month break before returning as Biden's second chief of staff.

Over bagels from Call Your Mother in his West Wing corner office (with no computer — just cellphones), he wanted to share leadership lessons learned:

1. Discuss. Zients is allergic to tackling tough topics over text or email. "They obfuscate precision," he says. So he's known for one-word responses to emails. His favorite: "Discuss." That means to get around a table and dig in. "The hardest decisions require face-to-face conversations, not texts or emails that can blur the precision and debate required to solve the toughest problems," Zients told us.
2. The 7-minute meeting. That isn't literal — it's how colleagues playfully channel his approach. This is the art of how you "Discuss": His meetings tend to be quick, direct — 15 or 30 minutes. They're often preceded by tightly written memos — upper limit: three pages — so thinking is sharpened before shared. "Short memos in advance of meetings are key to efficient discussion and decision-making," he told us. "Shorter is harder than longer, as it forces rigorous analysis and requires precision." He's not a fan of "graphics for the sake of graphics."
3. Don't "admire the problem." Too many people too often stare at the complexity of an issue instead of solving the damn thing. In government, you don't always choose your problem. You did pick the solution. So get to it.
4. Dive into it. This is his go-to solution when a dirty-diaper issue lands on his desk. So many government leaders want to run away, often in fear. "When something is troubling you, don't fret it or deny it," Zients says. "Dive into it — it only gets better."
5. Execute, execute, execute. He says it so often it's stamped on a helmet, a gift from a staffer, that sits on the fireplace mantel in his White House office. Executing in government is a tremendous grind, so he delights in the nuts and bolts of managing. Zients pointed to Obamacare as a great example. Obama's crowning achievement almost died during the execution phase after the website powering it crashed. Zients led the team that fixed it.
6. Face into it. "You need the reps" to master crappy or tough situations, Zients says. His days are full of them. But the more you face them and solve them, the calmer and wiser you grow. He calls it "facing into the problem."
7. Build the team. "In the federal government, we don't spend enough time on recruiting, coaching and giving feedback," Zients says. "When you build and invest in a team of smart, diverse, and low-ego people who are in it for the right reasons and have each other's backs, you can weather any crisis and capture any opportunity."
8. Keep it sunny. "Leaders should always be optimistic," he says. "I'm not talking about blind optimism, but optimism coupled with a credible plan to get things done or solve the problem."

The bottom line: Zients says working in business first made him a better government leader because of the private sector's focus on the importance of teams — "from recruiting to coaching and focus on execution/getting stuff done."

• Little of that comes naturally in government. "There are pockets," Zients told us, "but not enough focus."

Axios' Hans Nichols contributed reporting.

Apple is suspending its new artificial intelligence feature summarizing alerts for news and entertainment apps after facing complaints from news outlets and press freedom groups about generating false and inaccurate information.

Why it matters: The BBC lodged an official complaint after the Apple Intelligence summaries generated an inaccurate headline of a report by the British outlet that incorrectly represented a report on Luigi Mangione, the suspect in last month's killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by suggesting he had committed suicide.

• It's the latest in a series of problematic rollouts of AI features by tech giants, with Microsoft in June announcing changes to its Recall feature following criticism from security and privacy experts.
• Google paused AI image generation last February following complaints about diversity.

Driving the news: Following the BBC false headline controversy, the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders called generative AI services "a danger to the public's right to reliable information on current affairs."

• Meanwhile, the U.K.-based National Union of Journalists called on Apple to swiftly remove the feature, saying: "At a time where access to accurate reporting has never been more important, the public must not be placed in a position of second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive."
• The BBC reported at the time that three news stories on different matters by the New York Times on Nov. 21 "were grouped together in one notification," with one stating that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been "arrested."

What they're saying: "With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable," per an Apple statement emailed on Thursday evening.

• "We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update."

What to expect: Apple is deploying updates to make clear using italicized tex when a user switches notification summaries on that the program is a beta feature that may on occasion send results that are unexpected.

• Users will be able to manage this feature from the lock screen.

Go deeper: Apple's AI story is still a rough draft

China's leader Xi Jinping is sending a top envoy to attend President-elect Trump's inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Beijing confirmed.

Why it matters: The "unprecedented" deployment of Xi's special representative, Vice President Han Zheng, is intended to reduce tensions with the U.S. after Trump threatened to impose major tariffs on China and other countries, per the Financial Times, which first reported the news.

• Trump invited Xi to attend his inauguration ceremony to create "an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just our allies but our adversaries and our competitors, too," incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News last month.

What they're saying: "China follows the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation in viewing and growing its relationship with the United States," per a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement posted Friday morning local time.

• "We stand ready to work with the new U.S. government to enhance dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly pursue a stable, healthy and sustainable China-U.S. relationship and find the right way for the two countries to get along with each other."

Flashback: Beijing's actions are in stark contrast to President Biden's Inauguration Day four years ago, when Beijing imposed sanctions on officials from the first Trump administration.

Go deeper: How U.S. policy toward China transformed under Trump's first administration

A growing number of states are banning cellphones in schools — almost always with bipartisan support.

Why it matters: Parents are divided over these policies, which are meant to reduce distractions and boost students' socialization.

Where it stands: Eight states have banned or restricted cellphones in schools.

• Education departments in another 10 states have issued policy recommendations or begun pilot programs to curb phone usage.
• And at least 11 states, as of December, were considering legislation to ban or restrict cellphone use in schools, per health nonprofit KFF.
• Governors in Arkansas, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nebraska and New York have either called for bans recently or indicated that they'll explore such policies this year, the AP reported.

The intrigue: These policies have largely received bipartisan support, much like other actions related to youth digital wellbeing.

• "It doesn't matter if you live in a big city or a rural town, urban or suburban, all children are struggling and need that seven-hour break from the pressures of phones and social media during the school day," Kim Whitman, co-founder of the Phone Free Schools Movement, told the AP.

State of play: 68% of U.S. adults support cellphone bans during class, and about 36% favor an all-day ban, a Pew Research survey found last year.

• Most adults who support cellphone bans want to reduce students' distractions.

The other side: Those who oppose the bans, especially parents of K-12 students, argue that parents should be able to reach their children when needed.

• Many parents see cellphones as critical for safety and connectedness, especially in the face of emergencies like school shootings.

Zoom out: Health experts and policymakers have called for stricter regulations on youth social media use, while social media companies have been reckoning with accountability about their platforms' harmful effects on children.

• Research has found that excessive cellphone use can impact children's mental health.

Go deeper: Congress' online safety push stokes kids' mental health debate

Rudy Giuliani reached a settlement Thursday with the two Georgia election workers he defamed and owed $148 million in damages to, per a court filing.

The big picture: The former New York City mayor, who will now avoid trial, has been in litigation with Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss over which of his properties and belongings to hand over to them as part of the damages he was ordered to pay more than a year ago.

Driving the news: The trial to determine whether ownership of Giuliani's Florida condominium and three World Series rings would satisfy the damages he owed was supposed to start Thursday.

• Giuliani did not show up to court, AP reports.
• Details of the settlement were not immediately disclosed.

Zoom in: Giuliani said in a post on X that he was able to retain his New York and Florida homes and all of his personal belongings.

• He added that the "resolution does not involve an admission of liability or wrongdoing" by either party and that he's "satisfied with and have no grievances relating to the result we have reached."
• Giuliani said he and the plaintiffs "have agreed not to ever talk about each other in any defamatory manner, and I urge others to do the same."

What they're saying: Freeman and Moss said in a statement that "the past four years have been a living nightmare" and called Thursday's settlement "a major milestone."

• They added: "We have reached an agreement and we can now move forward with our lives. We have agreed to allow Mr. Giuliani to retain his property in exchange for compensation and his promise not to ever defame us."

Zoom out: Giuliani was held in contempt of court twice last week for continuing to defame Freeman and Moss, who are mother and daughter.

Context: Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani in a December 2021 lawsuit of making repeated false claims that they committed ballot fraud so President Biden would win the election.

• In August 2023, a judge ruled Giuliani was liable for defamation, civil conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress caused to the mother and daughter. A jury in December 2023 ordered him to pay $148 million in damages to poll workers.
• Guiliani sought bankruptcy protection, but a federal judge in N.Y. dismissed the case in July.

Go deeper: Giuliani found in contempt of court a second time in Georgia defamation case

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional statements.

Idaho, Kansas and Missouri can proceed with their push against abortion pill mifepristone, a judge in Texas ruled Thursday.

The big picture: The Republican-led states are seeking to roll back federal rules on the drug to make it harder for people to access the abortion pill through telehealth prescriptions.

Driving the news: The three states want the Food and Drug Administration to allow mifepristone to only be used in the first seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current 10-week limit.

• They're also seeking a requirement of three in-person doctor visits for patients looking to get the medication.

Context: Mifepristone is typically used in tandem with misoprostol to end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks.

• Both drugs are FDA-approved and have long safety and efficacy records.

Go deeper: How abortion pill challenges may rise again

Former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) conspicuous silence is starting to spook Tulsi Gabbard's team.

Why it matters: President-elect Trump Trump's transition thinks Gabbard, the nominee for director of national intelligence, can get confirmed even with a "no" vote from McConnell. But his public opposition — if it materializes — could open the door to other GOP defectors.

• Gabbard's team isn't banking on McConnell's vote, sources tell Axios.
• McConnell is studiously avoiding public or private indications that he'll support Trump's nominees, three people familiar with the matter tell Axios.
• Voting against Gabbard would resume hostilities between McConnell and Trump. It could have implications for big policy questions down the line, from funding Ukraine to raising tariffs.

📣 McConnell said on the Senate floor on Thursday that he'll support nominees to "senior national security roles whose record and experience will make them immediate assets, not liabilities, in the pursuit of peace through strength."

• When asked specifically about Gabbard, McConnell told CNN's Manu Raju he was not ready to announce whether he can back her.

Zoom in: Gabbard is focused on winning over members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where the GOP has a 9-8 voting advantage.

• Two key GOP swing votes sit on the Intel committee: Sens. Susan Collins (R-Me.), a former SSCI chair, and Todd Young (R-Ind.).
• Gabbard has met with every Republican and five of the eight Democrats, including Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat. She has reached out to all of them.
• Majority Leader John Thune can still bring Gabbard's nomination to a full floor vote even if she doesn't have the support to be recommended by the committee — but it would not be a great sign for her chances.

Between the lines: Most of Trump's nominees are pocketing hard "yeses" from senators, as they meet privately or appear before their committees.

• Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, whose nomination as secretary of Defense appeared doomed in early December, appears to be a glide path to confirmation, barring any new revelations about his personal life.

The bottom line: If Democrats have any chance — and it's slim — at helping drag down a Trump nominee, they see Gabbard as the most likely prospect.

• Minority Leader Chuck Schumer views the party's grilling of Hegseth as a success.
• He'll demand the same for their treatment of Gabbard, HHS nominee RFK Jr. and FBI director nominee Kash Patel.

A group of House Republicans are emerging as frequent co-sponsors of legislation to bring President-elect Trump's vision of an American empire to fruition.

Why it matters: This group spans the House Republican conference's ideological spectrum, from some of its most moderate members to its most right-wing.

• "People who were snickering or laughing about it when it was first brought up are starting to actually realize it's a legitimate issue," said centrist Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).
• "This is real," said Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), a member of the right-wing Freedom Caucus. "There are going to be some serious conversations."

State of play: A trio of House GOP bills would codify each one of Trump's proposed moves to either expand the U.S.'s territory or its international influence.

• Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) has introduced legislation that would allow Trump to enter into negotiations with Panama to try to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal.
• Ogles has introduced a similar bill to authorize negotiations with Denmark about purchasing Greenland.
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has introduced a bill that would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" on official maps and documents.

By the numbers: Each bill has between 10 and 15 co-sponsors, with a considerable amount of overlap.

• Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Mike Collins (R-Ga.), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) and Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) are each co-sponsoring two of the bills.
• Lawler and Reps. Mike Rulli (R-Ohio), Randy Weber (R-Texas), Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Brian Babin (R-Texas) are co-sponsoring all three.

What they're saying: Several of the lawmakers who have either introduced or co-sponsored legislation told Axios that a desire to counter China's international influence is at the heart of the effort.

• "We've been talking on the China Committee about ... China's growing influence on infrastructure across the globe, and I think the Panama Canal is hugely important to America," said Dusty Johnson.
• Lawler also cited rare earth minerals and Arctic waterways as key factors in the push to acquire Greenland, saying Trump is "right in raising these as actual issues of national security and ... economic security."

Zoom in: Some of the more right-wing lawmakers involved in these bills pushed back on the notion that they run counter to a growing strain of anti-interventionism within the MAGA movement.

• "'America First' is, simply stated: When you have a foreign adversary who arguably is our greatest existential threat — meaning China — when they're making moves towards Greenland, we can't just sit idly by," said Ogles.
• "This is literally in our backyard, front yard, however you want to look at it," Ogles said.
• Babin noted that the U.S. controlled the Panama Canal until the 1970s: "This is not intervention. This is not adventurism. This is a U.S.-built canal. There wasn't even a Panama. That was part of Colombia."

Bleacher Report, the 20-year-old digital sports brand, has signed a multi-year deal with the NFL that provides it with official game footage to use across social channels and owned-and-operated platforms, executives told Axios.

Why it matters: The deal speaks to parent Warner Bros. Discovery's commitment to live sports — and the appeal of Bleacher Report, one of the largest sports media brands on social media, to the NFL.

• Bleacher Report "has a sizable base of sports fans, and an official partnership adds authenticity and helps further engage an already-established audience," said Brent Lawton, vice president of business development and strategic investments at the NFL.

Zoom in: As part of the deal, Bleacher Report will receive individual highlights and game recaps from NFL games, per Lawton.

• It will also get silent NFL game footage for use in its original content across social media and B/R sites and apps, as well as access-driven content from select games throughout the season.
• Bleacher Report will also be able to access NFL tentpole events for content capture, including the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine.
• It will have the right to sell sponsorships and media packages around content leveraging those NFL assets, said Bleacher Report general manager Bennett Spector.
• As an official content partner of the NFL, the company will also be able to engage the league's official marketing partners, he added.

Between the lines: With the NFL, Bleacher Report now has digital content deals with all of the major U.S. sports leagues and beyond, Spector said.

• As a result of Warner Bros. Discovery's lawsuit settlement with the NBA, Bleacher Report and its flagship franchise now have rights to promote NBA content, as well as TNT Sports, a linear network also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Bleacher Report also has digital rights to games and events from Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, United States Soccer Federation, Major League Soccer, the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championship, NASCAR, Roland-Garros, and more.

Zoom out: The NFL deal underscores Warner Bros. Discovery's commitment to Bleacher Report and sports writ large, said Raph Poplock, senior vice president of strategic partnerships, content acquisitions and business development at Warner Bros. Discovery.

• Bleacher Report and House of Highlights "serve as the connective tissue" between Warner Bros. Discovery's digital platforms, including its streaming service Max, and its linear TV networks like TBS and TNT.
• The two brands also give the company leverage in league deals given their reach with younger audiences, especially on social media.

The big picture: The NFL has been brokering more deals with digital publishers and platforms as it seeks to expand its audience.

• In addition to Bleacher Report, it also has digital rights deals with Overtime, a gen-Z-focused sports media company; and Betches, a female-focused social media brand.

Only 12 people have walked on the Moon — but in a new era of commercial space exploration, a nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding treasured sites is warning about threats to historic Moon landing locations.

The big picture: The World Monuments Fund listed an at-risk site beyond the Earth's surface for the first time in this year's World Monuments Watch, a nomination-based list released biennially to raise awareness of heritage sites in need of preservation.

• The organization said "a burgeoning commercial space industry" may pose "novel risks" to preserving the integrity of dozens of historic landing and impact sites on the Moon's surface.
• This year the advocacy program featured 25 historic sites that face major challenges, including conflict, climate change and natural disaster.

Driving the news: The organization named Tranquility Base, in particular, as a trove of historic artifacts immortalizing the first time humans walked on the Moon that must be protected.

• "Exploitative visitation, souveniring, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could eventually compromise this truly unique cultural heritage, removing artifacts and forever erasing iconic prints and tracks from the Moon's surface," according to the WMF.
• Tranquility Base, the WMF's page on preserving the Moon reads, is one of over 90 historic landing and impact sites that "mark humankind's presence on the Moon's surface and testify to some of our most extraordinary feats of courage and ingenuity."

Zoom out: International collaboration is key to preserving the Moon's historic legacy, the organization writes.

• The Artemis Accords, a U.S.-led agreement by dozens of nations, govern civil uses of the Moon, its resources and other parts of outer space.
• Nations across the globe have raced to tap the Moon's scientific, economic and geopolitical value — while the commercial space race intensifies.

Other sites on the World Monuments Fund list include areas struck by war, like Gaza and an iconic building in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Go deeper: The race to tap the Moon's immense value