President Trump on Wednesday repeated false crime numbers, shared misleading images and doubled down on a debunked "white genocide" conspiracy theory in South Africa during his tense Oval Office meeting with that nation's president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Driving the news: Trump used a video made by political activists who oppose Ramaphosa to emphasize his claims about white Afrikaners facing racial violence by the majority Black population — claims that are widely disputed and rooted in white nationalist conspiracy theories.

Catch up quick: Trump ambushed Ramaphosa during a tense meeting in which Trump vowed to help white South African farmers get asylum in the United States.

• Ramaphosa kept his cool as Trump showed him a video that included images of white crosses along a South African road. Trump said they represented "over 1,000" white farmers killed.
• The video also showed Black South African activists purportedly calling for violence against white farmers.
• "We have dead white people, dead white farmers, mostly," Trump said, repeating unproven claims that white people in South Africa are disproportionately affected by the nation's high crime rates.

The latest: One image Trump shared that he claimed showed genocide against white people in South Africa was actually a screenshot of a February YouTube video from the Democratic Republic of Congo, per AFP.

• It features "Red Cross workers responding after women were raped and burned alive during a mass jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma," AFP notes.
• The video of what Trump said was a "burial site" of "over a thousand" white farmers appeared to be taken from a 2020 tribute to Glen and Vida Rafferty, a white farming couple who were murdered, and a display of "support in the fight against farm murders," per The Bulletin's caption of the incident.

South Africa-based CNN correspondent Larry Madowo said almost everything Trump said was "inaccurate or immediately debunked."

• He said he'd looked into the data and found no evidence of a white genocide in South Africa. "I don't think it's possible that 1,000 farmers could've been killed and buried along the roadside and there's thousands of cars paying respects without anybody noticing it," Madowo said.

Reality check: South African officials, scholars, journalists and others say there's no evidence of "thousands" of white farmers being killed in that nation, or targeted in the way Trump claimed.

• They say farmers of all races have been victims of violent home invasions in South Africa, which has a murder rate of 45 victims per 100,000 residents, the second-highest among countries that publish crime data, according to the UN Office for Drugs and Crime.
• 225 people were killed on South African farms during the four years ending in 2024, per the New York Times. Those victims included 101 Black current or former workers living on farms and 53 farmers, who are usually white, the Times reported.
• Most of the nation's violent crime occurs in cities where Black residents make up the majority, officials report.

State of play: The Trump administration welcomed a small number of white South African refugees into the U.S. this month. It also announced it was ending deportation protections for refugees from Afghanistan.

• The admission of Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that dominated South African politics during apartheid, is in response to Trump's call to "prioritize U.S. refugee resettlement of this vulnerable group facing unjust racial discrimination in South Africa," the State Department said.
• The Trump administration said white South Africans are victims of a controversial new law aimed at countering the lingering impact of apartheid.

The backstory: Some of the tension surrounding South Africa's farms stems from its new Expropriation Act, which allows the government to take some land and redistribute it as part of a long-running effort to lessen the economic disparities created by apartheid.

• Under apartheid, which ended in 1994, South Africa's white minority government prevented Black people from owning land or enjoying basic rights for nearly a half-century.
• Three decades later, South Africa's president and many other leaders are Black. White people make up 7.3% of South Africa's population while owning 72% of the farmland, a disparity that continues to ripple through the economy.

Yes, but: South Africa's new law is designed to work something like eminent domain in the U.S. It allows the government to take land from private parties if it's in the "public interest," and allows that to be done without compensation — but only if negotiations for a reasonable settlement fail.

• The nation's leading farmers' union says there've been no land confiscations since the expropriation law was passed last year.

More from Axios:

• How false "white genocide" claims became central to Trump's view of South Africa
• Trump's open door to white South Africans buys into conspiracy theory

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of findings debunking President Trump's genocide claims.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday it will seek to dismiss pending police reform agreements in Louisville and Minneapolis, days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder.

Why it matters: Scrapping proposed consent decrees for two of the nation's most scrutinized police departments is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is backing away from federal oversight of alleged police misconduct.

The big picture: Federal probes into nearly a dozen other city police departments, initiated by President Biden's Justice Department, are now unlikely to reach reform agreements.

Driving the news: The DOJ said Wednesday it will begin the process of dismissing lawsuits against the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments.

• The DOJ also said it is dropping a years-long civil rights investigation into the Phoenix Police Department and rescinding its findings of numerous constitutional violations.
• The Biden administration's DOJ found that agencies engaged in widespread patterns of unconstitutional policing practices.
• Trump's DOJ said those investigations "wrongly [equated] statistical disparities with intentional discrimination and heavily [relied] on flawed methodologies and incomplete data."
• Pending agreements also sought to subject the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments to sweeping reforms that went "far beyond the Biden administration's accusations of unconstitutional conduct," the DOJ said.

State of play: Floyd's 2020 murder by Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck triggered international protests and calls to tackle systemic racism.

• Breonna Taylor was killed that same year after Louisville police shot multiple rounds into her apartment in a raid that led to her death. A former detective was convicted of violating her rights by using excessive force.

Zoom in: Under the Minneapolis consent decree, officers would have been prohibited from cuffing people age 14 or younger, and would be required to receive specific training on working with youth.

• The agreement would have limited how much force police can use to handle crowds at demonstrations, and barred officers from detaining or destroying the equipment of reporters covering a news story.

What they're saying: "Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda," said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for DOJ's Civil Rights Division.

• "Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division's failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees."

Yes, but: Police reform advocates argue consent decrees are necessary to force departments to make systemic changes in tactics, hiring, abuse and oversight.

Reality check: Some city leaders and public safety experts tell Axios that federal oversight of police departments has had mixed results. In some cases, they've driven up costs while doing little to curb violent crime, they say.

• A consent decree in Oakland, Calif., for example, has been in place for more than two decades.
• Police in Ferguson, Mo., are more racially diverse after federal authorities intervened in 2016 following the killing of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man.

The other side: The Minnesota Department of Human Rights, the state's civil rights enforcement agency, said a state agreement on police reforms will remain in place.

• "While the Department of Justice walks away from their federal consent decree nearly five years from the murder of George Floyd, our Department and the state court consent decree aren't going anywhere," said Minnesota Department of Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero.
• "Under the state agreement, the City and MPD must make transformational changes to address race-based policing."

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pledged to continue to implement the changes laid out in both the federal consent decree and the state agreement, saying the city is "serious about our commitment to police reform, even if the president of the United States is not."

• "Here is the bottom line: We're doing it anyway," he told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. "We will comply with every sentence, every paragraph of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year."

Between the lines: Trump's reversal of police reform comes amid a decline in Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

• In Washington, D.C., Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House was quietly dismantled in March after funding threats from Republicans — a symbolic setback in what once was the epicenter of 2020's racial reckoning.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details and a statement from the Minneapolis mayor.

A coalition of faith leaders is urging religious organizations to openly show their support for LGBTQ+ people ahead of this year's Pride Month.

Why it matters: The effort comes as corporations are pulling support for Pride events and as GOP-led states are pushing laws banning Pride flags and at least 10 states have introduced bills banning marriage equality.

The big picture: This year's Pride Month comes amid uncertainty after President Trump signed an executive order against diversity, equity, and inclusion, prompting DEI walk-backs from companies.

Driving the news: In a letter with a pledge obtained by Axios, the mostly left-leaning faith leaders said "2025 Pride will test the courage of our nation" and "too often religion is used to attack LGBTQ+ people."

• The leaders said millions of dollars are being spent "targeting our Trans siblings" and promoting bills like those banning marriage equality.
• "We, who are from diverse faith traditions and beliefs, are showing up and refusing to back down. We support the LGBTQ+ community, and we Recommit to Pride," the letter said.
• The leader said they would speak out with public prayers, bold statements, and visible acts of support for the LGBTQ+ community and urged other faith leaders to sign the pledge.

Zoom in: Interfaith Alliance is organizing the campaign.

• The open pledge to be released Tuesday has already been signed by groups like the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Hindus for Human Rights and Muslims for Progressive Values.

State of play: Trump issued his anti-DEI order, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is rushing to ban transgender troops from the U.S. military under pressure from evangelicals and conservative Catholics.

• Both were among Trump's strongest supporters in the 2024 election.
• The orders and moves by the administration have resulted in several companies ending DEI programs and stopping supporting Pride events.

Zoom out: Mastercard, Citi, Pepsi, Nissan and PwC pulled sponsorship of NYC Pride. Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte pulled out of WorldPride Washington, D.C., Axios' Eleanor Hawkins reports.

• Anheuser-Busch, Comcast and Diageo also stopped sponsoring San Francisco Pride.
• Meanwhile, Minneapolis' Twin Cities Pride rejected Target's sponsorship dollars citing wishy-washy support of the LGBTQ+ community and its DEI rollbacks.

By the numbers: 39% of corporations are scaling back external Pride Month engagements this year, according to Gravity Research data.

• This is a sharp increase from last year when only 9% said they were changing their external Pride engagement.
• 57% of companies that are federal contractors plan to reduce external engagement, highlighting the risk of federal investigations.

What they're saying: "This Pride, it is more urgent than ever that we lock arms with our neighbors and build a community of solidarity," Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of GLSEN, an education LGBTQ advocacy organization, said in a statement.

• "In a moment when the fundamental rights and physical safety of LGBTQ+ people are under attack...Faith in Public Life joins in honoring Pride and recommitting to our continued advocacy," Jeanné Lewis, CEO of Faith in Public Life, said.
• "It's more important than ever for communities of faith to make absolutely clear our solidarity and support," said Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance.

Friction point: The risk for engaging around LGBTQ+ issues has increased 42% since this time last year, per Gravity Research's insights.

• Roughly 6 in 10 companies cite the Trump administration as the top reason for this change, while conservative activists and conservative policymakers come in second and third.

A British journalist whose BBC documentaries tackled the Nazi dictatorship's chaos has released a new book exploring the minds of those who carried out the Holocaust and how they defended their horrible actions decades later.

Why it matters: "The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History" released in the U.S. last week comes as antisemitism and new authoritarian regimes are rising around the world.

• It also comes around the 80th anniversary of Allied Forces defeating Nazi Germeny known as VE-Day and as Holocaust denial misinformation spreads online.

London-based author Laurence Rees tells Axios he wasn't interested in calling out any present world leader or current policy, but sought to examine why former Nazis did what they did and later insisted they were right.

• That's where we can draw the warnings, since it shows how lies, propaganda and prejudices can explain away accountability and crimes against humanity, Rees said.
• "Nobody ever said I had a gun to my head, and I just had to do it. It was orders. And the reason they didn't say it is because, actually, none of them ever did have a gun to their heads and had to do it for orders. It's a myth."

Zoom in: The book came from previously unreleased interviews Rees conducted with now dead former Nazis.

• He combines that testimony with new psychological insights around obedience, authority and the brain.
• He shows how the "us" vs "them" evolved into violent bigotry against former neighbors.
• Like his previous works, Rees seeks to debunk widespread misconceptions and get into the minds of former Nazis through their own words.

Context: Rees earned praise for his BBC documentaries and his previous books like "Auschwitz: A New History," sold at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial & Museum in Poland because of its sensitivity and reportage.

• He has collected testimonies for Nazi veterans and Holocaust survivors to show the complexities of how the Holocaust evolved overtime.
• Nazi veterans would talk about what the British were doing in India and what the United States did to Native Americans to call out the hypocracy of any criticism of Germany.

The intrigue: The book was released in the U.S. days before hip hop artist Ye released a song praising Adolf Hitler that is spreading online despite attempts to remove it.

• It also follows Elon Musk, the world's richest man, giving what scholars, journalists and rights groups said was a Hitlergruß, or Nazi salute.
• Last year, President Trump repeatedly said undocumented immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country," language echoing the rhetoric of white supremacists and Adolf Hitler.

Yes, but: Rees said he did not write the book to attack Trump because he didn't even know if he'd win the U.S. election.

• "It would be unbelievably presumptuous of me to say, 'Oh, well, here's how this applies in Caracas or in Seoul'," Rees said.
• "So the idea was to write it in such a way that the reader, whilst reading it, makes those links themselves, depending on where and when they are."

More from Axios:

• Auschwitz Museum pressed to speak out on current conflicts
• Auschwitz Museum prepares for 80th anniversary of liberation

The Supreme Court is weighing an Oklahoma case on whether to allow public funding of religious charter schools. It's just one part of a new wave of initiatives by Christian groups to put more religion into public education.

Why it matters: A movement driven mostly by Republican-led states also is pushing to expand education voucher programs, require Bibles and the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and allow students to skip school for religious instruction.

• The movement — fueled by a loose coalition of white evangelicals, conservative Catholics and some Black and Latino Protestant groups — seeks to chip away at the nation's long-held doctrine separating church and state.

Driving the news: Evangelicals have been seeking to blur the line between public and religious schools for two decades, but those efforts have accelerated recently.

• Like the Oklahoma case, some of the challenges are arising with the conservative-led Supreme Court and a supportive President Trump in mind. Other initiatives have gained ground in legislatures across the country.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this month signed legislation creating a $1 billion program that gives families state money for private school tuition, a plan that some supporters say could be a boon to religious schools.

• The voucher program will be one of the largest in the country and joins 15 other states with similar plans, according to EdChoice, an education choice group.
• Critics say voucher programs hurt public schools — and low-income families in particular — by shifting taxpayer money from those schools to many families who already can afford to send their kids to private schools.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced legislation this year to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, per Stateline.

• Ohio and Indiana lawmakers recently passed bills that say students must be allowed to leave class for private religious instruction during the school day.
• Oklahoma's state school superintendent last year ordered that the Bible be incorporated into the state's public school curriculum — a directive later challenged in court by a group of parents, teachers and ministers.
• And Texas' education board voted last year to allow Bible-based teachings in elementary schools under an optional new curriculum.

Catch up quick: Last month the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the Oklahoma Virtual Charter School Board's approval of an online school that would evangelize Catholicism.

• Oklahoma's Supreme Court ruled last year that the state board's approval of what would be the nation's first publicly funded religious school was unconstitutional.
• The school's supporters are hoping for a reversal by the high court, noting that some of its recent decisions have suggested the justices are open to public funds going to religious schools.

What they're saying: "The [U.S. Constitution's] Establishment Clause is at the very core of our nation's founding, reflecting the unambiguous mandate to keep government from supporting the establishment of religion," Richard Conn, general counsel for the Center for Inquiry, said in a statement.

• Conn said the Supreme Court should reject any "attempt to tear down the high wall separating government and religion."
• Supporters of injecting more religious instruction into public schools argue that U.S. history is intertwined with religion. Some claim that religious education can help improve students' behavior and discipline.

Between the lines: The debates over religion come as some GOP-led states also have passed laws limiting discussions of racism, Black history, diversity and LGBTQ issues in public schools.

• They're also unfolding as surveys indicate increasing numbers of Americans are identifying as non-religious — and their schools are more racially and religiously diverse than ever.

During a visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, President Trump had videos shown in the Oval Office purporting to show evidence of violence against white people in the country.

The big picture: The visit comes after Trump cut all foreign assistance to the country and parroted false allegations that white South Africans are being subjected to genocide, while granting them refugee status in the U.S.

• Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and has criticized its government, attended the talks.

Driving the news: Ramaphosa's office said in a press release that the visit is "to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of interest" and to provide a platform "to reset the strategic relationship" between the two countries.

• The announcement comes the same week the Trump administration accepted white Afrikaner refugees, with the U.S. president claiming "they're being killed" in "a genocide."
• The White House also reportedly ordered federal agencies to halt work on the G20 conference to be hosted by South Africa later this year.

State of play: Although Trump has closed the door to asylum seekers from elsewhere, he's opened it up for white South Africans affected by the country's controversial new land reform law to counter the lingering effects of apartheid.

• South Africa's Expropriation Act allows the government to take some land and redistribute as part of a long-running effort to lessen the racial and economic disparities created by apartheid.
• Under apartheid, which ended in 1994, South Africa's white minority government prevented Black citizens from owning land or enjoying basic rights for nearly a half-century.
• Three decades later, South Africa's president and many other leaders are Black. However, white people make up 7.3% of South Africa's population and own 72% of the farmland, a disparity that continues to ripple through the economy.

Zoom in: Trump has falsely accused South Africa of unfairly seizing Afrikaners' agricultural property and allowing attacks against white farmers.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeated Trump's claims on social media. He refused to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg, claiming: "South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property."
• South African-born Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser, has peddled conspiracy theories that his native country is "pushing for genocide of white people."
• Grok, the AI chatbot incorporated into Musk's X, recently responded unprompted to users with misleading claims about the alleged "white genocide" in South Africa.

Context: The belief in a "white genocide" is closely linked to a once-fringe idea called "white replacement theory," which imagines a plot to change nations' racial composition by enacting policies that reduce whites' political power.

Reality check: There's no evidence that white farmers are experiencing a spike in violence, despite a few high-profile cases.

• The Democratic Alliance, South Africa's most popular white-led political party, is made up of multiethnic voters and is challenging the land law.
• A South African court dismissed claims of a "white genocide" as "clearly imagined and not real."

Between the lines: Paul S. Landau, a University of Maryland historian and South African expert, told Axios that allegations that whites in South Africa are under attack and of Trump's offer to resettle white South Africans are based on racism and debunked conspiracy theories.

• Black women farmers, he said, are the ones facing land losses.

More from Axios:

• Musk's Grok makes "white genocide" claims on X about South Africans
• Trump administration welcomed white Afrikaners while ending Afghan protections
• Read: Episcopal Church won't help Trump admin resettle white Afrikaners
• Trump's open door to white South Africans buys into conspiracy theory

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

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the National Intelligence Council's top two officials over what the Trump administration has called the "politicization of intelligence," Fox News Digital first reported Wednesday.

The big picture: The firing of acting NIC chair Mike Collins and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, comes after an intel report from the council last week contradicted an administration assertion linking Venezuela's Maduro regime to the criminal gang Tren de Aragua.

• The administration has used this to invoke the wartime authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport undocumented immigrants with what critics say is little or no due process.

What they're saying: "These Biden holdovers were dismissed because they politicized intelligence," said Gabbard's deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, on X.

• She added that "the leak of classified info was a NIC product, which is against the law, that is the issue," as she pushed back on a Washington Post report saying Gabbard had "removed or sidelined officials perceived to not support Trump's political agenda."

Between the lines: Experts say the Trump administration has made unsubstantiated claims about Tren de Aragua and the Mara Salvatrucha gang, commonly known as MS-13.

• Gang experts say the threat of Tren de Aragua in the U.S. is overblown and a lot smaller than Trump officials have claimed.
• The administration has repeatedly called MS-13, a gang started in Southern California by Central American refugees from the 1980s civil wars, a transnational gang and has compared it to terrorist groups and organized Mexican cartels.
• Lidia E. Nuño, a Texas State University criminology professor and MS-13 expert, told Axios that MS-13 is a street gang that shows little evidence of sophisticated transnational criminal operations like cartels or the mafia.

Go deeper: Gabbard says she's referred intel leaks to the DOJ

The Warner Bros. movie "Sinners" is introducing a new generation to the importance of blues and juke joints in a 1930s segregated United States.

The big picture: Black history is facing attack today as states pass laws limiting the discussion of racism in schools and the Trump administration purges history websites, but "Sinners" is encouraging some to find that history with maps, playlists and a little research.

• "Sinners" follows twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore, both played by Michael B. Jordan, who return home to Clarksdale, Mississippi, after years in Chicago's criminal underworld.
• The World War I veterans use stolen mafia money to set up a rural juke joint in a building purchased from a Ku Klux Klan member, but their plans get thwarted after white vampires surround the party.

State of play: Though the movie was filmed in the Louisiana communities of Donaldsonville, Braithwaite and St Bernard Parish, it's set in 1932 Clarksdale, Mississippi, during the height of prohibition and Jim Crow.

• Fans today can take an inexpensive drive through the regions and uncover the many overlooked stories on how the blues helped reshape American culture and transformed Black life.

Zoom in: Mississippi has mapped the Blues Trail, to be explored with a Spotify playlist and an app that guides you through essential sites of musicians, clubs and homes.

• Sites often have markers telling you the importance of the locations and how what happened there later influenced the world.
• Mississippi also has its own tamale festival and a Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail, where visitors can see famous and historic tamale sites. In "Sinners," residents of Claksdale walk by a store selling hot tamales.
• Visitors can pay their respects to Charley Patton, the pioneering Black Native American bluesman, who is buried in Holly Ridge, Mississippi. Patton's guitar is mentioned in "Sinners."

The intrigue: To get close to the haints (Southern word for ghosts) as mentioned in "Sinners," brave visitors can visit the Beauregard Cemetery in Beauregard, Mississippi.

• That's where legendary bluesman Robert Johnson studied under blues guitarist Isaiah "Ike" Zimmerman, at midnight, where, as the saying goes, no matter how bad you play, "ain't nobody gonna complain."
• Or you can find the "Crossroads" where Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the Devil to become the world's best blues guitarist.
• The Crossroads is either at the intersection of Mississippi's Highways 61 and 49, in Clarksdale or somewhere else, depending on who you ask.

Between the lines: "Sinners" is set in one of the poorest regions of the United States today.

• Clarksdale has no movie theater for residents to see the film, per Capital B. News.
• The movie has grossed $248 million worldwide since it was released on April 18, per Box Office Mojo.

What we're watching: Clarksdale's community leaders have launched a petition to the cast of "Sinners" to host a screening and celebration in the town that inspired the film's storyline.

• Residents want more attention and visitors so they can capitalize on the rich history and the interests sparked by the horror flick.

More from Axios:

The rise of Black heritage tourism

Tamales and the blues: Latino links to Black American music and cuisine

The Library of Congress has acquired the photographs and manuscripts of Raúl Ruiz, a leading journalist in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s.

Why it matters: The acquisition was one of the last obtained under Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden before President Trump fired her late Thursday.

• Hayden was abruptly dismissed following criticism from conservatives about the Library of Congress' posts and collections on people of color.

What they're saying: "The Ruiz collection speaks to the heart of the Chicano Movement and will be an important resource for the study of journalism and Latino history," said Adam Silvia, curator of photography in the library's Prints & Photographs Division.

Driving the news: The Library of Congress announced Thursday that it obtained the Ruiz collection after it was donated by Ruiz's daughter, Marcela Ponce, and close friend, Marta E. Sánchez, a Loyola Marymount University professor.

Context: Ruiz (1940-2019) was an activist, journalist, photographer, educator and political candidate who advocated for the rights of Mexican Americans.

• He was perhaps best known as the editor of the bilingual La Raza newspaper and magazine.
• His groundbreaking periodicals covered the East LA Walkouts in 1968, the Chicano Moratorium during the Vietnam War and other issues facing the Chicano community.
• His photos were often reprinted in bilingual newspapers across the country, from San Antonio to Chicago.

Zoom in: The Raúl Ruiz Chicano Movement Collection, which is available by appointment, contains an estimated 17,500 photos taken by Ruiz.

• It also offers nearly 10,000 pages of manuscripts, which include original correspondence as well as the unpublished draft of Ruiz's book on Los Angeles Times journalist Rubén Salazar.
• One is Ruiz's iconic picture of the scene where Salazar was fatally struck by a round of tear gas fired by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy during a protest against the Vietnam War.

Between the lines: The Trump administration has purged several government websites of mentions about communities of color following several of the president's executive orders.

• The orders follow the administration's reinterpretations of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism" rather than discrimination against people of color.

What we're watching: As of now, the website announcing the Ruiz collection and some of the photos is still live.

• That could change soon if the administration deems them a violation of the president's anti-DEI executive order.

Go deeper: Defense Department restores Jackie Robinson webpage after outcry

Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S.-born pontiff, who is of Spanish and Creole descent and served in Latin America — is uniquely positioned to help ease deep divisions between the country's white and Latino Catholics.

Why it matters: The new pope has been an outspoken defender of migrant rights, and his family's immigration story touches an issue that has split many U.S. Catholics along cultural and political lines.

Zoom in: Those familiar with the former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost described him Thursday as an empathetic centrist with a measured approach that's tinted with humor.

• They imagined that he could help soften tensions within the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, and beyond.
• Some even thought that the turmoil surrounding President Trump's policies on immigration and other issues had made the surprise selection of an American pope more likely.
• "The upheaval of international order made clear by President Trump has made possible the impossible, meaning the papal election of an American citizen," Massimo Faggioli, a professor of historical theology at Villanova University — the new pope's alma mater — told CNN.

Pope Leo's selection comes as the Trump administration is detaining and pushing to deport thousands of Latino immigrants, many of them Catholics.

• "There has been no more urgent issue for the American bishops than the deportation of tens of thousands of their Catholic, Latin American parishioners," Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chairman in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, tells Axios.

White and Latino Catholics represent one in five Americans and are one of the most influential blocs among the world's Catholic faithful.

• White Catholics overwhelmingly approve of Trump's immigration policies, but few Latino Catholics agree, according to a survey released last week by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
• The survey found that white and Latino Catholics are also far apart on a range of other social issues, including LGBTQ rights and diversity initiatives.
• The divisions among American Catholics have been exacerbated by Trump's policies, presenting a significant challenge — and an opportunity — for the new pope, Chesnut said.

Between the lines: Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, tells Axios that Leo's rise could fuel interest in the church among lapsed Catholics in the U.S., where membership has been fading amid a jump in "religious nones" — those with no religious affiliation.

Reality check: Attitudes toward Trump and immigration are deeply ingrained in American culture, making it difficult for a pope — even one from Chicago — to become a major influence beyond the church.

• But the history-making aspect of Leo's selection will draw many Americans' attention, at least for a while.

The backstory: Pope Leo, 69, was born to a French-Italian American father who served in World War II and a Spanish American mother with roots in New Orleans Creole.

• He arrived in Peru on an Augustinian mission in 1985, and later directed the Augustinian seminary in the northern city of Trujillo for 10 years.
• He later became a Peruvian citizen, and maintains dual citizenship.

The future Pope Leo said last year that it's "very important" for bishops to reach out to those on the margins of society and those who feel excluded, according to Vatican News.

• The U.S. advocacy group Catholic Legal Immigration Network praised Leo's selection Thursday, saying his record indicates he "will prioritize the voices and needs of migrants" who are fleeing violence.
• In February, an X account that appears to belong to the pope re-posted an article that criticized Vice President Vance for suggesting people should prioritize how they care for one another.

More from Axios:

Meet Pope Leo XIV, the first American to serve as Bishop of Rome

Churches turn to Christmas migrant story amid deportation fears

President Trump has fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden amid a purge of government employees he believes oppose his policies or promote diversity.

Why it matters: Hayden won praise for her focus on saving photos and documents about people of color, but had faced criticism from conservatives, accusing her of promoting children's books with "radical" content.

Driving the news: AP first reported the firing late Thursday and said it came in an email from the White House's Presidential Personnel Office, which a White House source familiar with the situation confirmed to Axios. No reason was given for her dismissal, per AP.

• Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) denounced Hayden's firing.
• "Dr. Hayden is a trailblazer, a scholar, and a public servant of the highest order. She brought integrity, vision, and truth to the Library of Congress," Schumer said in a statement.
• Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said on X that Hayden's dismissal takes Trump's "assault on America's libraries to a new level."

State of play: The Trump administration has dismissed federal workers and purged government websites about communities of color following several of the president's executive orders.

• The orders follow the administration's reinterpretations of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism" rather than discrimination against people of color.
• In March, a group of federal employees who were fired for participating in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) activities filed a complaint to regain their jobs and their back pay.

Zoom in: Hayden, whose 10-year term was set to expire next year, was the first woman and Black American to be the Librarian of Congress.

• She was only the 14th Librarian of Congress in history since the Library of Congress was established in 1800.
• Hayden had led Baltimore's library system before coming to the Library of Congress.

The intrigue: Under her leadership, the Library of Congress promoted works and collections from people of color.

• The library announced it had acquired the photographs and manuscripts of pioneering Chicano journalist Raúl Ruiz.

Yes, but: Conservative MAGA influencers and groups have repeatedly attacked Hayden for the Library of Congress's posts and collections.

Context: The Library of Congress makes available historical documents, such as the papers of presidents and Supreme Court justices.

• It also collects music for its National Recording Registry.
• Last month, it inducted Vicente Fernández's "El Rey," Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and the "Hamilton" soundtrack, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, into the National Recording Registry.

Go deeper: Hidden treasures at the Library of Congress, revealed

The Trump administration is ramping up its efforts to crack down on what it calls "anti-Christian bias," telling federal workers to report any instances of such discrimination they've seen or experienced.

Why it matters: The move reflects a persistent claim by President Trump's campaign as he courted evangelicals — that Christians are under attack in the U.S. — and is part of an ongoing push by conservatives to inject more religion into government.

Zoom in: The administration's message is drawing criticism from federal workers and some Christian faith groups.

• They say it's confusing and possibly problematic for people — including Christians — who don't identify with the type of evangelicals the White House is trying to support.
• Some worry, for example, that those who don't observe Christmas could be accused of anti-Christian bias.
• Critics also point out that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act already prohibits religious discrimination in federal programs.

The big picture: The movement to put more religion in public settings and institutions is unfolding as the percentage of white Christians in the U.S. continues to decline, and an increasing share of Americans identify with no religious affiliation.

• Trump and many conservative Republicans have seized upon those societal and religious shifts to raise alarms within their loyal, white evangelical base.
• "The entire project of so-called anti-Christian bias is simply a play to [the administration's] white evangelical base," says Robert P. Jones, president and founder of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute.

Catch up quick: The White House and the conservative-led Supreme Court both appear to be willing to give religious groups, particularly Christian ones, special consideration under the law.

• Last week, Trump issued an executive order on religion, creating what he called a commission on religious liberty. He'd already announced a Faith Office and a plan aimed at "eradicating anti-Christian bias" that cited alleged anti-Christian activity by the Biden administration.
• Trump ordered up a task force on anti-Christian bias led by the Justice Department, with agency heads as members. They met for the first time in April.

State of play: The order for federal workers to report any "anti-Christian bias" came after that meeting.

• VA Secretary Doug Collins sent a department-wide email last month asking employees to "submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination."
• He said examples would include "any retaliatory actions taken in response to religious holiday observances," and "any observations of mistreatment for not participating in events or activities inconsistent with Christian views."

The VA is still figuring out what happens next.

• The agency is "staffing the anti-Christian bias task force and developing a framework for handling issues flagged by VA employees," VA Press Secretary, Pete Kasperowicz said in an email to Axios.
• "If there is bias, we want to find it, we want to make it right," a White House official told Axios.
• At the State Department, a few "concerning allegations" surfaced, the official said.

What they're saying: The VA used to send out official emails to staff that would highlight all kinds of religious holidays and traditions, one agency employee told Axios, requesting anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

• That all stopped after the anti-DEI push following Trump's inauguration. "It's just very clear who is and is not welcome right now," the employee said.
• "Asking employees to report unlawful bias is not, by itself, unlawful. If done honestly it is a good thing," said David Super, a Georgetown Law School professor whose research focuses on administrative law.
• But administration officials "seem to be making little effort to explain or define what anti-Christian bias is," he said. "I fear that some people will think that Jews, Muslims or others who do not celebrate Christian holidays will be reported for anti-Christian bias."
• Critics also point out that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act already prohibits religious discrimination in federal programs.

Any notion that such efforts are biased toward Christians is a misunderstanding, the White House official said.

• "President Trump has raised the face of faith in America to the highest level," the official said, adding that the faith office "gives a prominence to all people of faith."
• There will be other religion-oriented task forces, including one on anti-Semitism, the official said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department is "reviewing the visa status" of pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied Columbia University's main library in Manhattan on Wednesday evening.

Why it matters: Rubio's announcement builds on President Trump's January order, titled "Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism," to remove international students who've joined protests and a direction for institutions and "monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff."

• The secretary of state's action comes as the Trump administration's Task Force to Combat Antisemitism reviews the University of Washington over a pro-Palestinian protest that saw some 30 students arrested on Monday after they occupied a Seattle campus building.
• Trump vowed in March to stop the federal funding of any schools or university that allows "illegal protests," and the White House said the president had promised to "Deport Hamas Sympathizers and Revoke Student Visas."
• The administration's action this week underscores that to enforce Trump's order, it will go after student protesters at individual colleges.

Details: "We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University's library," Rubio said on X.

• "Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation."

What they're saying: A State Department spokesperson told Axios in an emailed statement Thursday that it "cannot preview future visa-related decisions, which are made on a case-by-case basis, based on the individual facts relevant to the case."

• The spokesperson added: "The Trump Administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process."

The big picture: Columbia students were among the first to set up encampments as protests against the treatment of Palestinian citizens during the Israel-Hamas war swept U.S. college campuses last year.

• The college agreed to increase safety measures in a lawsuit settlement with a Jewish student who felt threatened and their education disrupted by the campus protests.
• Some Jewish students who've taken part in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia told Al Jazeera on Wednesday they feel antisemitism is being "weaponized" and said their activism "is driven by their faith."

Between the lines: Rubio is citing a rarely used provision in U.S. law to try to remove legal residents for their pro-Palestinian speech.

The intrigue: The Trump administration's push to cast pro-Palestinian protesters as Hamas supporters — and then use anti-terrorism and immigration laws to quiet campus demonstrations — was forecast in a little-known plan last year from the creators of Project 2025.

• That plan, dubbed "Project Esther," was reflected in the White House's moves to arrest Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a protest leader, and pull about $400 million in federal funding from the university over antisemitism allegations.
• It was produced by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative group behind Project 2025, and took aim at what it called antisemitism on college campuses.
• Trump appears to have adopted many of the suggestions in Project Esther.

More from Axios:

• UW suspends 21 students after protest arrests
• NYPD arrests pro-Palestinian demonstrators after Columbia library protest
• How free speech on college campuses is being challenged
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The people, places and terms to know

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details and statements throughout.

Preliminary data show homicides in the nation's largest cities fell by 21% in the first three months of 2025 from the same period of last year, as overall violent crime continued its post-pandemic drop.

Why it matters: Stats compiled by the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) indicate that the COVID-era crime wave has almost faded away — even as some officials, including President Trump, falsely claim that immigrants are driving increased crime rates.

The big picture: Violent crime, especially homicides, spiked during the final year of Trump's first term and during Joe Biden's first two years as president. Since then, they've been dropping dramatically, an Axios review of MCCA data shows.

• Overall, violent crimes — robberies, rapes and aggravated assaults — decreased by an average of 14% in the first quarter of this year, reports from police departments in 68 cities indicate.

Many cities have had significant drops in homicides so far this year.

• Dallas has seen a 44% decline. Denver (58%), Honolulu (82%), Minneapolis (54%) and Philadelphia (28%) were among the cities showing notable drops.
• The data didn't include New York City, the nation's largest city, which didn't submit crime numbers. New York releases crime stats on its own website, where it reported a 34% drop in homicides in the first quarter of 2025.

The intrigue: Aurora, Colo., a Denver suburb that Trump singled out as being overrun by Venezuelan gangs, saw a 36% decline in homicide in early 2025. That followed a 5% drop in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to the MCCA.

• Trump repeatedly claimed during the 2024 campaign that migrants from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East were driving big jumps in violent crimes.

Reality check: Study after study has indicated that immigrants — those in the U.S. legally, and those who aren't — commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens.

• A report in December found that the homicide surge of 2020 was primarily driven by men and teen boys who were laid off or saw their schools close during pandemic shutdowns.
• Another study of 15 cities by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF), a group that defends officers facing prosecution, says "repolicing" and stepped up arrests help drive down homicides.

Yes, but: A few cities did have large jumps in homicides in the first three months of 2025, the MCCA data show.

• Fort Worth, Texas, saw a 112% spike in homicides. Houston had a 21% increase and Kansas City saw a 31% jump.

A vast majority of Americans say the increased focus on race and racial inequality after George Floyd's killing did not lead to changes that improved the lives of Black Americans, a new Pew Research Center survey finds.

Why it matters: Floyd's 2020 murder by Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck sparked international protests and calls to tackle systemic racism, but five years later, that momentum appears all but gone.

The big picture: The Black Lives Matter movement convinced companies to commit to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, but President Trump's anti-DEI executive orders have now forced many corporations to abandon those promises.

By the numbers: Five years later, 72% of Americans say the increased focus on racial inequality didn't lead to significant changes that helped Black people, the survey released Wednesday found.

• Now 52% of Americans express support for the Black Lives Matter movement, a 15 percentage points drop from June 2020.
• In addition, 49% doubt that Black Americans will ever have equal rights with white Americans, up from 39% in 2020.
• More than half of U.S. adults (54%) say the relationship between Black people and police is about the same as before Floyd was killed. A third say things are now worse, while just 11% say things are better.

Zoom in: Support for the Black Lives Matter movement remained high among Black adults, Latinos, Democrats and young adults, while fading among white Americans.

• Black adults (76%), Hispanics (61%) and Asian Americans (61%) still express greater support for Black Lives Matter than white adults (45%).
• Among Democrats, Black Lives Matter garners 84% support vs. 22% among Republicans.

Between the lines: The Black Lives Matter movement is a shell of itself from five years ago. Leaders have moved on to jobs or other causes, and few figures have replaced them.

• Many Black Americans who crowded the streets in 2020 also have stepped back from the renewed anti-Trump protests — torn between the urgency of the moment and the spiritual toll of relentless resistance.
• In Washington, D.C., Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House was quietly dismantled in March after funding threats from Republicans — a symbolic setback in what once was the epicenter of 2020's racial reckoning. There is almost no protest over that move.

What they're saying: Sunny Slaughter, a law enforcement expert and CourtTV legal analyst, says she understands why so many Americans feel like the racial reckoning didn't lead to lasting change.

• "People feel exhausted. The momentum of 2020 doesn't look the same—and I get that."
• "We've gone from reform to reframing—and now, to recalibration," Slaughter said. "We're not where we hoped we'd be. But we're not where we were either."

Zoom out: Half of U.S. adults say they feel exhausted extremely often or very often when thinking about the state of race and racial issues in the U.S. today.

• 82% of Black Americans say the nation has not gone far enough when it comes to Black people having equal rights with White people.
• About half or fewer among white, Hispanic and Asian Americans say this, the poll found.

Methodology: The report is based on the responses of 5,079 U.S. adults from Feb. 10-17, 2025. This includes adults on the Center's American Trends Panel (ATP). Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors.

• The margin of sampling error is ±1.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

The regime of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro is "probably not directing" the criminal gang Tren de Aragua's (TDA) movement into and operations within the U.S., according to a partially declassified intelligence memo.

What they found: "The small size of TDA's cells, its focus on low skill criminal activities and its decentralized structure make it highly unlikely that TDA coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling," per the U.S. intel memo that was first shared with the New York Times on Monday.

Why it matters: The Trump administration has sought to tie the Maduro regime to such criminal gangs as it invokes the wartime authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport undocumented immigrants with what critics say is little or no due process.

• The TDA is among eight drug cartels the Trump administration has designated as global terrorist organizations. The White House said in announcing the designation that the cartels "functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic" across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Yes, but: While FBI analysts agree with the National Intelligence Council's findings, "they assess some Venezuelan government officials facilitate TDA members' migration from Venezuela to the United States," per the memo, which was published under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

• The FBI believes that Venezuelan officials "use members as proxies" in the U.S. and elsewhere "to advance what they see as the Maduro regime's goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety in these countries," notes the NIC, citing reporting from the Bureau and Department of Homeland Security as of February 2024.

The intrigue: The memo from the council, which serves as a bridge between the intelligence and policy communities and which reports to National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, comes as the Trump administration faces criticism for making false statements and overgeneralizations about the Mara Salvatrucha gang, commonly known as MS-13.

• The administration has repeatedly called MS-13, a gang started in Southern California by Central American refugees from the 1980s civil wars, a transnational gang and has compared it to terrorist groups and organized Mexican cartels.
• Lidia E. Nuño, a Texas State University criminology professor and MS-13 expert, told Axios that MS-13 is a street gang that shows little evidence of sophisticated transnational criminal operations like cartels or the mafia.

Zoom in: The Trump administration has also repeated unsubstantiated claims that Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is an MS-13 member.

• President Trump incorrectly told ABC News that Ábrego García had the gang's name tattooed on his hand and would not concede that the "MS-13" letters were digitally added in a photo.

What they're saying: "It is outrageous that as President Trump and his administration work hard every day to make America safe by deporting these violent criminals, some in the media remain intent on twisting and manipulating intelligence assessments to undermine the president's agenda to keep the American people safe," Gabbard said in a statement to the NYT.

• A Justice Department official said in an emailed statement Wednesday the Tren de Aragua "is a violent gang that has terrorized Americans, and this Department of Justice is proud to work on behalf of the American people to remove these terrorists from our streets in order to make America safe again."
• Representatives for the DOJ did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on whether the intelligence assessment still stands.
• Representatives for the White House and the ODI did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment on Monday night.

Read the findings in full, via DocumentCloud:

Go deeper: Trump's deportation spectacle

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

A new Netflix-limited series takes a fresh look at the Vietnam War that examines the conflict from the eyes of Black soldiers, Vietnamese fighters and journalists on the 50th anniversary of its end.

Why it matters: The Vietnam War has split Americans across ideological and racial lines for much of the last few decades, with those divisions around the U.S. role in the world still evident today.

Zoom in: "Turning Point: The Vietnam War," which was released on Wednesday and is now streaming on Netflix, confronts those divisions head-on while trying to make sense of why the United States got involved in Vietnam in the first place.

• Following in the footsteps of other Netflix series, "Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War" and "Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror," this five-episode docuseries goes beyond military failures and diplomatic moves.
• Instead, the series examines the political and cultural reckoning that followed the war, which reshaped American society and created generations of distrust.

Series director Brian Knappenberger tells Axios the war birthed a "radically different country" in the U.S. and fostered division about government, protests and duty.

• "I think the reason to look back on it is because the Vietnam War just had this lasting impact on us."
• Knappenberger says his goal was not to glorify the past and political figures but to take an honest assessment, even when it hurt.

The intrigue: Unlike many previous documentaries on the Vietnam War, "Turning Point: The Vietnam War" actively uses the voices of Black soldiers to show how the conflict affected them as the Civil Rights Movement hit an apex.

• Black veterans talking of grappling with their conflicted feelings, fighting for "democracy" in Vietnam while being treated like second-class citizens back home.
• ​​In addition, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese American author of "The Sympathizer," talks in the documentary about the effects of the war on his family.

Flashback: President John Kennedy got the U.S. involved in a civil war in Vietnam amid the Cold War and fears of spreading Communism.

• After his assassination, President Lyndon Johnson escalated U.S. involvement, sparking anti-Vietnam War protests on college campuses across the nation.
• President Nixon continued the war, even expanded it to nearby Cambodia, until agreeing to a peace accord. Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese fighters on April 30, 1975.
• Juan José Valdez of San Antonio, Texas, was the last of the 11 U.S. Marines out of Vietnam before the fall of Saigon.

Zoom out: The new documentary comes as a new poll shows a majority of American adults, including most Vietnam War veterans, think the United States should have stayed out of Vietnam.

• The survey by Nexstar Media and Emerson College Polling, released this week, showed that a majority of adults (62%) think the U.S. should have stayed out of Vietnam.
• A plurality of U.S. adults (44%) think the war in Vietnam was not justified, while 29% believe the war was justified.

Yes, but: Knappenberger says it's also important to take into account the voices of North Vietnamese who were involved in the war and how it transformed their lives.

• The documentary talks to several Vietnamese figures who recount their experiences and the lingering results decades later.

Between the lines: Thousands of returning Vietnam War veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and were shunned by anti-war protesters and war supporters for the defeat.

• Some Vietnam War veterans, such as the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. John Kerry, ran for office, but none were ever elected president.

The Trump administration has dismissed a half-century-old school desegregation case in Louisiana in a sign that it may aggressively end other school racial desegregation cases long targeted by white conservatives.

Why it matters: The move by the U.S. Justice Department this week follows the Trump administration's reinterpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism," rather than discrimination against people of color.

The big picture: It comes weeks after the Trump administration said the federal government will no longer unequivocally prohibit contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.

• It also follows President Trump's revocation of President Lyndon Johnson's decades-old order on diversity and affirmative action practices in the federal government.

Driving the news: The DOJ said this week that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon had "righted a historical wrong" by "freeing" the Plaquemines Parish School Board of federal oversight.

• "No longer will the Plaquemines Parish School Board have to devote precious local resources over an integration issue that ended two generations ago," Dhillon said in a statement.
• "This is a prime example of neglect by past administrations, and we're now getting America refocused on our bright future."

Zoom in: The mostly-white parish is just south of New Orleans in the southeastern-most edge of the state.

The DOJ did not respond to Axios on what other desegregation cases it's looking to dismiss.

• Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a press release that she intends to pursue closures for additional remaining desegregation cases in the state, but a spokesperson was not immediately able to share a list of what school districts they would affect.

Context: The Johnson administration sued the Plaquemines Parish School Board in 1966, seeking to desegregate its schools, as it did other school districts in the South.

• Those school districts, then led by white segregationists, refused to abide by the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed racial segregation in schools.
• For decades, many of the same school districts remained under federal consent decrees for failing to abide by desegregation orders even as areas and school boards grew more racially diverse.
• White conservatives for decades have complained about the orders and claimed they were federal overreach.

What they're saying: "Louisiana got its act together decades ago, and it is past time to acknowledge how far we have come," said Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Civil Rights Division.

• "America is back, and this Department of Justice is making sure the Civil Rights Division is correcting wrongs from the past and working for all Americans."

Yes, but: Racial segregation in schools across the country has increased dramatically over the last three decades, according to reports and an Axios review of federal data.

• Federal data examined by the UCLA Civil Rights Project and the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University tool reviewed by Axios found that in the years after Gen X left public schools, the districts began to resegregate and today have returned to 1960s segregation levels.
• The resegregation of America's public schools coincides with the rise of charter schools and school choice options, and as civil rights groups have turned away from desegregation battles for Black and Latino students.
• Intensely segregated schools, defined as schools with a student population that is more than 90% nonwhite, have fewer resources, more teacher shortages, higher student-to-school counselor ratios and fewer AP class options.

Tim DeRoche, president of the nonpartisan education advocacy group Available to All, said the desegregation orders did little to stop districts from creating boundaries to keep poor children out of high-performing schools.

• "Desegregation cases have not been effective at opening up access to these elite, coveted schools, because the Supreme Court and the rest of the courts have said that it's perfectly legal to keep kids out of schools."

Between the lines: More than 130 school systems are under DOJ desegregation orders, according to records in a court filing this year, per the AP.

• Most are in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, with smaller numbers in states like Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina.
• Desegregation orders encompass a range of directives, like student assignment policies, faculty hiring practices, disciplinary procedures and educational resources.

More than one in four Americans believe Chinese Americans are a threat to U.S. society, and 40% believe Asian Americans are more loyal to their countries of origin than to the U.S., a new survey found.

Why it matters: Five years after the pandemic, when the U.S. saw a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian Americans are still battling harmful stereotypes and deep-seated misperceptions.

By the numbers: 63% of Asian Americans report feeling unsafe in at least one daily setting, according to the STAATUS Index (Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S.) released Thursday at the start of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

• The same percentage believe it is at least somewhat likely they will be victims of discrimination based on their race, ethnicity, or religion in the next five years. By comparison, 33% of white Americans say the same.
• Asian Americans (40%) are far less likely than white Americans (71%) to completely agree that they belong in the U.S., and are least likely to feel they belong in online spaces/social media and their neighborhoods.

Zoom in: This year's survey found that a record percentage (40%) of Americans believe Asian Americans are more loyal to their countries of origin than to the U.S., up from 37% last year.

• That's the highest rate since the inaugural STAATUS survey launched in 2021.
• About two-fifths of Americans support legislation prohibiting foreign citizens from certain countries, including China, from purchasing land.

Stunning stat: Fewer than half (44%) of Americans strongly agree that Japanese American incarceration — the forcible detainment of 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry during World War II — was wrong.

What they're saying: "One of the most alarming results over the past five years has been the doubling of this perception of Asian Americans as more loyal to their country of origin," Norman Chen, CEO of The Asian American Foundation and co-founder of the STAATUS report, tells Axios.

• "It questions the loyalty and patriotism of Asian Americans in this country."
• Chen said the survey also found that most Americans continue to believe the "model minority" myth of overachieving Asian Americans who are "good at math" — stereotypes that are also harmful.

Between the lines: Rising antisemitism, anti-Arab American and anti-Muslim incidents have dominated the news since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel, taking the focus off hate crimes against Asian Americans.

Zoom out: The survey also found that 42% of Americans cannot think of a famous Asian American.

• Actor Jackie Chan (11%) (who is not American) and Bruce Lee (6%) have been the most popular responses for five years in a row, followed by Kamala Harris (4%) and Lucy Liu (3%).

Yes, but: Many Americans back teaching Asian American history in schools. 

• The STAATUS Index found that nearly 80% of Americans support specific initiatives to uplift Asian American communities.
• Around 41% backed legislation requiring Asian American history to be taught in schools.

Methodology: This survey was conducted from Jan. 22 to Feb. 25 by Savanta Research. It is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 4,909 U.S.-based respondents, aged 16 and older, conducted via an online panel.

• The margin of sampling error is +/-1.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample.

The successor to Pope Francis will take over a Catholic Church with more than 1.4 billion members around the world. But his impact is likely to reach far beyond the church.

Why it matters: Popes today don't just oversee church doctrine and administration — they're global diplomats and influencers who can foster peace agreements, accelerate fights against diseases and impact population growth.

• In his dozen years as pope, Francis' decisions affected millions of non-Catholics worldwide.
• Francis was a prominent voice in calling for countries to treat refugees with dignity, pushing policies to counter climate change, demanding better treatment for marginalized groups such as LGBTQ people, and urging nations to end hostilities.

Zoom in: Cardinal electors from around the world will meet in Vatican City on May 7 to begin an election, called a conclave, to pick a new pope.

• He'll become the leader of the largest single religious organization in the world, appointing bishops, driving the church's agenda and prioritizing its global concerns.
• For Catholics, the pope is seen as the direct spiritual descendant of Peter, the first pope — a living, unbroken link back to Jesus.
• Catholics also call the pope the vicar (or representative) of Christ.

But as Francis and other popes have shown, the pontiff's agenda transcends the interests of the Catholic Church, said Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chairman in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

• "So much of this moral agenda that is rooted in Catholic Christian faith has repercussions in secular society," Chesnut told Axios.

Pope John Paul II, an anticommunist, helped to end the Cold War and prevent a nuclear war by urging countries to abolish nuclear weapons, some historians argue.

• Francis pushed Colombia and the FARC rebels to end their decades-long war and also urged the Obama administration and Cuba to open up relations.

Yes, but: Popes also can affect world events by doing nothing, or not enough, in the face of crisis.

• Pope Pius XII was criticized for remaining silent during World War II as Nazi Germany was rounding up Jewish people and putting them in concentration camps.
• In the 1960s, Pope John XXIII tried to downplay allegations of sexual abuse within the church and threatened to excommunicate those who spoke out.
• In the 1980s, Pope John Paul II called for compassion for those suffering from AIDS, but refused to endorse measures such as condoms to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. (In 2010, Pope Benedict wrote that condom use could be justified to prevent HIV from spreading.)

The intrigue: Popes can even influence what happens in local communities, said Allen Sánchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.

• A pope appoints bishops, who in some cases have steered the faithful to action on crucial local issues, Sánchez said.
• One example: For years, antipoverty advocates in New Mexico, the nation's poorest state, tried to get a state constitutional amendment to expand early childhood education.
• After Pope Francis arrived, the mood changed in New Mexico, and advocates gained the momentum to pass such a measure. Sánchez said the new pope's focus on poverty persuaded some lawmakers to rethink the issue.
• "The pope is a moral leader for many people," Sánchez said, "not just Catholics."