🕊️ Axios PM: A historic apology

🇺🇸 Hoping you've had a meaningful Memorial Day, when we honor service members who lost their lives defending America.

• This holiday newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 612 words, a 2½-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

Pope Leo XIV offered a historic apology today for the Vatican's role in legitimizing slavery, calling it a "wound in Christian memory."

• Leo wrote: "It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord."
• "For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon."

🇻🇦 Past popes have apologized for Christians' involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

• But no pope had ever publicly acknowledged — much less apologized for — past popes' roles in giving European leaders authority to subjugate and enslave "infidels." Go deeper.

📝 Leo — the first U.S.-born pope, and whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners — delivered the apology as part of his first encyclical, "Magnifica humanitas" (Magnificent humanity).

• The 42,000-word encyclical was primarily a sweeping manifesto calling for robust regulation of AI: "To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity."

⛏️ Leo raised the trans-Atlantic slave trade in relation to what he called new forms of slavery and colonialism fueled by the AI boom, including unregulated labor practices in mining for rare minerals used in computer chips.

• Meghan Sullivan, director of Notre Dame's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, tells Axios' Russell Contreras: "Pope Leo has announced himself as one of the leading figures in AI ethics now with this document."

Go deeper.

Above: Visitors pay respects yesterday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

A Young Marine helps carry an American flag during a parade today down Constitution Avenue in Washington.

In Farmington, Maine, Robin Hutchinson cleaned off the gravestone of his grandfather, a World War II veteran, at Riverside Cemetery.

• Hutchinson said he visits every Memorial Day weekend.

A member of the Army's 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard," carried her daughter on her shoulders last week as she placed flags in front of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery.

As AI-native and agentic architectures emerge, the software industry is shifting from selling products to delivering outcomes.

As a result, incumbent software leaders are moving beyond incremental updates toward a fundamental "refounding" to capture value in this new paradigm.

Read the Q&A.

1. 🚒 The risk of a catastrophic explosion at a damaged chemical tank in Garden Grove, Calif., has been eliminated following a close overnight inspection that confirmed a crack in the tank relieved pressure and cooled the chemical. Get the latest.
2. 🏥 A bystander injured in Saturday's shootout near the White House remains in serious but stable condition. Go deeper.
3. 🍿 Disney's "The Mandalorian and Grogu" is off to a strong start at the box office, on pace to gross $102 million over its three-day opening weekend. It's a silver screen reset for the Star Wars franchise — and a chance to sell a bunch of new toys and other merch. N.Y. Times gift link.

The Sports Bra — a popular women's sports bar in Portland, Ore. — is eyeing a rapid nationwide expansion powered by community funding, Axios Portland's Kale Williams reports.

• The company, which bills itself as the "world's first sports bar fully dedicated to women's sports," is pitching backers through Republic, an online investment platform specializing in startups and crypto.
• 💸 For as little as $250, patrons and fans can buy equity as the bar seeks to raise $1.2 million.

🏗️ Five independently owned franchises are already in development — in Boston, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Portland, Maine.

• The Sports Bra plans to open in 40+ cities over the next four years, including New York, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and San Francisco.

Go deeper ... See the pitch.

The latest insights on capital markets, commodities, volatility, AI and more.

Get weekly market breakdowns from leaders at Goldman Sachs in the Briefings newsletter. Read analysis on the biggest market moves — and what you need to know for the week ahead.

Subscribe to Briefings from Goldman Sachs.

📬 Thanks for reading! Please invite your friends to join PM.