The Lion

Incredible day at the @WhiteHouse! 🇺🇸 @ChrisStigall & The Lion team joined media from across the country to hear directly from @PressSec Karoline Leavitt & top officials. This administration is delivering on promises made, promises kept — proud to bring these conversations to our audience! #MediaRow

There may not yet be a widely accepted term for the current spiritual movement among young people in the United States, but a new Gallup poll lends weight to the idea that a revival – or whatever it’s called – is gaining momentum among Gen Z, especially among men. The poll, released Thursday, found that the share of young men ages 18-29 who say religion is “very important” in their lives is nearing a historic high, rising sharply from 28% in 2022–23 to 42% in 2024–25 – the latest data in the survey. The all-time high, 43%, was recorded between 2000 and 2001, when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 sparked a renewed spiritual interest across the nation. At the same time, the share of young men attending religious services at least monthly climbed seven percentage points from 2022–23 to 2024–25, reaching 40% – the highest level recorded since 2012–13. That increase follows several years, from 2016–17 through 2022–23, when attendance among this demographic hovered around 33%. The same upward trend, however, is not as evident among young women – though the data still offers reasons for encouragement. Gallup found the share of women ages 18–29 who say religion is “very important” in their lives dipped to 29% in 2024–25, down from 32% in 2022–23 but unchanged from 2020–21. Read full story: bit.ly/4cQDqp5

RFK Jr. estimates Los Angeles hospice scams cost US $5,000,000,000 bit.ly/484fbkO

Tulsi Gabbard reportedly broke with Trump on renewing deep state spy tool bit.ly/484i0Cj

Trump reveals his pick for next CDC director bit.ly/41CoCUX

Veterans, active-duty members could see concealed carry nationwide under new bill bit.ly/3OMyPuY

Boston LGBTQ activist group flailing after conservative news reports on ‘wellness’ grants to migrants, funding yoga, haircuts bit.ly/4cw9UUp

Former Seattle-based federal agency head: Child care fraud is ‘common’ bit.ly/482TbGY

Assisted suicide measure fails in Arizona bit.ly/3OdNzmx

Suspect in Kansas City funeral shooting arrested, charged after monthlong investigation bit.ly/4tjUdGU

Man: “Who do you want, Dada or Pop?” Baby: “Mama” Man: “No, there is no mama.” Baby: cries

Choose your own education adventure: Florida town showcases multiple learning options bit.ly/4sHVjeD

A Senate Democrat has proposed a bill to repeal the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, which passed in President Donald Trump’s budget bill last year. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, made numerous disputed claims in an op-ed announcing the Keep Public Funds in Public Schools Act, including the accusation that school choice is “busting our state budget” and forcing public schools to close. Jenny Clark, a school choice advocate and former member of Arizona’s State Board of Education, called Kelly’s claims “completely embarrassing.” “First of all, there was a surplus last year in the Department of Education, and the ESA program is only $7,500 per student, while Arizona public school students receive closer to $15,000 per student,” Clark said in a video posted to X. The education savings account program is 90% of state funding per public school pupil and does not include federal money, “so every time a kid goes on an ESA, taxpayers save, and the money for the ESA program was already part of the Arizona K-12 budget. There’s no budget busting here.” Read full story: bit.ly/48APhoQ

Europe faces imminent flight cancellations as jet fuel reserves dwindle to roughly six weeks of supply, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned – just before President Donald Trump announced Friday the Strait of Hormuz is open for shipping. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol delivered the assessment Thursday in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with the Associated Press (AP). “I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel,” Birol told the AP about the consequences of not opening the Strait of Hormuz soon. The crisis underscores a blunt warning President Donald Trump has been making to European nations: they are underfunding their defense, while expecting the U.S. to secure European interest all over the world. Read full story: bit.ly/4tU8MkC

The United States of America needs a revival to return to its sacred principles, founded upon the covenant to be a “city on a hill,” Sen. Josh Hawley, @HawleyMO R-Missouri, said in a college lecture Thursday, drawing on the words of colonial preacher John Winthrop. “There is a direct bond between revival and liberty, and that is because our republic, our nation, depends on the character, the heart of our people, and liberty cannot be maintained unless the heart of the American people is true and good and pure,” Hawley said in his address at Boyce College and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Hawley was delivering the 2026 Duke K. McCall Leadership Lecture, during which he praised the Baptist denomination for its historical zeal for revival. “If we’re going to see revival in this country, we’ve got to see men and women who are on fire for the Lord in this country,” he said. Read full story: bit.ly/48aa3vr

“Transgender ideology has hijacked science and used it to advance an agenda.” @ReadTheLion features @AlanShlemon in an article about whether a person can actually change their sex. Read the full article at readlion.com/experts-debunk….

For @ReadTheLion, @Alex____Stevens discussed the false link between data center concentration and high electricity prices. “States that had rising demand for electricity actually have lower prices. ... When demand grows, those costs are spread over more consumers.”

A 33-year-old man is in custody after surveillance footage allegedly showed him spray-painting swastikas on at least five cars in a south St. Louis neighborhood. Daniel Joseph Hughes faces two felony counts of first-degree property damage. Court documents show he is homeless. Police arrested him April 13, two days after the vandalism occurred in an alley near the 1900 block of Utah Street. Neighbors discovered the markings the next morning. Neighbors also recognized the person of interest in the video and contacted police. Read full story: bit.ly/4et2l3i

Commission advances Trump’s legacy arch for nation’s capital bit.ly/4dTeqib

Authorities review death of 11th scientist bit.ly/42itgra

Trump: Strait of Hormuz is open bit.ly/4chuHfB