Axios

Many of the world's most popular global destinations are hiking fees for tourists to help manage the growing onslaught of visitors.

Why it matters: Tourist destinations, especially in Europe, want to charge globetrotters for the stress they can place on the environment, historical sites and local businesses.

Vice President Kamala Harris wants to tax long term capital gains at 28% for wealthy Americans, calling for a top rate that's more than ten points lower than what President Biden has proposed.

Why it matters: Harris' new capital gains policy marks her clearest break yet with Biden as she fleshes out her policy positions as the Democrats' presidential nominee.

Uniswap Labs, the firm behind the world's most popular decentralized exchange, is under fire from a variety of regulators.

Why it matters: If regulators want to throw a giant monkey wrench into the crypto economy, making people afraid to use Uniswap would be a great way to do it.

President Joe Biden is reportedly set to block U.S. Steel's sale to Japan's Nippon Steel.

Why it matters: The $14.9 billion deal, opposed from the start by the United Steelworkers union, has faced fierce bipartisan opposition with presidential candidates courting the labor vote in Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is based.

BDG, the owner of Bustle, Nylon and other women-focused media brands, has closed a growth investment from Medici Capital Partners, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The round provides financial support to the venture capital-backed digital media brand that previously explored going public and has repeatedly laid off employees over the years.

Private equity is the cause of, and solution to, America's most intractable monetary mess: The penny.

Catch up quick: Caity Weaver wrote a darkly humorous dive into the copper-colored coins for this past weekend's NY Times Magazine, which is very worthy of your time.

eGenesis, a developer of human-compatible organs that are derived from pigs, raised $191 million in new venture capital funding.

Why it matters: There are over 100,000 people in the U.S. on organ transplant waiting lists, the vast majority of whom are in need of kidneys.

Spotify expanded its viral daylist feature Wednesday, launching it in all of its global markets and in 14 new languages, Axios is first to report.

Why it matters: The music streaming giant is leaning into a feature that's gotten a lot of attention — reactions ranging from impressed to amused — in a bid to get more paying customers in the long term.

Elon Musk's Starlink said Tuesday it will comply with a Brazil court order to block access after all in the country to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that's controlled by the billionaire.

Why it matters: Starlink has been caught in the crosshairs of a misinformation vs. freedom of speech battle between Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Musk's X.

A hot summer at the movies ended with little fanfare, as no major movies debuted over the holiday weekend.

The big picture: The 2024 summer box office got off to a slow start before gaining momentum in June, but the season's $3.67 billion haul is down more than 10% from last year, according to Comscore.

Between the lines: Megahit "Deadpool & Wolverine" scored the top spot in the four-day Labor Day weekend with $19.4 million in its sixth week of release. That put it over $600 million domestically since it hit screens.

The bottom line: Hollywood is still trying to get back to its pre-pandemic numbers.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just keeps winning.

• This time it's an Emmy.

State of play: The boss of the chipmaking giant will receive the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award at the 76th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards, the Television Academy announced today.

• The award "honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering."

Zoom in: The academy cited Nvidia's role in pioneering graphics processing, which "sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined computer graphics and ignited the era of modern AI."

💭 Nathan's thought bubble: I'm not sure which is his biggest accomplishment: this or the 2,374% increase in Nvidia's stock over the last five years.

Volkswagen's vast empire is showing signs of cracking.

Why it matters: As the second largest automaker in the world, VW remains a powerful force in Europe, the U.S. and China in particular — but the company's size is turning into a problem.

Krispy Kreme is celebrating Barbie's 65th birthday with four doughnuts inspired by the iconic doll.

The big picture: The Barbie x Krispy Kreme Collection launched Tuesday and will be available for a limited time at doughnut shops and select grocery stores.

More than 2,000 San Francisco hotel workers are on the third and final day of their strike Tuesday as they fight for better wages, health care and workloads.

Why it matters: The union, Unite Here, said "many hotels took advantage" of pandemic staffing cuts and guest services "that were never restored, causing workers to lose jobs and income — and creating painful working conditions for those who carry the increased workload."

Two media veterans are launching a new non-partisan LGBTQ-focused outlet called Uncloseted Media, founder Spencer Macnaughton told Axios.

Why it matters: Coverage of LGBTQ-specific issues, they believe, has taken a back seat ever since the landmark Supreme Court decision was made to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S. in 2015.

Outside, a media company that houses dozens of outdoor enthusiast brands, has acquired MapMyFitness — a suite of mapping technology apps — from Under Armour, Outside CEO Robin Thurston told Axios.

The intrigue: It's a special deal for Thurston, who founded MapMyFitness in 2007 and later sold it to Under Armor for $150 million in 2013.

Private equity's top trade group is donating more to Republicans than to Democrats during this election cycle, as it hopes to head off major tax increases.

By the numbers: The American Investment Council's political action committee made over $787,000 in donations to candidates and committees through the end of July, according to OpenSecrets, which already is a record amount for the group.

The Cleveland Browns on Tuesday announced a stadium naming rights deal with Huntington Bank, which will be effective when the team kicks off its season this Sunday.

The big picture: The 20-year deal would cover the current stadium, which opened in 1999 and doesn't have a corporate name, plus any new stadium that could be built.

Dow Jones on Tuesday will announce the formation of a new commercial venture called the Dow Jones Leadership Institute, which will provide C-suite executives with services to help navigate today's ever-changing business climate, including executive education and coaching, real-time data and analysis, and peer-to-peer information.

The new unit will be led by Alan Murray, a long-time veteran of the Wall Street Journal who most recently served as CEO of Fortune Media.

It's astonishingly hard to change a name — as EY discovered on Thursday when employees around the world played the NYT's incredibly popular Connections game.

Why it matters: Large corporations often think that by changing their name, they can change how they're thought of. More common, however, is that the general public continues to think of them under their deprecated moniker.

Nvidia the company sits at the heart of an AI revolution with the potential to transform or even destroy life as we know it. Nvidia the stock, meanwhile, has become a meme around which the get-rich-quick dreams of degenerate gamblers are increasingly coalescing.

Why it matters: No other stock offers Nvidia's combination of immediate name recognition, enormous volatility, unrivaled liquidity, and, of course, meme value.

Brazil's Supreme Court on Monday upheld a decision to ban Elon Musk's X nationwide, after the platform formerly known as Twitter refused to comply with orders by the country's top judge.

Why it matters: The unanimous ruling by the five justices comes as Musk accuses Brazil's top judge of acting as a "dictator" for suspending X in Latin America's largest nation over misinformation concerns and for failing to appoint a legal representative for the social media platform in the country.

U.S. authorities seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's plane, which they say violated American sanctions, and brought it to Florida, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

The big picture: The plane was seized in the Dominican Republic because the DOJ alleges that it was "illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.