President Trump said on Friday that the U.S. would terminate trade discussions with Canada and assign a tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week.
Why it matters: It is a fresh blow to the U.S.-Canadian economic relationship, which has come under historic strain since Trump took office.
CANNES, France – Media executives are focusing investments into the fast-growing market of women's sports, they said at an Axios event at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Why it matters: Women's sports is booming in viewership, engagement and fandoms as more women's teams are launching and business executives are noticing the growth opportunities.
Axios' Sara Fischer spoke with Roku Media president Charlie Collier, NBCUniversal global advertising and partnerships chairman Mark Marshall, NBC Sports host and play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and Tubi CEO Anjali Sud at the June 18 event, sponsored by Nielsen.
What they're saying: Roku Media and Tubi see opportunities in investing and promoting women's sports.
"We have all sorts of women's sports and we have a women's sport zone and we've invested in women's volleyball and we've invested in women's soccer," Collier said.
"Platforms like iON that had the [WNBA player] Caitlin Clark games as part of their package before Caitlin Clark blew up, we absolutely made sure that we got our viewers to those games on iON. It wasn't our rights, but it was absolutely our right to elevate that pop-cultural moment," he added.
"For women in sports in particular, there's just a need here. There's a vacuum that I think we have an opportunity to fill," Sud said.
Sud also mentioned that Gen Z audiences care about the stories behind the athletes as well as the game, so Tubi is developing more "shoulder content" to appeal to younger audiences.
"We just announced … a [tennis player] Naomi Osaka doc that's going to be coming out on Tubi in August," Sud said. "It's going to be talking about her journey coming back into the game after having a baby."
"Beyond the diehard sports fans, there are people who are in it for the culture. And we need to serve them with compelling stories and content and build that momentum."
Separately, NBC Sports discussed its major deal with the NBA, which will broadcast on NBC from Sunday to Tuesday nights, blending linear and streaming to maximize reach.
"Sunday, we'll have a pregame and then the game," Tirico said. "Monday, there'll be games on Peacock. …Tuesday, on NBC. … We'll have an NBA game on the East Coast at 8 Eastern time and then we'll have a game for our Mountain and Pacific time zone affiliates at 8 o'clock Pacific time."
"What I'm excited about is the amount of NBA that will be on broadcast TV in prime time. So you'll have a game every week on Tuesday night, which I think will be a boost for the league and really get the package off to a great start."
Marshall added: "Part of what I really was hoping for and it worked out was to be on the front half of the week and so we can promote the rest of the entertainment programming that will happen on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Whereas, you know, 'Sunday Night Football,' that's what we've done for years. Now we'll actually go from 'Sunday Night Football' to 'Sunday Night Basketball' on Peacock every Monday night and Tuesday on NBC prime time."
"So all of a sudden we have this huge promotional platform that's going to bring a younger, more multicultural audience to NBC that's probably been there, that's not there every week as we sit here today."
Content from the sponsored segment:
In a View From the Top conversation, Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao emphasized the major growth of women's sports.
"There is a real uplift for all things women and sports, and this is a phenomenon that has shifted … in the last two to three years," he said. "All things women in sports, WNBA, like literally it's just beginning. It's going to scale quite dramatically."
The notorious Scattered Spider hacking gang is now actively targeting the aviation and transportation sectors, cybersecurity firms warned on Friday.
Why it matters: The group of mostly Western, English-speaking hackers has been on a months-long spree that's prompted operational disruptions at grocery suppliers, major retail storefronts and insurance companies in the U.S. and U.K.
The House and the White House are negotiating an offer to keep the House-passed $40,000 SALT cap increase but peg it to a shorter 5-year timeline in President Trump's "big, beautiful bill," Axios has learned.
Why it matters: That could move one of the bill's thorniest issues closer to being resolved. But House SALT holdouts and senators — who have almost no incentive to be generous on SALT — still need to agree.
Apple Tree Partners has invested billions of dollars to launch and grow biotech companies, but now a legal dispute threatens to shut many of them down.
The big picture: Apple Tree has an unusual structure for a venture capital firm, according to court documents filed in Delaware and the Cayman Islands.
Uber is in talks with former CEO Travis Kalanick to help fund his prospective bid for the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese self-driving car company Pony.ai, as reported by The New York Times and confirmed by Axios.
Why it matters: The 2017 breakup between Uber and Kalanick was brutal. When the ride-hail giant went public 23 months later, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi rejected Kalanick's request to stand on the NYSE "balcony" to help ring the opening bell.
The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation showed mild price gains in May, though consumer spending slumped and pay growth slowed.
Why it matters: President Trump's trade policies are having a limited effect on inflation so far, though Americans are easing spending after a run-up to get ahead of tariffs.
by Jim O'Leary, Chief Executive Officer, North America, and Global President, Weber Shandwick
Like many communications and marketing executives, I've spent a lot of time listening, learning, and thinking about where our industry is heading.
What you need to know: The next five years will transform communications more dramatically than the previous five decades. Chief communicators and marketing executives face a once-in-a-generation shift as technology fundamentally reshapes how attention is captured, how information spreads, and how reputations are shaped under intensifying pressure.
The New York Power Authority plans to approach the Energy Department's loan office about the state's new nuclear energy plans, president and CEO Justin Driscoll tells Axios.
Why it matters: The comments help reveal how the NYPA is thinking about options for launching the state's first reactor construction in decades.
Republicans in Georgia's state legislature — including a key ally of Gov. Brian Kemp — are pressing U.S. Senate leaders to preserve solar deployment and manufacturing credits.
Why it matters: The lobbying efforts show how GOP plans to pare back Inflation Reduction Act credits in budget reconciliation are roiling red-state developments.
The relentless decline of the dollar in recent months has a silver lining for the tech rally in the stock market.
Why it matters: A declining dollar can be considered bullish for U.S. stocks, as it provides an earnings boost for globally exposed companies when they convert their international revenue into dollars on financial statements.
Some Wall Street veterans say appetite for the U.S. dollar is waning in ways not seen in years.
Why it matters: It could be the great unwind of the greenback binge of the past decade, when exposure to America was the world's safest — and a highly rewarding — investment. Now investors are hedging those bets.
The Olympics has a bold plan to use AI to make upcoming games in Italy and Los Angeles more efficient and to improve the experience for those watching on TV around the world.
Why it matters: As one of the most watched and lucrative global events, the games have long served as a testbed for new technologies.
