Multiple fintech companies are balking at sending buy-now-pay-later data to credit bureaus, citing concerns about whether the products will be interpreted fairly for consumers.
Why it matters: With over 90 million Americans expected to use BNPL for purchases this year, critics argue that existing credit scores paint an incomplete picture of an individual's likelihood to pay back loans.
With AI-driven content flooding social media feeds, creators are pivoting to apps like Patreon, Substack, OnlyFans and Beehiiv to build their businesses.
Why it matters: Social media is still a great place for creators to grow their free audiences. But connecting with fans on a deeper level and getting them to actually pay for content often requires a specialized focus that most social apps don't offer.
President Trump is planning an executive order that would punish banks if they are believed to be discriminating against political conservatives.
Why it matters: The president has previously targeted law firms and media companies, but with banks — one of the most heavily regulated industries — the administration has a number of levers it can pull to apply pressure.
SB Nation, one of the highest traffic brands within the Vox Media portfolio, has redesigned its website and its dozens of niche sports fan websites to include a new community content section called "The Feed," Vox Media president of revenue and growth Ryan Pauley told Axios.
Why it matters: The redesign, which places user and fan content alongside SB Nation's professionally created content, is meant to help the brand recapture engagement that occurs on external social media feeds instead of its sites.
Homicides declined in major U.S. cities — by more than 50% in some communities — during the first six months of the year, according to new data from an organization of law enforcement executives.
Why it matters: The stats are the latest signs that violent crime in America is falling from the COVID crime wave, and that drop appears to be accelerating during President Trump's first months in office.
Why it matters: As a federal prosecutor in 2008, Acosta approved a highly controversial non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to serve minimal time in prison and shut down the federal investigation into his alleged sex trafficking ring.
OpenAI on Tuesday debuted two freely downloadable models that it says can, for certain tasks, match the performance of some modes of ChatGPT.
Why it matters: OpenAI is aiming the new models at customers who want the cost savings and privacy benefits that come from running AI models directly on their own devices rather than relying on cloud-based services like ChatGPT or its rivals.
Two anonymous victims of Jeffrey Epstein wrote letters to a federal judge on Monday raising flags about the Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury testimony.
The big picture: Neither victim requested to keep the files under seal, but bothurged the court to make sure any identifying information was thoroughly scrubbed to protect them.
Several of this summer's top movies are sequels arriving decades after the original films premiered.
Why it matters: With franchise fatigue setting in, studios are tapping into the nostalgia of older gems that haven't been exploited yet to lure viewers back to the box office.
Warren Buffett is renowned for his investment advice. If only he'd listened to it when it came to private equity.
Why it matters: Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway on Saturday took a $3.8 billion writedown on its 27.5% stake in Kraft Heinz, which now is weighing various breakup plans to salvage value.
Linda Yaccarino has a new job in a vastly different industry weeks after her exit as CEO of X, Elon Musk's social discourse app.
Why it matters: Musk hired the former NBCUniversal ad boss as the first permanent CEO of the platform formerly known as Twitter after he acquired it in 2022.
Why it matters: Centuries after they were considered medicinal, mushrooms are today's go-to "functional" food — with a brain-boosting, sustainable aura.
State of play: "Mushrooms have such a health halo," says Chicago-based registered dietitian Janet Helm. Plus, they're versatile.
"Particularly with Gen Z, if you put it in a beverage, they love it." That's largely because of sustainability and brain-boosting reasons.
And mushrooms are a key ingredient for the emerging category of part-veggie, part-meat foods.
SmartNews, the Japanese news discovery app founded in 2012, is releasing a new artificial intelligence-powered app, executives tell Axios.
Why it matters: The new app — called NewsArc — is meant to offer heavily engaged news readers a more personalized experience without putting them in echo chambers.
Creators on Patreon have received more than $10 billion in payments from fans since the company was founded in 2013, CEO and co-founder Jack Conte tells Axios.
Why it matters: With more than 25 million paid memberships on the platform, Patreon has proven itself essential to the growth of the modern creator economy, says Conte.
Why it matters: There had been heavy speculation that Bessent was a leading candidate to succeed Jerome Powell next May when his term as Fed chair ends.
President Trump on Tuesday repeated his claims that government jobs data was rigged, insisting — without evidence — the statistics were manipulated to make him look bad.
Why it matters: The more the president says the economy's most crucial data point isn't believable, the more investors might question their investments.
The bidding war for top AI talent masks a deepening crisis in the broader market for tech skills.
The big picture: You'll never get a billion-dollar job offer from Mark Zuckerberg if you're not a top AI expert. And even if you are, you're still not getting one unless you're among the tiny handful of researchers who've built the massive models at AI's frontier edge.
President Trump and Rupert Murdoch reached a deal Monday to postpone the media mogul's deposition in a libel lawsuit related to the Wall Street Journal publishing a report on an Epstein birthday book, per court filings.
Why it matters: Trump's lawyers had raised concerns about Murdoch's age and health when they asked a federal court in Florida last week to expedite the 94-year-old's deposition, but the deal postpones this until after the outlet's upcoming motion to dismiss the case.
