Axios

Costco Wholesale Club has started to crack down on members sharing their cards at the self-checkout lines.

Driving the news: Costco confirmed to Axios on Tuesday that it has noticed “non-member shoppers have been using membership cards that do not belong to them” since expanding its self-service checkout.

In countries around the world, people are now more likely to name the U.S. as the world's leading economic power, rather than China, according to a new Pew Research Center report published Tuesday.

Why it matters: The findings underscore the U.S.' economic dominance as nations emerge from the upheaval of the pandemic and highlights the divide between the two superpowers even as U.S.-China relations remain strained.

The war against “junk fees” isn’t just confined to Taylor Swift tickets, with some credit cards also guilty of obfuscating pricey charges that can blindside consumers.

Driving the news: The Biden administration went on the offensive against extraneous service costs, a problem highlighted by the sky-high prices of Swift’s “Eras” tour, Axios Closer’s Nathan Bomey wrote earlier this month.

A spike in injuries from pickleball's surge in popularity is driving up medical costs, possibly to the tune of a half billion dollars, according to a new report.

Why it matters: Pickleball is the nation's fastest-growing sport — but it comes with a few unintended consequences.

Progressives are warning that what they see as poor messaging on the country's economic gains is weakening Latino support for Democrats, including President Biden, in Nevada and Arizona — two key battleground states.

Driving the news: Valiente, the research wing of the Way to Win Action Fund, today released findings from eight focus groups where Latino voters in both of those states expressed only "soft" support for Biden, adding that he did not do anything to help them or their families and that they did not know about Democrats' accomplishments over the past two years, such as the America Rescue Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

The housing market appears to be shaking off the shock of higher mortgage rates.

Driving the news: The number of new home sales rose for the third month in a row in May, up 12.2% from April — and up 20% over last year, per government data out Tuesday.

Inflation has plunged from its peak levels of a year ago. But some influential economists have a warning: The hardest part of reining in prices still lies ahead.

Why it matters: Even as price increases have slowed, underlying inflation has proven stubborn in the United States and Europe, creating the risks that central banks have to keep rates higher for longer than markets have been pricing in — with all the collateral damage that can cause.

Betr, a media and sports micro-betting platform co-founded by social media star and boxer Jake Paul, on Tuesday said it's secured $35 million in new funding at a $300 million pre-money valuation.

Why it matters: The capital will be used to scale Betr's media offering, which centers primarily on YouTube, so that the audience can be converted to sports betters at a low cost.

Demand for big-ticket items strengthened in May, the latest sign of resilience in the U.S. economy.

By the numbers: Overall new orders for durable goods surged 1.7% last month, the Census Bureau said Tuesday morning, the third straight month of gain. That was driven in significant part by aircraft orders.

• But promisingly, a key indicator of the outlook for business investment — nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft — rose 0.7% in May, building on an April rise. Analysts had expected that number to be flat.

FTX's new management has provided more details on the alleged misuse of FTX customer funds by FTX, Alameda Research and related entities.

Why it matters: Most FTX watchers already believe claims that the firm made use of funds deposited by users of the FTX exchange, but allegations made in this report would confirm that more directly than we've previously seen and shed considerable light on various aspects.

Sports betting is booming in the U.S., with more than $220 billion wagered since the Supreme Court's landmark legalization decision, and now is the subject of an escalating merger battle between the industry's number two player and a well-heeled newbie.

Driving the news: DraftKings made a $195 million nonbinding offer to buy the U.S. assets of Australian bookmaker PointsBet Holdings, topping an existing $150 million agreement with Fanatics.

Thomson Reuters has agreed to buy Casetext, a San Francisco-based AI assistant for lawyers, for $650 million in cash.

Why it matters: The only thing hotter than funding AI startups may be acquiring AI startups, with this deal coming one day after Databricks agreed to buy MosaicML for $1.3 billion in stock.

A group of high-profile former journalists is coming together to launch a venture capital firm that will specialize in early investments in tech startups, its founder Katherine Tarbox told Axios.

Why it matters: The collapse of FTX, following a string of startups recently busted for corruption, has spotlighted the lax standards that can sometimes be used by investors to allocate capital during early-stage startup raises.

Austin Russell, the 28-year-old entrepreneur who says he has struck a deal to buy 82% of Forbes, is working to pull more American dollars into his takeover bid ahead of a Nov. 1 deadline to close the deal, sources familiar with the deal told Axios.

Why it matters: The deal structure he inherited when he took over the buyout process from Sun Group, an India-based investment group with ties to Russia, included a slew of foreign investors, as well as an all-male list of potential board members.

Roku is planning to expand its business into smart homes, CEO Anthony Wood told Axios in an interview, marking a natural progression from licensing operating systems for smart TVs to licensing operating systems that power connected houses.

Why it matters: Wood saw the need to build a smart TV operating system early on, allowing Roku to build market share quickly as streaming ascended. Now, he sees a similar opening for smart homes.

Lordstown Motors, a startup electric vehicle company once heralded as the savior of a former General Motors plant in Ohio, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday and sued its partner Foxconn.

Why it matters: The filing marks the collapse of a company that had ambitions of becoming a major player in the EV industry but ended up making only a handful of pickups before its implosion.

The U.K. has the worst-performing big stock market this year.

Why it matters: It's yet another reflection — along with lackluster growth and persistently high inflation — of the economic headwinds facing the country.

It's shaping up to be a summer of strikes: Workers are walking off the job across a remarkable range of industries from Starbucks baristas to factory workers making parts for jets to Amazon drivers.

Why it matters: The worker activism sparked by the pandemic seems to be increasing, thanks in part to a still-tight labor market and a relatively strong economy.

Social media has shrunk as a source for news, mostly due to Facebook's global pullback from news.

Why it matters: Growth in news consumption on vertical video platforms like TikTok and Instagram has not grown fast enough to offset the reduction in news consumption on Facebook globally.

Biden administration officials on Monday denounced online harassment against a Wall Street Journal reporter who asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his government's human rights record at the White House last week.

Driving the news: Sabrina Siddiqui has been subject to "intense online harassment from people inside India," some of them politicians associated with Modi's government, and is being targeted because of her Muslim faith, another reporter said during a White House press briefing Monday.