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☆ DeSantis’s Miscalculation: ‘Disney Is Playing the Long Game’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | Robbie Whelan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested it would be a short fight when he first threatened to strip Walt Disney Co. of the power to govern its magic kingdom of theme parks, waterslides and hotels around Orlando. A year later, Mr. DeSantis is enmeshed in a drawn-out conflict with the entertainment giant that has shifted from the political realm into the courts, with no end in sight.

☆ Coronation travel guide: Transport advice, London hotels and where to watch
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

Take the Conrad London St. James, for example, which sits between the Mall and Westminster Abbey. Most of the roads around Westminster Abbey and St. James’s Park Underground station will be blocked off. How to see the coronationCharles and Camilla will ride in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach to Westminster Abbey for the ceremony. Niklas Halle'n/AFP/Getty ImagesThe coronation itself will take place on the morning of Saturday May 6 at Westminster Abbey. Royal Windsor Racecourse, near Windsor Castle, and on the bank of the River Thames, is having a race night to celebrate the day’s public holiday.

☆ Rubio warned politicians against going after companies for 'political purposes' after Disney sued DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marco Rubio said lawmakers should avoid looking like they are going after companies for "political purposes." Disney has sued Florida Republican Gov. Fox host Brian Kilmeade asked Rubio about comments by some Republicans, who criticized DeSantis for targeting the company. Disney sued DeSantis, who is widely expected to run for president, on Wednesday, saying that the governor was trying to "weaponize government power" by targeting the company. But when it comes to Disney, Rubio said he doesn't think the company is going to leave Florida.

☆ 5 reasons fighting Disney is a political winner for DeSantis — and 6 reasons it could hurt his shot at the presidency
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

It does a ton of business in China, which many GOP voters view as a threat to the US. DeSantis already ran on being anti-Disney — and wonTaryn Fenske, DeSantis' communications director, has described the Disney fight as being "the will of Florida voters." And they might not vote for DeSantis if they think the Disney fight is a killer in a general election. Families often work hard and save for years to take their children to Disney World. If DeSantis can't bring a resolution to the Disney fight, can he handle the job of president?

☆ Teen bans on the rise: malls, theme parks, and even a Chick-fil-A are requiring chaperones to stop rowdy minors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Shopping malls, theme parks, and a Chick-fil-A restaurant are starting to require chaperones for teenagers. Curfews for teens are nothing new — they first popped up at malls in the 1980s and 1990s. Southern California's Knott's Berry Farm announced in April that it was instituting a stricter policy in response to "increasing incidents of unruly and inappropriate behavior," the theme park said. Visitors pose for photos at Knott's Berry Farm. Jae C. Hong/APKnott's Berry Farm isn't alone in cracking down on unsupervised teenage visitors recently.

☆ DeSantis' tough words may come back to haunt him in Disney lawsuit, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tom Hals | Thomson Reuters | Tom Hals Is An Award-Winning Reporter With Years Of Experience Working In Asia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] Florida Governor and likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks as part of his Florida Blueprint tour in Pinellas Park, Florida, U.S. March 8, 2023. Disney on Wednesday sued DeSantis to prevent the state from ending the company's virtual autonomy in central Florida where it has its theme parks. Disney said DeSantis' actions amounted to a "targeted campaign of government retaliation." Disney claimed in its lawsuit that the state adopted a "targeted campaign of government retaliation — orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech." DeSantis' tough talk toward Disney is cited throughout the lawsuit, including 18 quotes referring to some form of "woke Disney."

☆ A year in Azerbaijan: From the Grand Prix to the ski slopes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Words Cnn Staff | Photo Illustrations Woojin Lee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

CNN —Anyone who has tuned in to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has seen a tantalizing glimpse of what the capital Baku has to offer. This year’s Grand Prix comes at the height of spring, often said to be Azerbaijan’s most beautiful season. Juan Vilata/Alamy Stock Photo Explore Azerbaijan in spring Prev NextSummers in Azerbaijan are hot, so getting out of the city is a good idea. Alexander Melnikov/Alamy Stock Photo Explore Azerbaijan in fall Prev NextWrap up, because even at its coldest Azerbaijan still has plenty to offer. You’ll learn much more at the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum in Baku.

☆ Recasting the upcoming GameStop movie: Here's who should play Ken Griffin, Steve Cohen, and the rest of the gang
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Wall Street is getting the Hollywood treatment again. - Paul Giamatti as AMC's Adam Aron (This guy knows his way around Wall Street.) For more on the upcoming GameStop movie, including who is set to play the "pot-smoking retail trader," click here. Here's why the rest of Wall Street might be motivated to help First Republic. Meet the new generation of the ultra-rich on Wall Street.

☆ Comcast beats estimates despite slowing broadband growth, higher Peacock losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Comcast topped analyst expectations with its first quarter earnings report Thursday, despite the cable and media giant's residential broadband business's slowing growth and mounting Peacock losses. Still, it was a sign that Comcast, like its peers, continue to face slowing growth in the broadband business. Cable TV customers continued their exodus from the traditional bundle, with Comcast losing 614,000 subscribers during the quarter. Comcast said Peacock subscribers grew more than 60% year-over-year to 22 million, and revenue was up 45% to $685 million. Peacock had $704 million in losses, up from losses of $456 million in the same period last year.

The company's total revenue fell 4.3% to $29.69 billion in the quarter, but beat analysts' average estimate of $29.30 billion, according to Refinitiv data. However, adjusted losses from the ad-reliant platform widened to $704 million from $456 million a year-ago as Comcast continues to invest heavily in content. Theme parks revenue climbed nearly 25%, thanks to a rebound in attendance at its parks overseas and the lifting of COVID curbs in China. Comcast gained 5,000 broadband customers in the March quarter, while Factset had estimated a loss of 20,000 users. Overall, net income attributable to Comcast rose 8% to $3.83 billion in the quarter.

☆ Disney has a ‘strong case’ against DeSantis over his ‘retaliatory campaign,’ First Amendment experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Disney just cast Ron DeSantis as the villain in a story of good versus evil. DeSantis responded to the lawsuit by issuing a statement through his communications director, Taryn Fenske. “It’s a serious First Amendment case,” Floyd Abrams, the renowned First Amendment attorney of Pentagon Papers fame, told me. The truth is that characterizing Disney as a creepy company that aims to morally bankrupt kids has become a mainstream position in GOP media circles. DeSantis knows this — which is why he was happy to pick this battle with the company.

☆ DeSantis dismisses Disney lawsuit over loss of self-governance as 'political'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Summer Concepcion | Gabe Gutierrez | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Ron DeSantis on Thursday brushed off a lawsuit by the Walt Disney Co. over the revocation of its Orlando-area theme park's self-governing privileges as politically motivated. The lawsuit escalates the feud between Disney and DeSantis that has led to his push to strip Walt Disney World's self-governing privileges. DeSantis argued that Disney's self-governing privileges go against being "pro-business." Lawyers for the Walt Disney Co. did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. "The people of Florida, they understood that this was an issue," he said, referring to Walt Disney World's self-governing privileges.

Florida lawmakers passed legislation that ended Disney's virtual autonomy in central Florida where the Disney World theme parks attract millions of visitors each year. "Disney now is forced to defend itself against a State weaponizing its power to inflict political punishment," the company said. DeSantis has argued that Disney, which employs roughly 75,000 people in Florida, had been enjoying unfair advantages for decades. Carlos Curbelo, a former U.S. Republican congressman from Miami, said DeSantis' attacks on Disney "made sense for a time." Florida's new oversight body on Wednesday said Disney's plans for potential expansion of Disney World did not comply with state law, and declared that agreement void.

Florida lawmakers passed legislation that ended Disney's virtual autonomy in central Florida where the Disney World theme parks are located and attract millions of visitors each year. In the action filed in federal court in Tallahassee, Disney said it had no choice but to take legal action. DeSantis has argued that Disney, which employs roughly 75,000 people in the Florida, had been operating with unfair advantages for decades. Carlos Curbelo, a former U.S. Republican congressman from Miami, said DeSantis' attacks on Disney "made sense for a time." Florida's new oversight board on Wednesday said Disney's plans for potential expansion of Disney World did not comply with state law, and declared that agreement void.

☆ Disney Files Suit After DeSantis’s Oversight Board Voids Theme-Park Agreements
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: APWalt Disney Co. sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after a new board he named to oversee the district housing the company’s Orlando-area theme parks declared null and void agreements Disney struck in February. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, accuses the Republican governor of conducting a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” as punishment for the company’s decision to speak out against a law passed last year with the governor’s backing that bars classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in early elementary-school years.

☆ Ron DeSantis’s Disney Oversight Board to Consider Nullifying Agreements
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: APAn oversight board named by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is scheduled to meet Wednesday and consider a proposal to declare null and void agreements struck by Walt Disney Co. in February that retained much of the company’s control over the land near Orlando that houses its theme parks. At its meeting last week, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board of supervisors, which oversees a special tax district that includes Walt Disney World Resort, criticized agreements cemented by the company shortly before the new board, aligned with Mr. DeSantis, took over. Disney went before the board’s prior leadership, which it essentially handpicked under a previous structure that the state Legislature and Mr. DeSantis overhauled, and secured approvals for the next 30 years on zoning, infrastructure and air rights that the company might need if it chooses to expand Disney World.

☆ Disney Sues Ron DeSantis After Oversight Board Voids Theme-Park Agreements
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Disney sues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, alleges political effort to hurt its business
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Walt Disney Co. sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, alleging the Republican governor has waged a "relentless campaign to weaponize government power" against the company amid a protracted fight over a controversial classroom bill. The federal lawsuit alleges that DeSantis "orchestrated at every step" a campaign to punish Disney that now threatens the company's business. Soon after, the governor and his allies targeted the special tax district that has allowed Disney to essentially self-govern its Florida operations since the 1960s. "The government action was patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional," Disney alleged in the civil complaint in U.S. District Court in northern Florida.

☆ Explainer: How did the battle between Ron DeSantis and Disney escalate?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) sued Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, asking a federal court to overturn state efforts to exert greater control over the Walt Disney World theme parks. DeSantis responded by urging the legislature to abolish a special district that gave Disney virtual autonomy over the development of its theme parks in central Florida. The Florida State legislature created the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967 to promote the development of Walt Disney World on a 38.5-square miles of land. HOW DO VOTERS FEEL ABOUT THE DESANTIS VS. DISNEY BATTLE? Forty-four percent of Republican respondents in an April Reuters/Ipsos poll said they had a more favorable view of DeSantis because of the fight with Disney.

☆ Opinion | The Phone Call Between Belafonte and King That Changed Both Men’s Lives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jonathan Eig | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the call between the two men changed the course of both their lives. Now Mr. Belafonte was cast into a new role, too, one that caused him to suppress his career ambitions as he joined Dr. King in pursuit of loftier goals. Even in that first phone call, Mr. Belafonte said, he was struck by Dr. King’s attentiveness. “In the very beginning, Dr. King was not quite as vocal as he became,” Mr. Belafonte said. He was in a turf with which he was not deeply familiar.” Though many people received Dr. King warmly, Mr. Belafonte said, “he just did not know where he fit.

☆ Gen Zers are taking over college cities — after they graduate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Gen Z is moving in droves to college towns after they get their degree. Alex Akmal and her partner, Alex, along Memorial Union Terrace on Lake Mendota. Gen Z bonds have been cemented even more because many young people are delaying marriage and having children, the center found. After her studies, she said she might move to Washington, D.C., an even larger Gen Z hangout with those offerings and more. For whatever reason they are coming to these cities, these Gen Zers are here to stay.

☆ I had a 4-day workweek at Kickstarter. I saw huge improvements in my productivity and social life — and there was only one downside.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Elle Hardy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Former marketing manager Brooke McDaniel said the four-day schedule increased her productivity. She has since started a new job with a five-day schedule but says the schedule was one of her cons. The company transitioned to a four-day workweek while I was on the road. Remote work was the most important factor for a trip like mine, but knowing the four-day workweek was coming gave me additional motivation. All in all, it made me more aware of how I spend my timeThe work-life balance that a four-day workweek offered me was incredible.

It will not work,” said Martin Garcia, chairman of the DeSantis-picked Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board of supervisors. Wednesday’s moves are the latest escalation in the fight between DeSantis and Disney as DeSantis moves toward a 2024 presidential bid. Disney responded by suing DeSantis, the board and Florida Department of Economic Opportunity acting secretary Meredith Ivey, seeking to block the board’s moves. But the special district also freed Disney from bureaucratic red tape and made it cheaper to borrow to finance infrastructure projects around its theme parks, among other significant advantages. DeSantis then targeted Disney’s special governing powers.

☆ Royal castles to luxury getaways: How to spend King Charles III's coronation weekend
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | Rob Goss | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The king has pledged a more scaled-back affair than that celebrated by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953. Here's CNBC Travel's top picks for how to spend the coronation weekend. Watch the ceremonial processionThe coronation will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6 in a service conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Buckingham Palace, London residence of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, is open for tours outside of the coronation weekend. Picnic in the Royal ParksLondon's Royal Parks offer a more low-key way to absorb the royal atmosphere over the coronation weekend.

☆ Nikki Haley invited Disney World to move to South Carolina and took a shot at DeSantis, but the theme park is stuck in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Disney World sued DeSantis to keep control of its self-governing status in Florida. Nikki Haley said the theme park should move to South Carolina instead. The dig didn't escape Never Back Down, the super PAC that's supporting a DeSantis presidential run. Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in April 2022. AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC ImagesDisney can't moveDespite Haley's overtures, Disney World is stuck in Florida, Richard Foglesong, the author of the book "Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando," told Insider.

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