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☆ Ukraine Thwarts Russian Missile Barrage
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Ian Lovett | Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian officials said 18 incoming Russian missiles were shot down early Tuesday morning, thwarting a strike on the capital. The barrage was fired at around 3:30 a.m. from the north, south and east, according to Ukraine’s air force, and all of the missiles were shot down, including six ballistic Kinzhal missiles. A number of drones—including surveillance drones and Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones—were also downed, according to the general staff.

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☆ Bob Iger to Ron DeSantis: Does Florida want our jobs and taxes or not?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Disney CEO Bob Iger said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ attacks on the company threaten its plans for $17 billion of investment and 13,000 new jobs at Disney World over the next 10 years. In comments Wednesday during a call with investors, Iger defended Disney as Florida attempts to wrest control of powers granted to a special taxing district overseeing Disney World’s zoning decisions. Iger did not mention DeSantis by name or explicitly say Disney is reconsidering its planned investment. Disney has for decades controlled a special taxing district that had the right to make zoning decisions in and around Disney World. A general view of Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World.

☆ Disney's Bob Iger is going nuclear on Ron DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Disney's Bob Iger escalated the conflict between the company and Florida's Ron DeSantis on Wednesday. It's the latest move in a feud that began last year over Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill. Buckle up for a roller coaster ride, because the feud between Disney's CEO Bob Iger and Florida's Ron DeSantis just got bumpier. This is the latest — and most drastic — move in the clash between DeSantis and Iger, who inherited the battle with Disney from his predecessor Bob Chapek. Spokespeople for both Disney and DeSantis declined to give any additional comment.

WASHINGTON, April 24(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge by computer scientist Stephen Thaler to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's refusal to issue patents for inventions his artificial intelligence system created. According to Thaler, his DABUS system, short for Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience, created unique prototypes for a beverage holder and emergency light beacon entirely on its own. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a federal judge in Virginia rejected his patent applications for the inventions on the grounds that DABUS is not a person. Thaler has also applied for DABUS patents in other countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and Saudi Arabia with limited success. The UK's Supreme Court heard Thaler's appeal of his loss there in March.

☆ Inside Disney it's 'Revenge of the Creatives' and 'Shields Up!' against outside foes as returned CEO Bob Iger is taking no prisoners
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Since returning as Disney CEO, Bob Iger has vanquished foes and dumped many of predecessor Bob Chapek's hires. But it's a supercharged Bob Iger who is really taking command. "If I'm inside Bob's head coming back, after the downfall of Bob Chapek, this is all about taking no prisoners," said Will Schutte, a high-level executive coach. Disney World is scheduled to host a major conference on gay rights in September, according to the Miami Herald. Even if he wants to be the Bob Iger of old he can't be.

☆ Disney CEO Bob Iger slammed Gov. Ron DeSantis' attempt to strip the company of its decades-long special tax status as 'anti-business' and 'anti-Florida'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Disney CEO Bob Iger says Gov. Disney and DeSantis have been embroiled in a bitter feud over a law known as "Don't Say Gay." Disney CEO Iger on Monday accused the Sunshine State's governor of retaliating against Disney and attempting to punish it by stripping Disney of its special tax status. Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek was initially slow to respond to the bill despite mounting pressure to denounce it, angering both the public and its staff who accused the company of side-stepping the issue. DeSantis has asked Florida's inspector general to look into whether Disney executives, staff, or agents had anything to do with the loophole.

New York CNN —Disney CEO Bob Iger fought back against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ actions against his company, telling Disney shareholders that recent actions by the state were “anti-business.”The state of Florida has taken action to strip Disney of some of the powers it had over the land that includes and surrounds Disney World. Iger, asked about the fight at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, made his most public defense to date of the company’s actions, and the most direct criticism of Florida’s actions. It did so through a self-governing body known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, whose board members all had close ties with Disney. “Disney is again fighting to keep its special corporate benefits and dodge Florida law,” DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern said. As Governor DeSantis recently said, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’”Redfern’s comments came before Iger made his comments at the shareholders’ meeting.

☆ Factbox: EU keeps on doing business with Russia despite sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Gabriela Baczynska | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Here is a list of areas where the EU keeps on doing business with Russia. TRADE FLOWSIn 2021, Russia was the EU's fifth-largest trading partner with goods exchange worth 258 billion euros, according to the EU executive European Commission. Since the invasion in 2022, the value of EU imports from Russia fell by a half to around 10 billion euros last December. Gas is not covered by EU sanctions, but Moscow slashed pipeline deliveries to Europe since the invasion. The EU imported 2.1 billion euros worth of nickel in 2021, up to 3.2 billion euros last year, according to Eurostat.

March 17 (Reuters) - A computer scientist who has waged a global campaign for patents covering inventions conceived by his artificial intelligence system asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to hear his case. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a Virginia federal court rejected patent applications for the inventions on the grounds that DABUS is not a person. Thaler has also applied for DABUS patents in other countries, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and Saudi Arabia. The UK's Supreme Court heard his case there earlier this month. The case is Thaler v. Vidal, U.S. Supreme Court.

☆ Passengers Fly 16 Hours to Nowhere After Fire, Power Outage at JFK Thwarts Operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Alyssa Lukpat | Gareth Vipers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Passengers with their luggage in JFK’s Terminal 1 on Friday. A power outage at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1 caused dozens of flight cancellations and forced several planes to turn around in midair on Friday, including one bound for New York from New Zealand. Terminal 1 was closed on Friday because of electrical issues that started a day earlier, thwarting operations at one of the busiest airports in the world at the start of a holiday weekend.

☆ Iran thwarts drone attack on military site
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A loud explosion at a military plant in Iran's central city of Isfahan was caused by an "unsuccessful" drone attack, Iranian state media reported on Sunday, citing the defence ministry. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop's roof," the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA. There have been a number of explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities in the past few years. The blasts have at times caused concern amid tensions over Iran's nuclear programme with Israel and the United States. Israel has long threatened military action against Iran if indirect talks between Washington and Tehran fail to salvage a 2015 nuclear pact.

☆ The most-popular big tech default email programs are old and vulnerable
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Elizabeth Macbride | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

All over the world, organizations of all sizes, including small businesses, scrambled to upload patches and to figure out if they'd been infiltrated. Each time big software companies have changed default settings or made blanket changes with cybersecurity in mind, he points out, cybercrime fell measurably. Some of its donors are big technology companies. "Microsoft takes email security very seriously," said Girish Chander, head of Microsoft Defender for Office, in a statement to CNBC. Updating email software default settings.

☆ Bad weather thwarts New Zealand PM Ardern's Antarctica trip
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, Oct 25 (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's visit to her country's research station in Antarctica was upended by bad weather that forced the plane she was travelling in to turn back midflight on Tuesday. The C130 Hercules military aircraft carrying Ardern encountered poor weather at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica, the location of several international research stations, according to a government statement. The spokesperson did not say whether the trip would be attempted again once the weather clears. New Zealand is one of seven countries, including Australia, France and Chile, with a territorial claim to Antarctica. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Edmund KlamannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Al Jassasiya: The mysterious symbols carved in Qatar's deserts
▼ + stars: | 2021-11-22 | by ( Dimitris Sideridis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

On a desolate and windswept corner of Qatar’s northeastern coast, among the sand dunes of the barren desert, lies Al Jassasiya, the Gulf country’s largest and most important rock art site. Overall, archaeologists have found a total of some 900 rock carvings, or “petroglyphs,” at Al Jassasiya. Al Jassasiya, about an hour north of Qatar’s uber-modern capital and near the old pearling port of Al Huwaila, was discovered in 1957. “We have no direct clues about the motifs used in Al Jassasiya,” he said. Al Jassasiya is located just south of the popular Azerbaijani Beach, so an excursion there can also be combined with a relaxing day beside the sea.

Persons: Al Jassasiya, Jassasiya, Ferhan Sakal, ”, “, Dimitris, Doha’s Al Bidda, Al Huwaila, Holger Kapel, Hans Kapel, Dimitris Sideridis, Sakal, ” Frances Gillespie, Faisal Abdulla Al, Naimi, ” Gillespie Organizations: CNN, Qatar Museums, ”, “ Ships Locations: Gulf, Al, Qatar, Doha’s, Qatar’s, Danish, Al Jassasiya, ”, Sands

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