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☆ Wall Street wants to lend to Hollywood, and that could be bad news for the rest of us
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Today, we've got stories on an upheaval within BlackRock's communications department, a debate over the merits of the man bun on Wall Street, and why I'm not intimidated by Gen Z anymore. Insider's Rebecca Ungarino and Reed Alexander have a story on private lenders looking to make investments in media and entertainment. Hollywood has long represented an interesting investment opportunity for Wall Street, but lending to the industry is an interesting twist. As Reed pointed out in a follow-up story, Wall Street is keen to apply artificial-intelligence tools to identify projects worth greenlighting. And here's more on why Wall Street is so high on the entertainment industry leveraging AI.

Companies Conocophillips FollowWASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - The oil industry on Monday cheered the U.S. government's greenlighting of ConocoPhillips' multibillion-dollar oil drilling project in Alaska's Arctic, but court challenges could mire the plans in further delays. President Joe Biden's administration approved a trimmed-down version of the $7 billion Willow project on federal lands in a pristine area on Alaska's north coast. Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, another group involved in the previous suits, said Monday's approval for the Willow project is "still inadequate in numerous respects." Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, told reporters the state's lawmakers are prepared to defend the decision against "frivolous" legal challenges. Even if Interior could beat back the oil company's challenge, it would probably only mean another delay for Willow, he said.

☆ US House Republicans target ESG investments in latest culture war salvo
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The measure is the latest salvo in the Republican culture war against the use of issues that promote environmental interests, social equality and corporate responsibility in business and investment decisions. "Retirement plans should be solely focused on delivering maximum returns, not advancing a political agenda," said Republican Representative Andy Barr, who introduced the House resolution. "If Congress doesn't block the Department of Labor's rule greenlighting ESG investing in retirement plans, retirees will suffer diminished returns on the investment of their hard-earned money." The measure is widely expected to pass the House, where Republicans hold a slim 222-212 seat majority. Two Democratic absences could give Republicans the simple majority necessary to pass the measure and send it to Biden's desk.

☆ Pakistan's Musharraf, military ruler who allied with the U.S. and promoted moderate Islam
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/8] Pakistan's former President, Pervez Musharraf, addresses his supporters after his arrival from Dubai at Jinnah International airport in Karachi March 24, 2013. Musharraf, 79, died in hospital after a long illness after spending years in self-imposed exile, Pakistan media reported on Sunday. His father served in the foreign ministry, while his mother was a teacher and the family subscribed to a moderate, tolerant brand of Islam. Musharraf also successfully lobbied then-President George W. Bush to pour money into the Pakistani military. In 2006, Musharraf ordered military action that killed a tribal head from the province Balochistan, laying the foundations of an armed insurgency that rages to this day.

☆ Disney's Marvel movies are returning to China after almost four years with 'Black Panther' and 'Ant-Man'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will open in China on February 7, roughly three months after its global debut, while “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” will open on February 17, Marvel Studios announced on Chinese social media Tuesday. Since then, Marvel’s last eight movies have not been shown in the country, though that will drop down to seven with the upcoming “Black Panther” release, Dergarabedian said. Stars of Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" attending the film's European premiere in London on Nov. 3, 2022. “This likely played a part in this welcome shift in playability for Marvel films in the country.”China’s box office generally rakes in billions of dollars a year. That put North America’s box office ahead once more in 2022, generating more than $7.5 billion compared with China’s $4.4 billion, according to Comscore data.

☆ Gen Z loves Minions, horror and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The short answer: Minions and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, according to new data from decision intelligence company Morning Consult. Minions, Minions, Minions"It might not be too much of a surprise that Gen Z is all over social media," said Saleah Blancaflor, the business of entertainment reporter at Morning Consult. "Minions: The Rise of Gru" is the sequel to the 2015 film, "Minions," and spin-off/prequel to the main "Despicable Me" film series. Those films, and even a lot of the Marvel movies, came out a little bit before Gen Z was starting to come to age." They like to be scaredIn addition to enjoying comedy content, Morning Consult determined that Gen Z likes horror movies significantly more than the general public.

☆ HBO is No. 1 as 14 TV insiders rank the streamers where they want to sell shows: Apple's a big spender and 'there's a sheen when you're a Hulu show,' but there's 'fear in the air' at Netflix
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Elaine Low | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

"It's definitely been not the most exciting and robust year," said one TV agent at a major agency. Around 70 people at HBO and HBO Max have been let go this year, and their comedy development teams have merged. While WBD doesn't break out streamer-specific figures, it said on Thursday's earnings call that HBO Max, HBO, and Discovery+ have a combined 94.9 million subscribers, ensuring that any show on HBO Max has the chance to get a lot of eyeballs. They'll also take smaller swings in the genre department, do things at a lower budget," said the second TV agent. Echoed the first TV agent: "You pitch and sell to them if no one else wants it."

☆ Europe's gas price cap leaves some nations dismayed, saying it's far too high
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Several EU member states are not happy with the bloc's proposed cap on natural gas prices — at 275 euros per megawatt hour — which aims to prevent sky-high costs for consumers. Introducing a cap on gas prices has been one of the more controversial measures for Europe amid an acute energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "So [a] price cap at 275 euro is not a price cap, nobody can, can stand buying gas at this expensive price for a long time. We surely believe that the price cap below 200 euro, between 150 and 200 euro would be more realistic," he added. EU energy ministers are due to meet Thursday to debate the price cap proposal.

WASHINGTON — The conservative-majority Supreme Court left its imprint on the 2022 elections, galvanizing Democrats with decisions on guns and abortion and potentially aiding Republicans with election rulings. For decades, it was the Republican Party that benefited from conservative anger over the Supreme Court's original ruling in Roe v. Wade. Using the new map, Republicans won five of the six districts Tuesday. Under the newly drawn map, Republicans won 20 of 28 seats. The Supreme Court's 2019 ruling said partisan gerrymandering claims could not be adjudicated by federal courts.

☆ 14 TV insiders rank the streamers where they want to sell shows now as Apple TV+ closes in on HBO Max amid turmoil at Warner Bros. Discovery
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Elaine Low | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

☆ 15 venture capitalists that early-stage sports tech, health, and wellness founders should know if they're looking to raise capital
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Matthew Kish | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

Other recent investments include Bumble, Goop, Spring Health, Chief, Found, Daily Harvest, and Blueland. Recent investments include the sneaker-trading platform Tradeblock, which touts itself as an alternative to StockX and Goat. Recent investments include AnyDistance, Balanced, and Juna. Her recent investments include Calibrate, DUOS, Dutch, and Buffalo Market, a food distributor focused on plant-based and organic foods. Recent investments include pickleball products company Revolin, live-sports artificial-reality company Quintar, recovery products company Alleviate, and community cycling app Preem.

Latinos are underrepresented in the media industry workforce across film, radio, television, newspapers and digital platforms, according to the report. Latinos are 19% of the nation's population, almost 1 in 5 Americans, and 18% of workers outside the media industry. The largest percentage of Hispanic media industry workers were employed in service worker positions (19%) — which include food, cleaning and personal and protective services, according to the latest available reports submitted by media companies to the U.S. In positions that can influence the content audiences consume, Latinos were far less represented: They made up only 7% of professional media industry positions such as actors, producers, directors, writers, reporters and editors. When Latinos did see themselves represented in content, they felt "it was inaccurate" in most cases, de Armas said.

☆ Special interest groups representing Amazon to Uber oppose possible crypto regulation in California
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Industry groups representing Amazon, Apple, Block, Coinbase, Genesis, Google, GrubHub, Lyft, Facebook/Meta, Uber, and other companies wrote to the state assembly opposing the law. Nine organizations representing consumers and advocating for economic justice wrote to the state assembly expressing support for the law. Several tech industry groups representing major companies and venture capital firms wrote in to oppose the law. Several organizations advocating for consumers and economic justice wrote to the state assembly expressing support for the law. Interest groups argued that regulation presents an "undue burden"on crypto companiesBlockchain Advocacy CoalitionThe Blockchain Advocacy Coalition wrote to Assemblymember Grayson on August 26.

☆ It's time to get rid of managers. All of them.
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-12 | by ( Molly Lipson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

What would happen if a company completely got rid of middle managers? In 2012, the publishing company Medium restructured its organization and moved away from centralized management power. The model gets rid of managers and spreads their responsibilities across different roles, giving average workers more of a voice. The reality is that psychological safety isn't intrinsically available to everyone, and holacracy doesn't have anything in it to ensure that safety." It's true that holacracy doesn't eliminate the power structures determined by characteristics such as race, gender, age, and sexuality.

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