Disney scraps plans for new Florida campus as fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis continues
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it was scrapping plans to build a new campus in central Florida and relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development.
The decision follows a year of attacks from Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature because the company opposed a state law that bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against DeSantis and other officials last month.
Disney had planned to build the campus about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the giant Walt Disney World theme park resort, but Josh D’Amaro, chairman of the parks, experiences and products division, said in a memo to employees that “new leadership and changing business conditions” prompted the company to abandon those plans.
“I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World business,” D’Amaro said. “We have plans to invest $17 billion and create 13,000 jobs over the next ten years. I hope we’re able to do so.”
Disney and DeSantis have been engaged in a tug-of-war for more than a year that has engulfed the GOP governor in criticism as he prepares to launch an expected presidential bid in the coming weeks.
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More than 30 million US drivers don't know if they're at risk from a rare but dangerous airbag blast
DETROIT (AP) — More than 33 million people in the United States are driving vehicles that contain a potentially deadly threat: Airbag inflators that in rare cases can explode in a collision and spew shrapnel.
Few of them know it.
And because of a dispute between federal safety regulators and an airbag parts manufacturer, they aren't likely to find out anytime soon.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is demanding that the manufacturer, ARC Automotive of Knoxville, Tennessee, recall 67 million inflators that could explode with such force as to blow apart a metal canister and expel shrapnel. But ARC is refusing to do so, setting up a possible court fight with the agency.
NHTSA argues that the recall is justified because two people have been killed in the United States and Canada and at least seven others have been injured by ARC's inflators. The explosions, which first occurred in 2009, have continued as recently as this year.
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Supreme Court avoids ruling on law shielding internet companies from being sued for what users post
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Google, Twitter and Facebook in lawsuits seeking to hold them liable for terrorist attacks. But the justices sidestepped the big issue hovering over the cases, the federal law that shields social media companies from being sued over content posted by others.
The justices unanimously rejected a lawsuit alleging that the companies allowed their platforms to be used to aid and abet an attack at a Turkish nightclub that killed 39 people in 2017.
In the case of an American college student who was killed in an Islamic State terrorist attack in Paris in 2015, a unanimous court returned the case to a lower court, but said there appeared to be little, if anything, left of it.
The high court initially took up the Google case to decide whether the companies' legal shield for the social media posts of others, contained in a 1996 law known as Section 230, is too broad.
Instead, though, the court said it was not necessary to reach that issue because there is little tying Google to responsibility for the Paris attack.
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False claims of a stolen election thrive unchecked on Twitter even as Musk promises otherwise
NEW YORK (AP) — In an interview this week, Twitter owner Elon Musk said users making false claims of stolen elections “will be corrected” on the platform.
Prompted by a CNBC reporter for extra assurance that would happen, Musk responded, “Oh yeah, 100%.”
Yet many such claims have thrived on Twitter in the week since former President Donald Trump spent much of a CNN town hall digging in on his lie that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him. Twitter posts that amplified those false claims have thousands of shares with no visible enforcement, a review of posts on the platform shows.
The contrast between Musk’s promise and the extent the claims are spreading on Twitter underscores a major challenge for social media companies trying to call out election conspiracy theories and falsehoods that Trump and his supporters continue to promote. That will only grow as the nation prepares for a presidential election next year in which Trump is again vying to be the Republican nominee.
It’s unclear whether Musk and his newly hired chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, are planning any changes to Twitter to crack down on the misinformation, which election experts and tech accountability advocates say heightens risks to election officials and erodes trust in democracy.
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Meet D’Arcy Drollinger, a drag queen who's now the first drag laureate in the US
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Anti-trans legislation is roiling the nation. Bills prohibiting drag performances are cropping up in statehouses. Violence and vitriol are turning children’s drag story hour events into headline-news protests.
San Francisco is fighting back Thursday by naming the nation’s first drag laureate, an ambassador-style position designed to represent the city’s famous LGBTQ+ community at a time when rights are under attack.
In a city known for its support of LGBTQ+ rights, San Francisco Mayor London Breed says it was a natural step to create a position that not only embraces drag culture but puts government resources toward it. D'Arcy Drollinger, a well-known drag performer and nightclub owner, will receive a $55,000 stipend in her 18-month role as the city's inaugural drag laureate.
“My goals are to make San Francisco sparkle. I think drag performers bring a lot of sparkle and humor and glamor and silliness to the world. I think that is part of why drag is so successful," said Drollinger, a man who uses feminine pronouns when in drag. She expects to be in drag for the entirety of her role. “I’m going to be in drag pretty much 24/7 for the next 18 months.”
She noted San Francisco's drag community is already politically engaged and active.
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Indiana Army veteran convicted in road rage killing of Muslim man
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A suburban Indianapolis Army veteran has been convicted in the road rage shooting death of a Muslim man, after witnesses said he hurled ethnic and religious insults at the victim, including yelling, “Go back to your country,” before opening fire.
A Marion County jury convicted Dustin E. Passarelli, 37, of murder on Wednesday after a three-day trial over the February 2019 killing of 32-year-old Mustafa Ayoubi. Passarelli, of Plainfield, could get up to 65 years in prison when he's sentenced June 21 on the murder charge.
He was also convicted of a firearm enhancement charge that could boost his sentence by up to 20 years, the county prosecutor's office said.
Defense attorney, Chris Eskew, told The Indianapolis Star that he and Passarelli were disappointed by the verdict, but he declined to comment further about the case until after the sentencing.
Passarelli shot and killed Ayoubi following a road rage incident on Interstate 465 that led to Passarelli following Ayoubi to an apartment complex on the city’s northwest side, according to court documents.
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China's loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of collapse
A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.
An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Laos and Mongolia — found paying back that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. And it’s draining foreign currency reserves these countries use to pay interest on those loans, leaving some with just months before that money is gone.
Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.
Countries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants.
In Pakistan, millions of textile workers have been laid off because the country has too much foreign debt and can’t afford to keep the electricity on and machines running.
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First full-size 3D scan of Titanic shows shipwreck in new light
LONDON (AP) — Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic, showing the entire wreck in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday.
Using two remotely operated submersibles, a team of researchers spent six weeks last summer in the North Atlantic mapping the whole shipwreck and the surrounding 3-mile debris field, where personal belongings of the ocean liner's passengers, such as shoes and watches, were scattered.
Richard Parkinson, founder and chief executive of deep-sea exploration firm Magellan, estimated that the resulting data — including 715,000 images — is 10 times larger than any underwater 3D model ever attempted before.
“It's an absolutely one-to-one digital copy, a ‘twin,' of the Titanic in every detail,” said Anthony Geffen, head of documentary maker Atlantic Productions.
The Titanic was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City when it hit an iceberg off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912. The luxury ocean liner sank within hours, killing about 1,500 people.
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Supreme Court rules against Andy Warhol's foundation in a case about a portrait he made of Prince
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the 2016 publication of an Andy Warhol image of the singer Prince violated a photographer's copyright, a decision a dissenting justice said would stifle the creation of art.
The high court ruled 7-2 for photographer Lynn Goldsmith. “Lynn Goldsmith’s original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the opinion for the court.
In a dissent, Justice Elena Kagan warned that the decision would "stifle creativity of every sort" and suggested the majority needed to “go back to school” for an Art History 101 refresher course.
The case involved images Warhol created of Prince as part of a 1984 commission for Vanity Fair. Warhol used one of Goldsmith's photos as a starting point, a so-called artist reference, and Vanity Fair paid Goldsmith to license the photo. Warhol then created a series of images in his signature bright-colored and bold style.
Vanity Fair chose one of the resulting images — Prince with a purple face — to run in the magazine. Following Prince's death in 2016 Vanity Fair ran a different image from the series on its cover — Prince with an orange face. It was that second use that the justices dealt with in the case.
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'Indiana Jones' swings into Cannes Film Festival; Harrison Ford honored before joyous festivalgoers
CANNES, France (AP) — Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford swung into Cannes on Thursday for the world premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in one of the most anticipated events of the French Riviera festival.
Fedoras abounded in the throngs of onlookers who watched Ford and company hit the red carpet.
Ford walked hand in hand with his wife, Calista Flockhart, and later joined his cast mates as John Williams’ score played across the red carpet. Among those in attendance were Disney chief Bob Iger, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and filmmaker Steve McQueen.
Ford, 80, who has said “Dial of Destiny” will be his last performance as the character, also received an honorary Palme d'Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, Cannes feted “Top Gun Maverick” and Tom Cruise in a similar manner.
Inside the theater, Ford was greeted with thunderous applause. He beamed and looked around the theater before receiving the honorary Palme.
The Associated Press
