The Walt Disney Company has pulled the plug on a $1bn office complex in Orlando, following a warning from Disney leadership that billions of dollars in projects were on the line after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis escalated his feud with the company. The development scheduled for construction in the Orlando area was set to bring 2,000 jobs to the region, with 1,000 employees expected to be relocated from southern California. In an email to employees on 18 May, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chair Josh D’Amaro pointed to “changing business conditions” for the cancellation of the 60-acre Lake Nona Town Center project, according to The New York Times, which first reported the move. “I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World business,” he added, noting that the company has still planned $17bn in projects over the next decade its Disney World campus. “I hope we’re able to,” he said. For years, Florida legislators and the governor’s office enjoyed a close relationship with the state’s largest taxpayers, among the state’s largest employers, which has wielded enormous political influence while bringing in billions of dollars to the state each year. Now, the company and DeSantis allies are suing one another, following a year-long feud over opposition to what opponents have called Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that boiled over into political and legal battles that could shape the company’s business in the state. Moments after board appointed by Mr DeSantis voted to strip the company’s control of its Florida park, Disney filed a federal lawsuit against the governor and state officials alleging a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” for “expressing a political viewpoint.” The lawsuit follows the governor’s state takeover of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, now the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, made up of conservative activists and DeSantis loyalists, a move that followed Florida Republicans’ punitive measures against the company after its public opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Days later, the board voted to sue Disney in state court. In March, Disney slammed the governor’s “anti-business” approach to the company, which Mr DeSantis has accused of advancing a “woke agenda” while his administration targets LGBT+ people and their families with sweeping laws to control public school education, healthcare access and speech. The governor dissolved a decades-old municipal district that allowed Disney to control its own land use, zoning rules and public services, without putting a tax burden on Florida residents. In effect, Disney taxed itself to foot the district’s bill for its municipal needs. “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?” Disney CEO Bob Iger said on a conference call with analysts last week. A statement from Disney said the company has decided to pull out of the new campus construction “given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions.” The “Parental Rights in Education Act” – what opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay” – prohibits instruction of “sexual orientation or gender identity” from kindergarten through the third grade and any such discussion “that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” in other grades. The governor recently expanded the law to explicitly extend such restrictions to all grades. Critics have warned that the broadly written law threatens to freeze classroom speech involving LGBT+ people and issues, from civil rights history lessons to discussion of LGBT+ students, school staff and their families. Following passage of the Florida law, lawmakers across the US and in Congress have introduced similar legislation, including more than two dozen measures in current legislative sessions. Read More DeSantis v Disney: Why Florida’s governor is at war with the Mouse ‘We will not be erased’: Critics slam Ron DeSantis for unprecedented bills attacking LGBTQ+ people Penguin Random House sues Florida school district over ‘unconstitutional’ book bans Florida teacher under investigation for showing Disney movie with LGBT+ character speaks out

A convicted Colorado pipe bomber will receive a fresh trial after spending 30 years behind bars for a string of attacks that killed two people. James Genrich, 60, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombings which killed Maria Delores Gonzales, 12, and 43-year-old Henry Ruble in Grand Junction in 1991. Genrich was found guilty in 1993 of three counts of use of an explosive or incendiary device to commit a felony, one count of third-degree assault and two counts of first-degree murder -extreme indifference. He was convicted after a prosecution expert – Agent John O’Neil of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – told the jury that marks on the bombs must have been made by the suspect’s tools, ruling out the possibility of any other tools being responsible. Now Judge Richard Gurley of the 21st Judicial District has ruled that advances in forensics and science mean that the expert’s testimony was flawed, reported The Denver Post. In a 30-page order, the judge ruled that the expert could not accurately say that no other tools could have made the marks on the bomb. The judge ruled that the testimony violated Genrich’s constitutional due process and right to a fair trial. “The court finds that the conclusion that the defendant’s tools caused the cuts to the wires from the bombs to the exclusion of every other tool was a crucial piece of evidence in the defendant’s case and without it, the people’s case would have been almost entirely circumstantial,” the judge wrote. Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein says that his office stands by the tool evidence and plans to appeal the ruling. “There was a lot of other evidence in the case other than that, and that’s part of my disagreement with the decision,” he said. “The evidence in the case was very strong and went well beyond the tool-mark evidence.” Genrich was represented in his appeal by the Innocence Project, a non-profit dedicated to overturning convictions of wrongly convicted prisoners. “Mr Genrich is very pleased that the court granted his request for a new trial,” said Tania Brief, a senior staff attorney on his legal team. The judge set a hearing in the case for 28 July and stated that he intends to formally vacate the conviction for first-degree murder at that time. The pipe bombings started in Mesa County in 1989, with an undetonated device found outside a hotel in April of that year. Three bombs would detonate in 1991, killing the two victims and injuring others. Genrich’s home was raided after investigators received a tip, and they found pliers, fuses, a circuit board and a multi-tool. The jury was also told that Genrich lived within walking distance of two of the three bombing locations, and had been seen in the area. Prosecutors also said that he had threatened to kill in the past and had expressed frustration with women. Genrich is currently being held at the state’s Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley County. Read More Colorado lawmakers sue colleagues over closed-door meetings Could a ‘fake’ same-sex couple force the Supreme Court to revisit a case targeting LGBT+ rights? Automaker Stellantis signs deal company seeking to mine in Nebraska for rare earths needed in EVs

Sudan’s warring factions have agreed to a new short-term ceasefire after several previous attempts to broker a truce that holds have failed

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 25, 2023--

Sudan’s Ministry of Health says an airstrike in the city of Omdurman has killed at least 22 people

Vladimir Putin will leave Russia and travel the farthest distance from his home country for the first time since an arrest warrant was issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to a report. Mr Putin has reportedly accepted an invitation by Xi Jinping to visit China and the Kremlin is gearing up for his attendance at the Belt and Road Forum in October, three people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. News of the visit comes after Mr Putin declined an invitation by India to attend G20 summit next week. The Kremlin said the Russian leader has a “busy schedule” while his main focus at the moment is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia will be instead be represented by its foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. Moscow is an ally to Delhi and Beijing, both of whom are regional rivals and share strained diplomatic ties with each other. Both countries are not signatories to the ICC either. The Russian leader has, ever since the warrant was issued, travelled only to Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine. Before the warrant, he had visited Iran last year. On Tuesday, the Kremlin said a schedule for bilateral Russian-Chinese contacts was being worked out, when asked about the reported visit. “The schedule of bilateral Russian-Chinese contacts at various levels, including at the highest level, is being coordinated,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “We will inform you about specific events and deadlines in a timely manner.” Mr Putin and Mr Xi have declared a “no limits” partnership between their countries. China has refused to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine directly while emphasing the importance of upholding Kyiv’s territorial integrity. In March, an arrest warrant was issued against Mr Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, for alleged war crimes committed by deporting Ukrainian children into Russia during the conflict. Human rights groups have estimated that more than 19,000 children were deported and placed with Russian families. Russian officials have claimed the children were taken in as a war-time humanitarian gesture. The Kremlin has rejected the war crime accusations. The Russian leader had earlier avoided going to South Africa, which is an ICC signatory, to attend the Brics summit last week. Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan also invited Mr Putin to visit Ankara for talks on a Black Sea grain deal, but he is now said to be considering traveling to Moscow himself. Turkey is not an ICC signatory. The flurry of announcements about the diplomatic visits come as British foreign minister James Cleverly visited China in the first such visit by a UK diplomat in five years. Mr Cleverly said he will urge China to fulfil its international commitments and show responsibility on the world stage on the Ukraine invasion. On Mr Putin’s purpoted visit to Beijing, he said, “Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine cannot be justified by Moscow or indeed anywhere else”. Read More India protests China's land claim ahead of the G20 summit President Xi Jinping is expected to attend Russia earns less from oil and spends more on war. So far, sanctions are working like a slow poison Vladimir Putin ‘too busy’ to face world leaders at G20 The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

The Burkes suggested removing the 'T' from LGBTQ and criticized gender-affirming care as 'chemical castration'

The Atlanta City Council has approved funding for the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center, rejecting the pleas of hundreds of activists who packed City Hall and spoke for hours in fierce opposition to the project they decry as “Cop City.”

Three federal agencies are looking into potentially predatory practices in medical-payment products such as credit cards and installment

Felix Martinez, 46, charged with second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder, could face a sentence of 25 years to life in prison

By Ira Dugal MUMBAI (Reuters) -On a hot summer afternoon, 23-year old Nizamudin Abdul Rahim Khan is playing cricket on

One of the scientists whose work pioneered the development of medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy has revealed why life may become “so miserably boring” after two years of using the drug. Ozempic is an FDA-approved medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. It works by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which regulates blood sugar levels and slows down the rate at which food leaves the stomach, often creating the feeling of fullness. These semaglutide injections – sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy – have soared in popularity as many people, including Hollywood celebrities, have used it for weight loss. What’s more, people have also found Ozempic has been effective in curing their addictive habits, like drinking, smoking, shopping, or nail biting. However, because of Ozempic’s increasing popularity, it has led to national shortages of the type 2 diabetes treatment – leaving those who actually need it without. In an interview with Wired, professor Jens Juul Holst – who received the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize in 2021 for his work developing treatments based on the GLP-1 hormone – spoke about the effects of Ozempic, and why he believes many people will stop taking the medication after just a few years. “What happens is that you lose your appetite and also the pleasure of eating, and so I think there’s a price to be paid when you do that,” Holst told Wired. “If you like food, then that pleasure is gone. The craving for food for some people is taken away when they take GLP-1 drugs.” He continued: “That may eventually be a problem, that once you’ve been on this for a year or two, life is so miserably boring that you can’t stand it any longer and you have to go back to your old life.” Holst added that medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have been on the market since 2005, though studies show that these people don’t stay on them for very long. “It’s just like every other drug, they don’t stay on it for many reasons,” he explained. “One of the reasons, as I said, is that once you have tried it and you realise you’ve lost interest in food, then that may be enough.” “We don’t know why people stop taking these drugs, but we know for a fact that they do stop. They do that all over the world.” A 2020 study found that 70 per cent of people who took GLP-1 drugs for type 2 diabetes stopped taking them within two years. However, this could pose a problem for many patients taking semaglutide injections. Research has found that people who stopped taking Ozempic or Wegovy for weight loss experienced weight rebound. A trial published in April 2022 saw participants gain back two thirds of the weight they had lost after 68 weeks of taking semaglutide. As for celebrities who use the once-weekly injection for weight loss, despite not having diabetes or clinical obesity, Hans instead called attention to the “many terrible problems” that those with diabetes have struggled with by not having drugs like Ozempic readily available. “Have you ever visited a diabetes hospital? It’s really deplorable,” he said. “People come in with amputated limbs and compromised cognitive functions and heart problems or they can barely move – they’re miserable and depressed. It’s really serious. There is so much you can improve with a drug that is not only a weight-loss drug but is also an anti-diabetic.” Amidst the popularity of semaglutide injections, the US Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings for consumers not to use off-brand versions of Ozempic or Wegovy, because they may not include the same GLP-1 hormone used in approved medications. Earlier this month, agency officials reported problems with patients using compounded versions of semaglutide – which combines traditional semaglutide with other ingredients. These drugs are not FDA-approved, and the agency does not verify the safety or effectiveness of compounded drugs. Consumers should only use drugs containing semaglutide with a prescription from a licensed health care provider and obtained from a state-licensed pharmacy or other facilities registered with the FDA, the agency said. Read More What is ‘Ozempic face’? Doctors warn about facial ageing side effect of diabetes medications How does Wegovy work? The ‘game changing’ weight loss drug beloved by Hollywood FDA warns against using off-brand versions of Ozempic, Wegovy for weight loss Scientist behind Ozempic says drug can make life ‘so miserably boring’ Pregnant Stassi Schroeder admits she wants to ‘try’ Ozempic after giving birth Doctors warn about ‘Ozempic face’ side effect of medications