Good morning. Walt Disney, heard of him? Smart guy, invented the whole Mickey thing, but creatively, even he got it wrong.

Disney didn't love the iconic spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp, as he found it “silly” and thought dogs would fight over food rather than share it. Yes, Walt, but a loveable mouse in red shorts, yellow shoes, and white gloves, that’s so real it might as well be a documentary.

The scene was almost scrapped, but animator Frank Thomas created it behind Disney’s back and it was allowed to stay in the film.

And with that, as we like to say on the stock market, NEWS.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.97 minutes to read.

“Well done is better than well said.”

–Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced plans to nullify a series of past agreements that allowed Walt Disney World to retain governing powers over most of the land near its theme park in Orlando.

• Disney’s special land arrangement was created by Florida’s legislature in 1967 because, at the time, none of the nearby counties were able to provide power or water to Disney World. The 25,000-acre district, which essentially functions as a local government supporting Disney World, has remained in effect ever since.

🐭🐘 Snap, back to reality (aka modern times)... Gov. DeSantis and Disney began feuding last March, when the company spoke out against a controversial state law restricting public schools from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity (which was recently expanded to grades K-12, instead of just K-3).

The following month, in April 2022, Gov. DeSantis signed the first in a series of new laws aimed at taking back control of the special district from Disney. The initial one revoked the company's special tax status, while further laws ended up replacing the Disney-controlled government with a board appointed by the governor.

But there was just one issue. Last month, the new board members revealed their Disney-aligned predecessors had signed an agreement before leaving office that stripped the incoming DeSantis-appointed board of most powers, ceding control back to Disney World for at least 30 years.

• As it currently stands, the board maintains a sliver of its previous authority, with its only duty being to maintain roads and basic infrastructure within Disney’s district.

👀 Looking ahead… Florida lawmakers are planning to vote on legislation that would formally nullify the Disney-favored agreement in the coming days or weeks, with many Republicans arguing the prior board didn’t follow certain procedures required by law.

If the measure passes, it’s widely expected to trigger a legal battle with Disney. And Mickey Mouse is gearing up for a fight – Disney has reportedly called on its lobbyists to aggressively target any bills introduced in Florida’s state legislature that could harm the company, sources told NBC News yesterday.

📊 Flash poll: Do you agree with Gov. DeSantis’ attempts to strip Disney of its governing powers in Florida?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

🇫🇷 Thousands of French residents participated in protests on Thursday. President Emmanuel Macron made his second public appearance since signing a controversial pension reform bill into law yesterday, which was heavily attended by protesters opposed to his plan to raise the minimum age for a full pension from 62 to 64. Elsewhere, a group of protesters briefly stormed the Paris offices of stock-market operator Euronext while chanting slogans calling for big companies to finance pensions, as well as for President Macron’s resignation.

🇨🇦🪙 Canadian police are investigating a $15 million gold heist that took place at Toronto’s main airport. Officials won’t reveal where the gold and other valuables came from, nor where they were headed, but said the cargo was reported missing after it arrived Monday evening and was transferred to a temporary holding facility. A police spokesperson said the “very rare” theft appeared to be an isolated incident, and there currently aren’t any suspects.

🌏 A record 363 journalists were detained across 30 countries last year. That’s per an annual report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, which found the highest number of detainees were held in Iran (62), China (43), Myanmar (42), and Turkey (40). Last year’s total is nearly twice as high as in 2015, as well as ~4x higher compared to at the start of this century.

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SpaceX’s Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket, exploded yesterday morning in its first-ever test, roughly four minutes after a successful launch.

The uncrewed Starship test blasted off at 9:33 am ET, flying about 22 miles into the air before tumbling out of control and exploding into a cloud of flaming debris – or, as SpaceX put it, the rocket underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

But untimely demise aside, SpaceX officials consider yesterday’s test to be a success. CEO Elon Musk publicly congratulated his team, saying the company learned a lot for its next Starship launch in a few months.

• SpaceX’s Starship program is part of the company’s effort to make space travel more akin to air travel, with launches every day and greater accessibility to the public.
• Musk has said that if SpaceX can get the fully-reusable, 100-passenger Starship to fly regular missions, it could bring down the cost of each launch by a factor of about 7. (For context, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket currently costs $67 million/launch.)

👀 Looking ahead… Starship, once fully operational, is set to be busier than Santa on Christmas Eve. The rocket is scheduled to carry a crew of NASA astronauts to the Moon in December 2025, as part of the Artemis III mission. And SpaceX has also announced plans for future private missions to the Moon and Mars using a fleet of Starships.

"...the end of the marriage between social media and news."

That's Ben Smith, founding editor of Buzzfeed News and current Editor-In-Chief at Semafor, commenting on yesterday's announcement that BuzzFeed News is closing its doors.

The shutdown marks the end of an award-winning twelve-year run for the newsroom. In 2021, its journalists won a Pulitzer Prize for utilizing satellite imagery to report on the Chinese government’s detention of Muslims in Xinjiang. But the company’s CEO, Jonah Peretti, said yesterday the division was never able to make money.

• BuzzFeed will continue to publish some news under the HuffPost brand, which it acquired in late 2020. The newsroom employed about 60 people, some of whom will be offered roles elsewhere in the company.
• An additional 120 people are reportedly being let go as part of a broader cost-cutting effort at the company (BuzzFeed has ~1,200 employees in total).

📰📉 Zoom out: If the digital news industry's Thursday could be summed up in a song, it'd probably be "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter. On top of Buzzfeed News’ announcement, Insider said yesterday that it’ll be laying off about 10% of its staff (~950 employees).

And this seems to be part of a broader trend. NPR cut 10% of its staff last month, Vox laid off 7% of its team in January, and Vice is reportedly considering shutting down Vice World News in the coming weeks unless a sale can be made.

💬 Quoted… "Here at Wood Milk Orchards, we're certain that our artisanal Wood Milk will be the only milk you'll want to drink for the rest of your life. Why? Because I said so."

In a press release published yesterday, Aubrey Plaza unveiled Wood Milk, a company whose debut product is made of “100% all-natural, milked wood” – which apparently comes from trees and “tastes nothing like milk.”

• But much like the best ice cream order on a hot summer day, here comes the twist: the press release is actually a “Got Milk”-sponsored ad. So (probably fortunately) Wood Milk isn’t actually a real thing.

🔵🔴 Stat of the Day: A record-high 49% of Americans see themselves as politically independent, roughly the same as the two major parties put together (25% apiece), per recent Gallup polling.

🤯 Did You Know?... Female giant pandas are able to spontaneously terminate their pregnancy if it came from a male panda they don’t like.

📖 Worth a Read: The economics of dating during high inflation → (The Hustle)

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• ☝️ NASA published the winners of the space agency’s fifth annual Photographer of the Year awards yesterday. (See them all here.)

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board yesterday (S&P: -0.6%; Dow: -0.3%; Nasdaq: 0.8%).
• 🚗 Tesla shares fell ~10% yesterday; the company released its Q1 earnings report Wednesday evening.
• 🪑🏪 Ikea retailer Ingka Group announced plans to invest $2.2 billion in eight new US big-box Ikea stores over the next three years, as well as nine smaller “plan and order points” where customers can order furniture.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚖️ Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter charges are being dropped, per a statement from the two New Mexico special prosecutors on the case; though the charges may be refiled after further investigation.
• 🎤✨ Skrillex, Fred Again.., and Four Tet will replace Frank Ocean as Coachella’s headliners this Sunday; the trio will play after Blink-182.
• ⚾🎰 The MLB’s Oakland Athletics are relocating to Las Vegas; the team purchased 49 acres of land yesterday as the first step towards finalizing a stadium deal by January 2024; the A's could be hosting games in Vegas as early as 2027.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🪱 🌿 Cannabinoids, a group of compounds present in marijuana that includes CBD and THC, can make a species of roundworm especially hungry for their favorite foods, similar to humans; that’s per a new peer-reviewed study published on 4/20 (yesterday) in Current Biology.
• ⚛️🤖 Moderna and IBM announced a new partnership aimed at using quantum computing and generative AI for researching and developing new mRNA-based treatments.
• 🦭💤 Northern elephant seals on foraging trips sleep an average of two hours per day, one of the lowest numbers in the animal kingdom, per a new peer-reviewed study published in Science; researchers found the seals sleep by taking underwater power naps at depths of up to 2,500 feet to avoid predators.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 👩‍🏫 Rebecka Peterson, a math teacher at Union High School in Tulsa, OK, was named the 2023 National Teacher of the Year.
• ⏰ Florida has ended its contract with a software company that state officials said mistakenly sent an emergency alert to all residents at 4:45 am yesterday morning.
• ⚖️ Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts to testify about the Court’s ethical standards following recent reports regarding Justice Clarence Thomas. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right) | 🏛️ The GOP-led House approved a bill to ban trans athletes from women’s sports in a party-line vote; the legislation isn’t expected to progress in the Democrat-led Senate. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• ☀️ The 10 best states to retire in – and Florida isn’t No. 1.

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It’s a bird, it’s a plane – no wait, it’s the DONUT’s weekly news quiz.

Find out how your news superpowers stack up against our team.

Meet Cinnamon and Felix, a once-homeless bonded duo who have been on quite the journey to find their forever family.

🐐🐕 Besties for the resties... When the animals were abandoned by their previous owner, the Wake County Animal Center went to work finding a home to take both of them in. 

• It took some digging to find a foster home for the pair – seeing that Cinnamon is well, a goat – but eventually Jacqui Bankes of North Carolina agreed to take them in.
• “We are so blessed to be able to foster Felix and Cinnamon!” Jacqui said. “As their forever foster, we are excited to keep them together and also integrate them with our other goats and dog... Thank you to Wake County for making this possible for us!”

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Italian sausage
• Red pepper flakes
• Bacon
• Onion
• Garlic
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• Potatoes
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• Spinach

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Pumpkin puree
• Eggs
• Sugar
• Applesauce
• Triglyceride
• Stevia
• Vanilla extract
• Wheat flour
• Whey protein powder
• Pecans
• Flaxseed meal
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Cloves
• Ginger

3️⃣ Recipe 3:

• White wine vinegar
• Lemon juice
• Parmesan cheese
• Italian seasoning
• Honey
• Garlic
• Dijon mustard
• Basil
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. ☝️ Recipe #1: Zuppa Toscana
2. ✌️ Recipe #2: Pumpkin protein muffin
3. 3️⃣ Recipe 3: California spaghetti salad

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