The battle between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and one of the state’s largest employers is getting hotter than the final plate in the Hot Ones Challenge. Disney and DeSantis have been dueling like Peter Pan and Captain Hook ever since the company criticized the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law last spring, and yesterday Disney sued DeSantis, claiming he orchestrated a campaign of retaliation against the company for exercising its free speech rights.

The feud hinges on control of the special district where Disney World sits. Disney filed its suit almost immediately after the board hand-picked by DeSantis to govern the district voted to nullify land use agreements made by the previous Disney-controlled board.

From a spoonful of sugar to a 74-page lawsuit

Disney’s suit accuses DeSantis of a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint.”

• Disney called the board’s nullification of the earlier agreements “patently retaliatory, patently anti-business and patently unconstitutional.”
• The suit notes that its existing contracts with the state of Florida would invest $17 billion in Disney World and create 13,000 jobs over the next decade.

Back before Disney’s CEO called out the governor in front of investors and DeSantis threatened to build a prison next to Disney World, Disney benefited from Florida’s business-friendly climate. Since 1967, the theme park has existed harmoniously with the greater Orlando area within a special tax district, allowing it to essentially act as its own county. But that’s precisely what DeSantis claims is the root of his conflict with the company, saying it has “gotten away with special deals from the State of Florida for way too long.”

Looking ahead…we don’t know if this will impact Florida’s pro-business reputation, but as DeSantis prepares for a potential 2024 presidential bid, even some of his fellow Republicans have criticized his actions against Disney.—CC

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McCarthy scores a victory with debt bill that won’t become law. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy corralled just enough votes from his GOP colleagues yesterday to pass a bill to raise the debt ceiling while making stark spending cuts. The 320-page bill is meant to be an opening salvo in negotiations with President Biden, who is hoping to avoid an economically catastrophic default. It’s got about as much chance of being the final word on the matter as we do of winning the Nobel Prize—it won’t make it out of the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the president has threatened to veto it.

Good for Zuck. Meta’s “Year of Efficiency” is off to a strong start: After three straight quarters of falling revenue last year, the company finally saw an uptick in ad sales for a 3% revenue jump from Q1 2022. Profits were down, but the company still beat expectations, and Facebook gained users again after losses last year. But not all of Mark Zuckerberg’s dreams are coming true—the company’s metaverse unit lost almost $4 billion last quarter.

UK takes aim at Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard. The UK’s competition regulator blocked Microsoft’s bid to acquire the Call of Duty-maker yesterday, saying it would hurt competition in the cloud gaming sector. The move came as a shock because the regulator had previously said Microsoft had assuaged its concerns about the console gaming market. The decision, which Microsoft plans to appeal, puts a strain on the deal while the companies wait for competition decisions from the EU and the US, where the FTC has already sued to scuttle it.

Ed Sheeran went to trial yesterday, not for his crimes of pseudo-rapping in “Galway Girl,” but for accusations that he plagiarized Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get It On.” The copyright lawsuit’s outcome (expected next week) could have major implications for who owns the rights to seemingly common musical elements.

The case dates back to 2017, when the family of Ed Townsend—Gaye’s co-writer on “Let’s Get It On”—sued Sheeran for $100 million, alleging that he copy-and-pasted a four-chord progression from the song for his Grammy-winning bop “Thinking Out Loud.”

On the one hand…the chord progression does sound almost identical.

• And the plaintiff’s lawyer said a video of Sheeran singing a mashup of the two songs at a concert is the star’s “confession.”
• Sheeran’s rebuttal was that if he stole Gaye and Townsend’s song, he’d be “quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people” and perform it.

Sheeran also said during his testimony, “Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs.” His defense team claims that there are over a dozen songs that use the same chord progression, including some that predate “Let’s Get It On.”

Big picture: Copyright infringement claims have been popping up more frequently in the music industry in recent years. This is the third time Sheeran has had to argue that his slow jams weren’t rip-offs. He won one case and settled another out of court.—MM

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No one was counting on the Atlanta Hawks getting booted from the playoffs more than the folks who run the team’s stadium—and maybe Janet Jackson.

The singer/actress/dancer was supposed to perform tonight at State Farm Arena, but her concert has been moved to tomorrow after the Hawks secured a last-minute upset over the Celtics this week, bringing the series home for Game 6.

It’s the type of scheduling chaos that conversion crews—the people who assemble courts and stages between events—are accustomed to during playoff season when stadiums get double-booked more frequently than the Airbnb from Barbarian.

• In New York, Billy Joel had to reschedule a show this week, too. Four consecutive nights of Knicks and Rangers games at Madison Square Garden pushed the Piano Man’s concert from its primo Saturday spot to Tuesday.
• LA’s Crypto.com Arena managed a 90-minute turnaround between Clippers and Lakers games last Saturday—sandwiched between the Kings NHL playoff games on Friday and Sunday. Fun fact: The rink stays covered and insulated between games, meaning basketball players are dribbling on ice each time they play there.

One night, two queens of pop: Janet Jackson’s rescheduled concert will take place at the same time as the first of Taylor Swift’s three Eras Tour shows in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.—ML

Stat: If your resume still touts your “proficiency in Microsoft Word,” it’s officially time to level up. A survey by Resume Builder this month found that 91% of the companies they spoke to that are currently hiring are looking for workers with ChatGPT experience. And of those, 30% say they’re trying to bring on someone with that know-how urgently.

Quote: “No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.”

Steven Spielberg said his decision to edit the guns out of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the film’s 20th-anniversary re-release was “a mistake” he now regrets. Opining that movies reflect the times in which they were made, the director said, “I should have never messed with the archives of my own work.” Still no apology for making Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, though.

Read: Your favorite celebrity street style photo is probably an ad. (Fashionista)

While egg prices have finally fallen dramatically, one sector of the economy remains stubbornly expensive: rents.

• In the latest consumer price index report, the shelter category (aka rents) was the largest contributor by far to overall inflation.
• And despite moderating in recent months, rent growth remains 17% higher than 2021 levels.

So, why aren’t rent prices falling like most other things in the economy? And what factors pushed rents so high in the first place?

We did some digging to find out. Learn what’s going on with rent prices here.

Dracula is spot on: ChatGPT identifies what’s most notable about each European nation.

Find your inner botanist: These free apps will identify all the plants you see.

Small but mighty: A ranking of the pain caused by stinging insects.

Efficiency inspo: Watch this street food vendor, who only sells for a few hours in the morning, do her thing.

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Three headlines and a lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than a Real Housewife’s face. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. For Japan’s aging soccer players, 80 is the new 50
2. New Jersey library had to go on lockdown after mini horse got loose inside
3. US woman arrested in Sydney with golden gun in luggage
4. Why scientists are making fake moon dust

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