Disney canceled plans for a new employee campus in central Florida on Thursday in the latest ripple effect from its feud with Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The entertainment giant would not move forward with the Lake Nona project, due to “considerable changes” since the original announcement, “including new leadership and changing business conditions,” a memo from Disney parks and resorts chairman Josh D’Amaro said.
The project, announced in July 2021, was expected to relocate 2,000 jobs from California to Lake Nona, which is about 30km east of the huge Disney World complex in Orlando, Florida.
Photo: REUTERS
The staff would have included workers in digital technology, finance and product development, with an average annual salary of US$120,000, Orlando business groups said at the time.
The project was estimated as an US$864 million investment, earlier media reports said.
However, Disney has been embroiled in an increasingly pitched battle with DeSantis, who is reportedly planning to launch his bid for the Republican presidential nomination next week.
The origin of the fight was Disney’s criticism of a DeSantis-backed law banning school lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In his challenge to former US president Donald Trump, DeSantis has staked out far-right positions on myriad hot-button issues, restricting children’s access to some books and blocking a course on Black studies.
Disney’s decision was “unfortunate,” the statement cited Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings
as saying.
The site would have been held in the county’s juristiction.
“However, these are the consequences when there isn’t an inclusive and collaborative work environment between the state of Florida and the business community,” Demings said. “We will continue to work closely with our valued partners at Disney.”
In February, DeSantis removed Disney’s control of its special self-governing district, which allowed the city-sized park to run its own zoning and infrastructure projects, exempt from state regulations.
DeSantis also floated the idea of building a new prison near the park, which is part of a sprawling tourism site employing 75,000 people and attracting 50 million visitors per year.
However, Disney, which reinstated longtime leader Bob Iger as chief executive officer in November last year, has fought back.
In April, Disney sued DeSantis, characterizing his actions as a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” that violates the company’s right to free speech.
Earlier this week, Disney asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by a DeSantis-aligned oversight board.
Trump has ridiculed DeSantis’ fight with Disney, and in April wrote on social media that the company would stop investing in Florida or could “even announce a slow withdrawal.”
In a statement on Thursday, Trump’s campaign said that DeSantis’ feud with Disney has robbed the state of a huge investment and lucrative jobs “because he was too weak to fight for his state,” while hailing Trump as “the Jobs President.”
“Ron DeSantis’ failed war on Disney has done little for his limping shadow campaign, and now is doing even less for Florida’s economy,” the campaign said.
The company is “committed to our teams who call Central Florida home,” D’Amaro said.
“We have plans to invest US$17 billion and create 13,000 jobs over the next 10 years,” D’Amaro said. “I hope we’re able to do so.”
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
RSS