Things To Do In SW Florida

By ALAN SUDERMAN

It’s one of crypto’s hottest trends: publicly traded companies buying bitcoin and then buying even more.

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President Donald Trump’s media company just announced a plan to raise $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin, joining a growing number of so-called “bitcoin treasury companies” as the world’s most popular cryptocurrency hits all-time highs.

The companies buy bitcoin for different reasons: Some hold it as a hedge against inflation or to signal support for the cryptocurrency industry, while some firms have made using debt and stock sales to buy bitcoin their primary business strategy. read more

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump likes to say he’s bringing in trillions of dollars in investments from foreign countries, but a provision in his tax cuts bill could cause international companies to avoid expanding into the United States.

The House-passed version of the legislation would allow the federal government to impose taxes on foreign-parented companies and investors from countries judged as charging “unfair foreign taxes” on U.S. companies.

Known as Section 899, the measure could cause companies to avoid investing in the the U.S. out of concern they could face steep taxes. The fate of the measure rests with the Senate — setting off a debate about its prospects and impact.

A new analysis by the Global Business Alliance, a trade group representing international companies such as Toyota and Nestlé, estimates that the provision would cost the U.S. 360,000 jobs and $55 billion annually over 10 years in lost gross domestic product. The analysis estimates that the tax could cut a third off the economic growth anticipated from the overall tax cuts by Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation. read more

Gawrsh, there’s a lot of stimulation going on at GoofyCore, the new limited-time activities area at Epcot that’s part of the Cool Kid Summer push at Walt Disney World.

GoofyCore is heavy on sights and sounds but light on smells, thankfully, inside CommuniCore Hall, the theme park’s multi-use space that prompts the event’s, well, kinda goofy name.

The activity starts on ground level with carpeting that doubles as a dance floor and the curvy track of a gigantic game board. Think Candy Land but more neon. In the center of the room is a brightly colored DJ booth — aka Goofy’s Game Machine — made to look like it’s melting.

Giant game cards dangle from the ceiling with characters on one side and instructions (“Oh, boy! Take two turns,” “Strike a pose, collect three bows!”). But on the Disney scale, the theming is pretty subtle.

But something about this space makes kids literally run around in circles. And that’s fine. Burn off that energy. The parents have grown-up furniture on the sides and take deep breaths while watching the circular movements of those kiddos. The young ones have pretty free rein in here until they try to climb up onto the DJ ledge. That’s when kindly cast members swoop into action. read more

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

The union for Hollywood’s video game performers has reached a tentative contract with several video game companies that may bring an end to an almost year-long strike tied to the use of artificial intelligence.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike in July 2024 after negotiations with game industry giants came to a halt over artificial intelligence protections.

SAG-AFTRA said that the unregulated use of AI posed “an equal or even greater threat” to performers in the video game industry than it does in film and television because the capacity to cheaply and easily create convincing digital replicas of performers’ voices is widely available.

The performers were worried that unchecked use of AI could provide game makers with a means to displace them — by training an AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or to create a digital replica of their likeness without consent.

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By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s trade wars are expected to slash economic growth this year in the United States and around the world, the World Bank forecast Tuesday.

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  Crypto’s hottest new trend: publicly traded companies buying bunches of bitcoin

Citing “a substantial rise in trade barriers’’ but without mentioning Trump by name, the 189-country lender predicted that the U.S. economy – the world’s largest – would grow half as fast (1.4%) this year as it did in 2024 (2.8%). That marked a downgrade from the 2.3% U.S. growth it had forecast back for 2025 back in January. read more