📌 Disney’s Legal Defense, Perry Case, More

A wrongful death lawsuit against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts highlights the importance of reading the fine print in contracts.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of a New York woman who died after eating at Disney Springs in Florida. They claim she had a fatal allergic reaction after being assured the food was allergen-free.

Disney argues the lawsuit should be dropped due to an arbitration clause the woman's husband agreed to when he signed up for Disney+ in 2019. This clause requires all disputes to be settled out of court.

“The first page of the Subscriber Agreement states, in all capital letters, that ‘any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration,’” the company wrote.

John Davisson, director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said, “The consumer is presented with this contract and doesn’t have an opportunity to negotiate the terms,” Davisson said. “It’s yes or no.”

The plaintiff's lawyer contends it is unreasonable to believe all 150 million Disney+ subscribers have waived their rights to sue Disney, and the arbitration clause shouldn't apply in this context.

Five defendants have been charged in connection with the ketamine-related death of actor Matthew Perry.

The five include a live-in assistant, two doctors and a woman known as the “Ketamine Queen.” US attorney Martin Estrada said the defendants are part of a “broad underground criminal network” that supplied ketamine to Perry and others.

“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said.

Found in a hot tub, Perry died October 28, 2023, at age 54, at his home in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office declared Perry passed away from the “acute effects of ketamine.”

The multi-Emmy-nominated Canadian-American actor had a long and well-documented history of battling alcohol and prescription drug abuse.

As students return to college campuses, administrators are preparing for a resurgence in activism against the war in Gaza.

Some universities have imposed new rules, including banning encampments, limiting the duration of demonstrations, allowing protests only in designated spaces and restricting campus access to those with university identification.

The American Association of University Professors issued a statement Wednesday condemning “overly restrictive policies” that could discourage free expression.

Many policies require protesters to register well in advance, limit the locations where gatherings can be held, and set restraints on amplified sound and signage.

Like other universities, the University of Pennsylvania has banned encampments, overnight demonstrations, bullhorns, and speakers until after 5 p.m. on class days and set a requirement that posters and banners be removed within two weeks of placement.

A rare asteroid from beyond Jupiter caused the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago, research has found.

An international research team said an asteroid named Chicxulub struck Earth with immense force in what is now the Yucatán Peninsula, creating widespread destruction.

The impact led to immediate and prolonged environmental changes, eradicating 75% of Earth's species, including non-avian dinosaurs, as reconstructed by researchers through geological examinations.

Geochemical analyses by University of Cologne geochemistry professor Mario Fischer-Gödde and colleagues reveal high platinum-group elements at the K-Pg boundary, supporting the asteroid's extraterrestrial origin and its role in the mass extinction.

The K-Pg boundary marks the transition between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods 66 million years ago, coinciding with a mass extinction event. It features a sediment layer rich in iridium, indicative of an asteroid impact.

Thailand's parliament elected political neophyte Paetongtarn Shinawatra today as its youngest prime minister.

The 37-year-old daughter of political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra sailed through a house vote and now faces a baptism of fire two days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as PM.

At stake for Paetongtarn could be the legacy and political future of the billionaire Shinawatra family. Last year, their once unstoppable populist juggernaut suffered its first election defeat in over two decades.

Paetongtarn will become Thailand's second female PM and the third Shinawatra PM after aunt Yingluck Shinawatra and father Thaksin, the country's most influential and polarising politician.

Her first public comment on the win was posting on Instagram a picture of her lunch—chicken rice—with the caption: "The first meal after listening to the vote.”

Paetongtarn faces challenges with the economy floundering, competition from a rival party growing, and her party Pheu Thai's popularity dwindling. It has yet to deliver on its flagship cash handout program worth 500 billion baht ($14.25 billion).

A healthcare research group says American women can expect shorter lives than women in similarly wealthy nations.

The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit group, used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to calculate the life expectancy for US women at birth in 2022.

The Commonweath Fund study deduced that US women's life expectancy of 80 is two years shorter than UK women’s, the next lowest, and seven years shorter than that of women in Korea and Japan, the highest.

Life expectancy for racial groups in the US varied, according to the CDC data, with Asian women living to 86, Hispanic women, 83, and Black women, 76.

The Fund said high life expectancy can be attributed to high living standards, a healthy lifestyle, quality education, and access to comprehensive health services, among other factors.

The Fund pointed to US women having one of the lowest rates of regular access to health care, one of the highest rates of emergency room visits and skipping needed medical care due to cost—all of which contributed to low life expectancy.

An endangered species of sea lion has helped Australian scientists to map their homes with tiny cameras on the ocean floor.

The cameras were glued to the fur of eight adult female sea lions, which weighed less than 1% of their body weight, preventing drag so the animals could move freely. The recordings were made over two to three days.

Author Nathan Angelakis, a PhD student at the University of Adelaide, said: “We deployed the instruments on adult females so we could recover the equipment a few days later when they returned to land to nurse their pups.”

The researchers analyzed 89 hours of recordings and identified six seabed habitats covering 1930 square miles of seabed in southern Australia.

AI models were used to predict large habitat areas across the continental shelf, using the sea lions' and other data collected over 21 years.

The study will help conservation efforts to control the population of Australian sea lions, which has declined by more than 60% over the past 40 years.