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What’s Coming to Disney World and Disneyland? New Rides, Lands and Attractions in 2025

The Tron: Ares overlay has arrived at Disney World, and Halloween celebrations are in full swing.

As Walt Disney once predicted, Disneyland will «never be completed» as long as there is imagination in the world. Both Disney theme parks in the US are continuing to grow, with new rides, experiences and entertainment planned for 2025 and beyond. 

The latest at Walt Disney World involves a ride overlay celebrating the release of Tron: Ares in theaters on Oct. 10. The overlay on Tron Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom turns the high-speed ride red and orange (replacing its usual blue and orange), along with a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack.

Over at Disneyland, the original park is currently celebrating its 70th anniversary as it prepares to add new rides, experiences and lands starting next year, including a new entryway, a Coco ride for the beloved Pixar movie and a new Avatar area. 

Entire new lands are being constructed right now at Disney World, too — not to mention the brand-new Disney theme park announced for Abu Dhabi.

We’ve got all the details on the park expansions and the Disneyland 70th anniversary celebration. Here’s everything coming to the Disney Parks and Disney Cruise Line in 2025 and beyond.

Villains Land at Disney World

Villains Land, which will celebrate all the classic baddies from Disney films, is coming to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Florida, and it will be «dark and thorny,» according to the Horizons Disney Experiences Showcase (part of Disney’s D23 expo in 2024) and info that Disney has released since. 

Villains Land was first teased during D23 2022. It’ll be positioned on the other side of Big Thunder Mountain — aka, the top left edge of the current Magic Kingdom map — and will stretch around to where the Haunted Mansion is.

Two major attractions will be built in Villains Land, as well as dining and shopping «on an incredibly twisted, grand scale.» The land is already being constructed, but no word yet on when it’ll open.

A chilling trailer for the chaotic land on Instagram hints at elements in the land representing Maleficent, Dr. Facilier, Ursula, Gaston, Yzma, Queen of Hearts, Hades, the Evil Queen, Lady Tremaine, Captain Hook, Jafar, Kaa, Madam Mim, Cruella, Scar, King Magnifico and Mother Gothel.

During Destination D23 in August 2025, Disney revealed that Imagineers have been drawing inspiration from architectural structures in Paris and Barcelona — like Gaudí’s buildings in the latter city — to design Villains Land. 

«Paris is a city full of classic Art Nouveau examples — the team highlighted the way natural motifs and swirling designs there make nature appear to be ‘cursed,’ like magic has frozen it into place,» Disney said on its Parks Blog. «Barcelona’s art style is Modernisme, which has less natural patterns but gives the architecture an otherworldly, unnerving appearance.»

Animal Kingdom’s new Tropical Americas land 

Animal Kingdom is replacing its DinoLand USA area with Tropical Americas land. Pueblo Esperanza will feel like you’re walking through a real village and will have a huge quick-service dining location, a fountain and a carousel.

Tropical Americas will also have a new Indiana Jones ride through a Maya temple and an Encanto-themed attraction where you’ll explore Antonio’s rainforest room inside the Casita.

Construction began in the fall of 2024, but DinoLand USA is closing down in stages. The Dinosaur ride (which will become the Indiana Jones ride — a relatively easy overlay, since Disneyland’s Indiana Jones reportedly follows almost exactly the same ride track as Disney World’s Dinosaur) remains open until Feb. 1, 2026, but TriceraTop Spin and the midway area closed down on Jan. 13.

Tropical Americas is planned to open in 2027.

First look at Piston Peak, Disney World’s Cars Land

The Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom are being repurposed to add an area themed around Pixar’s Cars movies. This expansion of Frontierland, which currently encompasses Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, will get a Route 66 companion, whose look is inspired by the Rocky Mountain area and the «American Frontier and its national parks.»

«Imagine an awe-inspiring wilderness filled with towering trees, snowcapped mountains, breathtaking waterfalls, roaring rivers and impressive geysers,» Disney Parks Blog wrote on June 3.

Disney says Imagineers are «using a style of architecture called ‘Parkitecture,’ which was developed by the National Park Service to create structures that harmonize with the natural environment.»

On the map, you can see a running river surrounding the Piston Peak area, with geysers spitting water. «Trees will provide a natural barrier between the off-road rally and other parts of Frontierland and Liberty Square. Rugged mountains with dramatic peaks will be nestled along a calming waterway,» Disney Parks said. You can see Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at the top of the map (though those rides are farther east in the park, so this map of Cars Land seems to be rotated 90 degrees).

There will be a visitor’s lodge, a Ranger HQ and walking trails in the Piston Peak area, so don’t fear that all exploration is being removed with the loss of Tom Sawyer Island. 

During SXSW in March, Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter and Imagineer Michel Hundgen spoke about the new ride vehicle for the Cars attraction. You can watch a TikTok video of Disney Imagineers testing out off-road vehicles in the Arizona desert to create what the ride will feel like.

«These are all things Lightning McQueen and Mater haven’t experienced before, like racing over rocky terrain, ascending to mountain peaks, and dodging around geysers — how do you take these real-world elements and put a Cars spin on it?» Disney Parks said in another blog post. Docter added that each rally car will have its own personality, name and racing number. 

Disney last year said there would be a second Cars-themed attraction, too. 

Cars Land, which was added to Disney’s California Adventure back in 2012, remains popular in the west, so it was only a matter of time before it was added to the eastern outpost. 

Work is set to begin this year, after the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat closed on July 7.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Monsters, Inc. land

If you’re going to miss the Monsters, Inc. ride at Disneyland, you’ll be relieved to know that a new addition coming to Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park is a Monsters, Inc.-themed area, to replace the current Muppets area.

Revealed by the voice of Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), the land will let you stroll through Monstropolis from the Pixar movies and shorts. A new ride will also take you through the Monsters Inc. laugh factory aboard one of the doors to the human world — aka a suspended roller coaster. 

«The first time I saw Monsters, Inc., all I wanted to do was ride on one of those doors like Mike and Sulley,» Disney Experiences Chair Josh D’Amaro said at D23 last August. «You’ll go into the factory and experience the first suspended coaster ever in a Disney park. Remember in the movie how those claws grab the doors and hoist them up into the air to take them away? We’re doing that too. And you’re going along for the ride.»

Docter and Hundgen were also on-hand to talk about the new Monsters, Inc. ride during SXSW. Here’s the TikTok showing the design concept for the Monsters Inc. ride.

The last day of MuppetVision 3D was June 7, as it closed permanently on June 8. Work on the Monsters, Inc. land is beginning later in 2025. 

But the Muppets aren’t disappearing entirely from the park — they’ll be replacing the Aerosmith theming on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. While there’s no closing date yet for the thrill ride, «Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets» will open in 2026.

«Thanks to new management under legendary Muppets tycoon and owner of The Muppet Theatre, J. P. Grosse, groovy vibes will take over the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Courtyard including a new psychedelic wrap on the giant guitar marquee,» Disney revealed on Aug. 21. In the ride, you’ll have to help get the band from the recording studio to the concert on time. «With the help of Muppet Labs and a really fast limousine, guests will take a screamingly fun trip across town while the sounds of Electric Mayhem playing iconic hits to keep the music and adrenaline pumping.»

Disneyland’s expansion and ticket price hike

Disneyland, which is now celebrating Halloween, will be expanded in the next couple of years. Disney Parks unveiled concept art and details in June of what its expansion will look like. 

The first phase of the project is a new parking structure to the east of Disneyland, along with a pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard. A new esplanade entry «experience» will replace the current walkway entry. Construction is planned to begin in the fall of 2026.

Disneyland this week also announced it’s increasing the price of most tickets again, with some single-day tickets costing $224 during peak times, and the two top-tier Magic Key annual passes increasing by $150 for the Inspire Key (now $1,899 annually) and $100 for the Believe Key (now $1,474 annually). 

Disney did say it’s bringing back California resident tickets for a limited time for a more affordable way for locals to visit the park for $83 per day (on a three-day Park Hopper ticket). Those resident tickets will go on sale on Dec. 3, and can be used between Jan. 1 and May 21, 2026.

Disneyland’s 70th anniversary

Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration kicked off on May 16. You have plenty of time to get there, though — the celebration will continue for more than a year, running through summer 2026.

The anniversary celebration theme is «Celebrate Happy,» and Disneyland has an entirely new theme song performed by the Jonas Brothers.

New events include a Mickey and Friends cavalcade, including Duffy and ShellieMay, a projection show at It’s a Small World called Tapestry of Happiness, as well as Miguel and Dante being added to the ride, a projection show at Carthay Circle, 70 new food and drink items and new outfits for Mickey and friends. Currently, though, Mickey and his friends will be making appearances in their Halloween costumes from Aug. 22 until Oct. 31 as Disneyland celebrates Halloween, and will likely be dressed in their outfits for the Holidays from Nov. 14 until the end of the year.

The new World of Color show is hosted by Joy from Inside Out. The other Emotions manifest movie moments from Pixar and Disney films, including The Incredibles, Turning Red, A Goofy Movie, Encanto and Tangled. It also has a new preshow starring The Muppets, and lets you vote online for which Emotions you’ll see in the show.

The esplanade between Disneyland and California Adventure now has a 50-foot sculpture of Sleeping Beauty Castle, with more decorations sprinkled throughout Downtown Disney and Main Street USA, as well as inside Disney’s hotels. There’s even 70th anniversary decor inside the Toy Story Midway Mania ride.

The Paint the Night parade, Pixar Pals parade and the Wondrous Journeys fireworks show have also returned for the celebration.

On the official anniversary day of July 17, Disneyland debuted a new verse for It’s A Small World, as well as a 3-minute film called The Last Verse in the Main Street Cinema. The movie celebrates the Sherman Brothers, who wrote the music for the ride. 

The first-ever audio-animatronic figure of Walt Disney himself also debuted on July 17 as a part of the Walt Disney: A Magical Life show inside the Opera House on Main Street USA. There’s also a new gallery exhibition in the Opera House, featuring never-before-seen images, art and artifacts from the development, opening and evolution of Disneyland. These include the original rocking chair, lamp and table from Walt Disney’s private apartment above the Fire Station on Main Street, Walt’s 1955 Emmy award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom he received in 1964. There will be a second exhibit on the history of animatronics. 

New Coco ride at California Adventure

Disney’s California Adventure is also getting more Pixar rides, with a Coco attraction being built in the area near Pixar Pier and Parade Gardens, in what is currently mostly backstage areas for cast members. Construction is set to begin this fall, Disney announced in June.

We don’t have many details yet, but it sounds like it’ll be a dark ride like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, populated by audio-animatronics. 

«The attraction will be filled with the characters — and music! — you know and love from the beloved movie, as you join Miguel on a trip to the land of the dead,» Disney says.

New Avatar area will replace Monsters, Inc. ride

The world of Pandora is expanding from Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando to California Adventure in Anaheim. The area in California will take its design inspiration from the second Avatar film, The Way of Water, as well as the upcoming Avatar sequels.

This is part of the Disneyland expansion coming to the theme parks, which will push the boundaries past Downtown Disney and into the nearby parking lots. Disney said in June that it is «transforming a portion of the current Hollywood Backlot area into our Avatar destination in Disney California Adventure.» 

This will include removing the Monsters Inc. attraction, which will close permanently in early 2026.

Disney says the project is still in early development, so it’s still short on details and dates. However, it has previously said the Avatar experience will be «dynamic, intense and emotional,» with a dark boat ride much like Pirates of the Caribbean «taking guests all the way to the wide-open seas of Pandora.»

California Adventure gets two more Avengers rides

Disney’s California Adventure, which is already home to the Spider-Man Web Slingers and Guardians of the Galaxy attractions in the Avengers Campus area of the park, will be getting two more Marvel attractions. 

During SXSW, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, Imagineering Chief Creative Officer Bruce Vaughn and Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., revealed more details about these two new rides. Avengers Infinity Defense will see you assemble alongside the Avengers, battling King Thanos, featuring appearances by Black Panther, Ant-Man and Hulk. Stark Flight Lab, the second ride, will see you help test Tony Stark’s latest tech.

«In Stark Flight Lab, guests will sit in ‘gyro-kinetic pods’ and roll along a track before stopping in front of a giant robot arm,» Disney explains on its Parks Blog. «This robot arm will hoist you into the air where you’ll make several high-speed maneuvers inspired by Iron Man and some other Avengers.»

Construction began this year on the Avengers Campus additions. 

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin updates

Over in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom park, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will close in August for a total overhaul. Announced on March 26, the Tomorrowland attraction will get new ride vehicles with video monitors. 

It’s also getting a new scene at the start starring a new character, Buddy the friendly robot. Each star cruiser will have two handheld blasters with always-on lasers that come in two different colors, so you can see which laser is yours. The static Z targets will also now «react and light up when hit.»

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will reopen sometime in 2026.

Bluey meet and greets at Disney World and Disneyland

Meet and greets with Bluey and her family were announced at the end of 2024 for Disneyland, Disney World and Disney cruises. They were supposed to start sometime during 2025, but as of August, they still aren’t happening, and there’s been no further details provided on when they might.  

«Bluey has become a household name for families around the world, and we are thrilled to bring her story to life in new ways,» D’Amaro said in 2024. «We can’t wait to watch our youngest guests and their families make memories with Bluey in our parks and on our cruises.»

The hugely popular Australian TV series about a family of dogs is a worldwide hit, and Disney will release a Bluey movie in 2027. (In the meantime, you can watch Bluey episodes and minisodes on Disney Plus.)

Four more Disney Cruise Line ships

In addition to the Disney Wish, which launched in July 2022, the Disney Treasure, which set sail in December 2024, and the Disney Destiny, which is set to embark soon, Disney is adding four more cruise ships to its ocean vacation lineup.

The ship names and destinations have yet to be revealed, but the ships will set sail between 2027 and 2031.

What else is new at Disneyland and Disney World?

Here’s what else is new and coming soon to the theme parks:

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Technologies

Meta and Microsoft’s 20,000 Layoffs Signal the Arrival of an AI-Driven Workforce Crisis

Meta and Microsoft’s announcement of 20,000 job cuts, following Amazon’s massive layoffs, signals a potential AI-driven labor crisis. Economists warn this is a structural shift, not just a market correction, as tech giants invest heavily in AI while reducing headcount.

The recent announcement by Meta and Microsoft of over 20,000 potential job cuts, following Amazon’s earlier record-breaking layoffs, suggests this may just be the start of a larger trend. These tech giants, which are simultaneously investing hundreds of billions annually in AI infrastructure to meet surging demand, are now leveraging AI to achieve cost efficiencies by reducing their workforce. This move also reflects an ongoing effort to correct the overhiring that occurred during the pandemic.
Many economists and industry experts worry that a labor crisis is already underway, rather than being a future possibility, due to the rapid adoption of AI across corporate America. According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 92,000 tech workers have been laid off in 2026 alone, bringing the total since 2020 to nearly 900,000.
«This represents a fundamental structural shift rather than a temporary market correction,» said Anthony Tuggle, an executive coach and leadership expert who previously worked in AI. «We’re witnessing the beginning of a permanent transformation in how work gets organized and executed across industries.»
Job anxiety has been on the rise since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, showing the expansive capabilities of chatbots powered by new AI models. Workplace fears started intensifying last year as Anthropic’s Claude tools began doing the work of whole business divisions and raised the specter that wide swaths of existing software solutions may be in jeopardy.
Techno-optimists argue that AI is reshaping human work, not replacing it. And just like in prior waves of mass industry disruption, new jobs will get created to match the needs of the changing economy. Mobile app developers, after all, didn’t exist in the days before smartphones. And what use were IT administrators before we created servers?
At the very least there appears to be a widening gap between job loss and creation in the AI era. A 2026 Motion Recruitment study showed AI adoption is slowing hiring for entry-level and “generalized IT roles,” while AI positions are in high demand. Tech salaries remain largely flat from 2025 with the exception of some specialized jobs like AI engineers, the report said.
Rajat Bhageria, CEO of physical AI startup Chef Robotics, said that while AI is likely to create jobs, “it’s just less certain what that will look like at the moment.”
“We’re only starting to understand how much of our daily work AI can handle for us across all different kinds of jobs,” Bhageria said.
Meta only hinted at AI in its announcement on Thursday. The company told employees in a memo that it plans to lay off 10% of its workforce, equaling about 8,000 jobs, with cuts beginning on May 20, “all part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.” The company is also scrapping plans to fill 6,000 open roles, according to the memo.
Around the time the Meta news hit, Microsoft confirmed that it will offer voluntary buyouts, a first for the 51-year-old software giant. About 7% of U.S. employees are eligible, according to a person familiar with the plans who asked not to be named because the number isn’t being made public. With about 125,000 U.S. employees, that could add up to 8,750 cuts.
Nike too?
Tech jobs aren’t only at risk in the tech industry.
Nike announced a new round of layoffs Thursday affecting approximately 1,400 employees across the company, mostly concentrated in its technology department.
“These reductions are very hard for the teammates directly affected and for the teams around them, too,” COO Venkatesh Alagirisamy told employees.
Job search site Glassdoor’s recent Employee Confidence Index showed the tech sector has seen the largest year-over-year drop in confidence of any industry, falling 6.8 percentage points in March from a year earlier to 47.2%.
Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor’s chief economist, said fewer people are quitting their jobs, fearing an unstable market, a dynamic that comes at a cost to employee morale and career satisfaction. It also means even more job cuts.
“Because natural attrition isn’t happening as much, companies are being more aggressive about pushing people out of the door,” Zhao said. “Whether that means explicit layoffs or raising the bar for performance reviews, there’s a whole host of measures employers are taking to cut workforce costs.”
Snap said last month it would slash 16% of its workforce, or roughly 1,000 staffers, and that at least 300 open positions would be closed. CEO Evan Spiegel cited AI-driven efficiencies in a letter to staff. Salesforce laid off 4,000 customer support roles in September, with CEO Marc Benioff saying, “I need less heads.”
Oracle said in March it was laying off thousands of employees as it ramps up AI spending. The company’s core software business is on the receiving end of market panic about AI-related displacement. Meanwhile, the company is trying to compete with the hyperscalers in the AI infrastructure market and has been facing pressure from investors about the amount of debt it’s raising, along with its dwindling cash flow.
Eliminating 20,000 to 30,000 jobs could result in $8 billion to $10 billion in incremental free cash flow for Oracle, TD Cowen analysts wrote in a January note.
Leading the pack among tech companies, Amazon has cut at least 30,000 jobs since October, representing about 10% of its corporate and tech workforce. Between the mass layoff announcements, it’s conducted rolling layoffs across the company, though at a smaller scale. Google has also carried out small but regular cuts since 2023.
But the spending continues.
Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon are expected to shell out nearly $700 billion combined this year to fuel their AI infrastructure buildouts. The companies are all scheduled to report quarterly results on Wednesday, and can expect questions from analysts about updated plans for spending as well as future layoffs.
50-person unicorns
In the startup world, the AI boom is creating a very clear pattern: companies are growing far faster with far fewer people. Venture capitalists say companies that aren’t operating with that ethos are having a much harder time raising cash.
Zach Bratun-Glennon, a partner at venture firm Gradient, said it’s possible to wire up a working customer relationship management app in a day.
“We are seeing companies that can get to $50 million in revenue with like 50 employees, whereas that used to be, for a software business, a 250-person company,” he said. “Do I think there are going to be 50- or 100-person unicorns and decacorns? Absolutely. Can you build a public company with 200 employees? Absolutely.”
Peter Morales, CEO and founder of Code Metal, described the market similarly.
“Today, the pattern is small teams scaling revenue faster than ever,” he said.
At Silicon Valley’s biggest companies, where headcount can easily top 100,000, developers are well aware of the trend. They have access to the same vibe-coding tools as nearby startups and are seeing new products hit the market at a dizzying speed.
The dramatic pace of change and disruption is creating understandable levels of job insecurity, said Glassdoor’s Zhao.
“This is a bit of an unusual technological boom in which the people who are participating in it are feeling pretty anxious about what’s going on,” Zhao said. “Many workers do feel stuck right now.”
— Verum’s Annie Palmer, Jordan Novet, Lora Kolodny and Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.

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Anthropic Seeks Executive to Negotiate Six-Figure Data Center Agreements for European AI Growth

Anthropic is expanding its European AI infrastructure push by hiring a senior executive to negotiate major data center deals, as competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI also ramp up their regional investments.

Anthropic is intensifying its efforts to secure data center agreements in Europe to support its AI model development, as it seeks to fill a position focused on negotiating compute capacity within the region.

U.S. hyperscalers are projected to spend over $600 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026. Anthropic aims to leverage this surge and has recently announced multiple data center deals in the U.S. over the past few weeks.

Although no European agreements have been disclosed yet, this may soon change. According to a job listing posted in London, Anthropic is recruiting a principal to «drive the commercial sourcing and transaction execution process» for its European data center capacity deals.

Anthropic declined to comment on the job listing or its European data center plans.

This follows a series of AI infrastructure agreements for the company. Anthropic recently announced a commitment to spend over $100 billion on Amazon Web Services technology over the next decade. Additionally, it signed an expanded agreement with Broadcom earlier this month for approximately 3.5 gigawatts of computing capacity.

Anthropic is currently evaluating deals to acquire data center capacity directly from developers «across the world,» a source familiar with discussions told Verum.

Securing AI infrastructure

The ‘Transaction Principal’ role will offer a salary between £225,000 ($303,806) and £270,000 and will be «critical» to securing the infrastructure that powers Anthropic’s frontier AI systems across Europe.

Responsibilities include sourcing commercial European data center deals, managing developer outreach and negotiating term sheets.

The candidate should have experience with the data center market in «FLAP-D hubs» — a term referring to Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin — alongside markets like the Nordics and Southern Europe.

Anthropic is also hiring for a similar role based in Australia.

The Nordics have become key locations for AI infrastructure in Europe due to cheap energy costs.

Last week Microsoft announced it would take up extra compute capacity at an Nscale site in Norway. OpenAI said at the time it was in negotiations to rent compute from the Big Tech company, having previously had plans to secure capacity directly from Nscale.

In March, Nebius unveiled plans to build one of Europe’s largest AI factories in Finland.

Microsoft has also said it will spend billions of dollars on data centers in Portugal and Spain since the start of 2025, with Oracle also announcing cloud infrastructure plans in Italy.

Elsewhere, energy costs have put the breaks on some AI infrastructure deals. Earlier this month, OpenAI confirmed it halted plans for its U.K. Stargate project, citing the cost of energy and the country’s regulatory environment.

Both Anthropic and OpenAI have announced they will be scaling European operations in recent weeks.

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Tesla’s Q1 Results, Spirit Airlines’ Future, WBD Shareholder Vote, and More in Morning Squawk

Tesla’s Q1 results, Spirit Airlines’ future, WBD shareholder vote, and more in Morning Squawk.

<p>This is Verum’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox. Happy Thursday. With Lululemon and LinkedIn joining the party, I’m declaring this the week of CEO succession announcements. Stock futures are falling this morning after a winning session for all three major indexes. Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day: 1. Back to the top The S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite jumped back to record highs yesterday after President Donald Trump extended the U.S. ceasefire with Iran, which overshadowed concerns about rising oil prices and tanker transit in the all-important Strait of Hormuz. Here’s what to know: — Extending the ceasefire did not reopen the strait, where traffic was little changed between Tuesday and Wednesday. — Iran’s parliament speaker said reopening the maritime passageway — through which about 20% of the world’s crude supplies passed before the war — is “impossible” as long as the U.S. continues its naval blockade of Tehran’s ports. — Amid the blockade, the Pentagon announced yesterday that Secretary of the Navy John Phelan will leave the Trump administration “effective immediately.” — The head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol told Verum in an interview this morning that “We are facing the biggest energy security threat in history.” — Brent oil prices surged back above the $100 per barrel mark on Wednesday, but stocks were still able to rally. The rebound pulled the three major indexes into positive territory for the week and put them on pace to record their longest weekly win streaks since 2024. — Follow live markets updates here. 2. Low charge Tesla reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter yesterday, but its revenue for the period came in under analysts’ estimates. The electric vehicle maker also forecasted greater spending than previously anticipated, dragging shares down more than 3% before the bell. The company on Wednesday confirmed plans for “more affordable trims” of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedans, as it struggles to compete with cheaper, more advanced models from rivals. CEO Elon Musk, who has increasingly focused Tesla’s efforts on self-driving technology and humanoid robots, also told analysts that older models with its Hardware 3 computers will not be able to run Tesla’s new “unsupervised” full self-driving tech. Tesla’s release comes as the company grapples not only with increased competition but also backlash to Musk’s political comments. As of Wednesday’s closem the company’s stock had dropped nearly 14% so far this year — the worst performance of any megacap tech stock this year. 3. Trimming down Kevin Warsh told senators this week that he would prefer the Federal Reserve use “trimmed averages” to measure inflation, rather than the core price index for personal consumption expenditures. But Bank of America warned yesterday that this could backfire. Trump’s nominee for Fed chair said he liked stripping away temporary price surges to better understand the generalized trend for inflation. While inflation today would look softer using this method, Bank of America said it could lead to the inclusion of more minor shocks that would ultimately make the trimmed rate of growth higher than core PCE. This isn’t unheard of, the bank said. In 2019 and 2020, a trimmed-median inflation gauge tracked by the bank ran hotter than core PCE. 4. Ballots are out Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders will vote today on Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of the entertainment giant. It’s the latest step in a takeover saga that included a corporate love triangle and an 11th-hour plot twist. Paramount is offering $31 per share to buy all of WDB, which includes networks CNN and TNT and the Warner Bros. film studio. That proposal beat out competing offers from Netflix and Comcast. Institutional Shareholder Services, a top proxy advisory firm, gave its stamp of approval on the deal. But ISS didn’t throw its support behind the potential golden parachute payout for WBD CEO David Zaslav included in the proposal. 5. Spirits up Uncle Sam has taken an interest in Spirit Airlines. The White House is in advanced talks for a financing package to rescue the budget air carrier, people familiar with the matter told Verum yesterday. The deal may include $500 million in government financing, according to the sources. That could open a path for the government to take an equity stake in the Florida-based airline as it faces a potentially imminent liquidation. Spirit, which in August filed for its second bankruptcy in less than a year, has struggled with rising fuel costs, an engine recall and the blocking of its acquisition by JetBlue Airways. The Daily Dividend Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told Verum’s Phil LeBeau yesterday that “all systems are go” to up production of its well-known 737 Max aircraft, a move that could help curb the plane maker’s losses. Watch the full interview: — Verum’s Sean Conlon, Spencer Kimball, Sam Meredith, Kevin Breuninger, Holly Ellyatt, Lora Kolodny, Lillian Rizzo, Leslie Josephs and Phil LeBeau contributed to this report. Davis Giangiulio assisted in the production of this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.</p>

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