Disney’s long-running leadership drama is heating up again as activist investor Nelson Peltz accuses outgoing CEO Bob Iger of shaping the company’s succession plan to keep control behind the scenes.

The clash centers on Iger’s choice of theme parks chief Josh D’Amaro as his successor, a move Peltz claims is designed to justify Iger’s continued influence at the company.

In comments to The Wall Street Journal, Peltz said Iger favored D’Amaro over entertainment executive Dana Walden so he could stay involved after stepping down.

“Iger needs a reason to stay on,” Peltz said, arguing that choosing a parks executive over a Hollywood veteran creates space for Iger to remain a guiding force.

D’Amaro, 54, is set to take over as CEO next month, while Iger will stay on as a Disney director and senior adviser through the end of the year.

Walden, once seen by many as the top contender for the role, was instead named president and chief creative officer, a newly created position. The decision has raised questions about whether Disney’s leadership transition will truly mark a clean break or repeat past mistakes.

Peltz pointed to Disney’s troubled last succession as a warning. In early 2020, Iger handed the CEO job to Bob Chapek, another parks executive, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shook the company.

Iger remained as executive chairman, which led to overlapping authority and internal tension.

Josh D’Amaro has been named the next CEO of #Disney, replacing longtime chief Bob Iger.

D’Amaro has served as Chairman of Disney Experiences since 2020, where he oversees parks, cruises and consumer products.

Iger succeeded Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005, serving until 2020… pic.twitter.com/eGPhmVQBUx

— Variety (@Variety) February 3, 2026

Disney Board Defends Succession

Chapek’s short tenure was marked by clashes with talent, employee unrest, political backlash in Florida, and growing losses in streaming. In November 2022, Disney’s board fired Chapek and brought Iger back as CEO.

According to Peltz, history could repeat itself. He predicted that Iger may later claim D’Amaro lacks movie business experience and step in again to “guide” the company. Disney has not commented on Peltz’s latest remarks.

The Disney board, however, has defended the new plan. Board chairman James Gorman said the succession process was handled carefully and unanimously approved.

He noted that D’Amaro has spent years on Iger’s operating committee and has worked closely with film leaders, including helping bring major franchises like Avatar into Disney’s parks.

Peltz has been a vocal critic of Disney for years. Through his hedge fund, Trian Fund Management, he built a large stake in the company in late 2022 and launched multiple proxy fights, arguing Disney lost focus and failed at leadership planning.

After losing a high-profile shareholder vote in April 2024, Peltz sold his entire Disney stake for a significant profit.

Originally published on vcpost.com

The Kospi index added 6.8%—a bigger snapback than last April’s rebound following President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff plans.

Leading the charge was index heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which surged more than 11%. Samsung is the world’s top memory-chip maker and a leading smartphone producer.

Tuesday marked Samsung’s biggest one-day gain since October 2008, as the global financial crisis roiled world markets.

A U.S. exchange-traded fund tracking Korean shares, the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY), gained about 4% in Tuesday morning trading.

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The paper shutters Sports desk, curbs local and international coverage. (0:15) AMD plunges despite earnings. (1:02) Bitcoin extends selloff as Michael Burry warns of a crypto death spiral. (2:15)

The following is an abridged transcript:

The Washington Post announced sweeping layoffs, cutting about one-third of its staff and gutting major parts of the newsroom as owner Jeff Bezos and his leadership team struggle for a path to profitability.

Staffers described the day as a “bloodbath,” and the moves signal a sharp narrowing of the Post’s ambitions as it looks to right the ship, with reports of steep losses — including an estimated $100M in 2024.

The paper is dismantling its Sports desk, closing the Books section, and suspending the daily Post Reports podcast. International coverage is also being scaled back, while the Metro desk — once the heartbeat of the paper in the Watergate era — is being heavily reduced.

The cuts come after weeks of internal concern, including public pleas from journalists urging Bezos to change course. And during the layoffs Zoom meeting, one reporter described the mood as “funereal.”

Among active stocks, AMD (AMD) is plunging despite beating on both the top and bottom lines.

J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur said the big question is whether AMD can show real operating leverage — and until it does, the stock may stay under pressure, especially with potential margin risk as it ramps MI450/Helios later this year.

Eli Lilly (LLY) is bouncing back after topping Street forecasts with its Q4 results and 2026 outlook. Its GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound beat revenue expectations, with both up more than 100% from a year ago.

Uber (UBER) is lower after missing Wall Street’s lofty Q4 profit expectations, as a shift toward cheaper rides and higher insurance costs weighed on results. But the company also updated its autonomous vehicle plans, aiming to operate AVs in 15 cities by year-end.

AppLovin (APP) is sliding after AdExchanger reported on CloudX, a new AI-infused startup that could shake up the mobile advertising stack. The report said CloudX will use large language models to automate work typically done by engineers and ad ops teams.

And MGM Resorts (MGM) is rallying after BetMGM said 2025 was a record year, with net revenue reaching about $2.8B and adjusted EBITDA of $220M, driven by strong growth in both online sports betting and iGaming.

In today’s trading, bitcoin (BTC-USD) resumed its slide after a crypto selloff in the previous session that wiped out nearly $470B in market cap.

And “Big Short” investor Michael Burry warned the selloff could turn into a self-reinforcing “death spiral,” potentially causing lasting damage to companies that have spent the past year stockpiling bitcoin.

In a Substack post seen by Bloomberg, Burry argued that bitcoin has been revealed as largely speculative — failing to establish itself as a debasement hedge like precious metals.

“Sickening scenarios have now come within reach,” he wrote. If bitcoin falls another 10%, Strategy (MSTR) — the world’s largest corporate crypto treasury — could be billions in the red and “find capital markets essentially closed.” Further declines, he said, could push crypto miners toward bankruptcy.

And in other news of note, Claude is getting a little salty with ChatGPT.

Nearly three weeks after OpenAI (OPENAI) confirmed it would begin testing ads inside its near-ubiquitous chatbot, competitor Anthropic (ANTHRO) declares itself above the ad dollar.

Anthropic said: “We want Claude to act unambiguously in our users’ interests. So we’ve made a choice: Claude will remain ad-free.” The company added that users won’t see “sponsored” links next to their conversations, and Claude’s responses won’t be influenced by advertisers or include third-party product placements they didn’t ask for.

Anthropic didn’t mention ChatGPT or OpenAI by name, but the message is a pretty clear shot across the bow — and the debate over ad-supported AI is now echoing across the entire sector.

Eurozone banks tightened their conditions for loans to businesses in the final three months of 2025, an unexpected development lenders expect will continue in the early months of this year, the European Central Bank said Tuesday.

Publishing the results of a quarterly survey, the ECB said much of the tightening was reported in Germany and France, and “partly but not exclusively” involved loans to businesses that were affected by higher U.S. tariffs.

Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) announced Tuesday that it would be laying off newsroom employees along with other staff across the company, according to the outlet.

About 50 positions will be cut as part of the layoffs and roughly half are newsroom positions, according to the AJC, which is 15% of the paper’s total staff.

“We’ve made these difficult decisions because we believe they will best position us to continue to accelerate the AJC’s growth,” President and Publisher Andrew Morse said, according to the paper. “We have invested heavily in our editorial, product and business teams over the last three years, and we’ve seen direct results from that investment.”

The paper previously announced in August that it would be cutting jobs and scrapping its print edition starting in 2026, with the final issue scheduled for Dec. 31, 2025.

BROADCAST BIAS: MEDIA CIRCLE THE WAGONS TO PROTECT THEIR ANTI-TRUMP REPORTING

“As we grow, we must be agile and ensure we are devoting resources where they will have the most impact for our audience,” Morse said. “While these changes are difficult on a personal level, they will best position the AJC to continue delivering journalism worth paying for.”

The decision to eliminate the print paper resulted in the “elimination of about 30 full- and part-time jobs involved in designing and distributing the newspaper” as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shifted to digital-only publishing.

Staffers were alerted on Tuesday that the AJC offices would be closed Wednesday, and it would be a remote workday.

ATLANTA NEWSPAPER STUNNED BY DEMOCRATS PICKING CHICAGO FOR 2024 NATIONAL CONVENTION: ‘SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOE’

Employees affected by the layoffs will be briefed in meetings on Wednesday and will receive severance packages, according to the paper.

Morse told the AJC that the paper’s owner, Cox Enterprises, believes the transformation to digital only will be beneficial in the long term.

“We are not taking our foot off the gas,” he said. “Cox remains deeply committed to the AJC, our team remains deeply committed to growth, and we will continue to invest in areas that are critical to the growth of our organization.”

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Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Ronda: A storm unleashing up to 35 centimetres (14 inches) of rain in 24 hours battered the Iberian Peninsula on Wednesday, forcing thousands of people in southern Spain from their homes, shutting schools and cancelling trains.

Spanish weather agency AEMET placed parts of the southern region of Andalusia under the highest red alert for the torrential rain dumped by Storm Leonardo.

An “extraordinary amount of rain” was falling in a region where “the ground is very saturated and riverbeds are already carrying a lot of water” from recent precipitation, AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo said.

The mayor of the nearby city of Ronda, Maria Paz Fernandez, told public broadcaster RTVE that “the ground can no longer absorb” the constant downpours, speaking of “numerous landslides” in the surrounding rural areas.

Andalusia’s top emergency official, Antonio Sanz, told a press conference that the situation was “very worrying” in the nearby mountainous municipality of Grazalema, where AEMET predicted up to 35 centimetres of rain in 24 hours.

Around 3,500 people had been evacuated in Andalusia, where more than 650 incidents were recorded, none of them causing serious damage, Sanz said, adding that one person was injured in a building collapse.
Spanish police published footage of flooded fields and torrents of water that were engulfing buildings and vehicles.Hundreds of soldiers deployed to assist the rescue services, while all Andalusian schools were closed apart from in the region’s easternmost province of Almeria.

State railway company Renfe announced the cancellation of almost all suburban, regional and long-distance trains across Andalusia, with no bus replacement services possible due to the state of the roads, dozens of which were closed.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is worsening the intensity, frequency and length of such extreme weather events.

In October 2024, Spain suffered its deadliest floods in decades with more than 230 people killed, mostly in the eastern region of Valencia.

Portugal hit again
In Portugal, the emergency services had dealt with more than 3,300 incidents since Sunday, mostly due to flooding, falling trees and landslides, according to the Civil Protection authority.

The service had deployed more than 11,000 people to respond to the emergency, and around 200 residents were evacuated in central Portugal on Wednesday.

In Alcacer do Sal, south of Lisbon, the Sado river had burst its banks and the rising water had submerged the town’s main avenue, AFP journalists saw.

The Lisbon region and the Algarve in the south were most affected, with the rain and wind predicted to reach peak intensity overnight Wednesday to Thursday.

Tens of thousands of customers remained cut off from the power grid following last week’s Storm Kristin, which killed five people and injured hundreds.