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Bob Iger on Shanghai Disneyland as it defies the Chinese pullback

Spend a day at Shanghai Disneyland and you wouldn’t know Chinese consumers are struggling.
Wang Jiandong and his girlfriend Yan Xu said they have been skipping meals out and scrimping on day-to-day necessities so they could afford to enjoy the park.
“We save in our daily lives so we can spend more on trips,” Wang explained while taking photos with Yan in front of Disney’s iconic castle. “This is a romantic place.”
Shanghai Disneyland celebrated its 10th anniversary this week, with former Disney CEO Bob Iger flying in for the festivities.
“I’m feeling filled with pride really,” Iger told CNBC during an interview at the park. “I’ve been involved in this project from the very beginning in the late ’90s.”
Iger said the occasion carried extra significance “knowing not only how successful it’s been, but really how important it is in many respects, not just to the Walt Disney Co. but to the people of China.”
Former CEO of Walt Disney Company Bob Iger (2L) and his wife Willow Bay attend a celebratory event marking the 10th anniversary of Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai on June 15, 2026.
Jade Gao | AFP | Getty Images
Shanghai Disneyland hit 100 million cumulative visitors in 2025, according to the company. It’s a relatively new but important foothold in Disney’s more than 100-year history.
Disney’s experiences division, which includes its theme parks, resorts, cruises and merchandise, reported nearly $9.5 billion in revenue during the company’s most recent quarter, ended in March, a 7% increase year over year. The division is the second largest at Disney’s, accounting for almost 40% of the company’s overall revenue and nearly 60% of its operating income.
While Disney executives have noted recent softness in international visitors to the company’s U.S. parks, its outposts in other countries are faring better.
According to the Themed Entertainment Association, which tracks global theme park data, the Shanghai park attracted 14.7 million visitors in 2024 — a 5% year-on-year increase — making it the fifth most-visited theme park in the world behind Disney parks in Orlando, Florida; Anaheim, California; and Tokyo as well as Universal Studios Japan.
Under newly appointed CEO Josh D’Amaro, Disney is eyeing further global expansion, with a new cruise ship berthed in Singapore and a forthcoming park and resort in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The company announced a 10-year, $60 billion investment into its parks in 2023.

“Because of the available property and because of the properties, the intellectual property that Disney has, the opportunities to expand are limitless,” Iger told CNBC this week. “As long as the business is successful, which it has been, there is no reason why it won’t continue to expand over time.”
Iger, who stepped down from his second stint as CEO in March and is still a member of its board of directors, declined to comment on reports that Disney is considering another theme park for China.
A cautious Chinese consumer
Shanghai Disneyland is bucking a bigger trend in China: consumption broadly is poor.
Retail sales dropped in May for the first time in three years. Car sales are down by double digits. People are downgrading their consumption, but they haven’t cut back altogether.
“Young people in China today are not refusing to consume. Rather, they care more about ‘value for money,’” Lin Huanjie, president of the Institute for Theme Park Studies in China, said in written comments to CNBC.
This photo taken on June 16, 2026 shows a view of Shanghai Disneyland in its 10th anniversary themed decorations in east China’s Shanghai.
Liu Ying | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
“If a Disney trip delivers strong memories, compelling social content, and high emotional value, they are still willing to pay,” Lin said. “If it is just an ordinary visit, they will tighten their budgets. The popularity of characters like LinaBell in China also shows that young consumers, even under economic pressure, are still willing to pay for emotionally comforting consumption.”
University student Smile Wei is one such parkgoer.
Wei traveled with a friend for a vacation to Shanghai and told CNBC their budget was 5,000 yuan ($735) for the five-day trip. They already spent a fifth of that at the park, Wei said.
“My friend and I planned to book a hotel room with two beds,” Wei said. “But we downsized to a single to buy more souvenirs here.”
Shanghai resident Wang Lu told CNBC she specifically wanted to be at the park on June 16.
“It’s both my birthday and the park’s 10th anniversary,” she said. “There is nowhere else I would rather spend this special day.”
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Bitcoin falls to $62k, heads for weekly losses amid Iran uncertainty, rate jitters

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Jio IPO: Akash, Isha and Anant Ambani to lead IPO process, says Mukesh Ambani
The industrialist said the company will file its DRHP with SEBI later today. This comes after he announced Jio’s IPO plans at the company’s previous AGM last year.
What Mukesh Ambani said about Jio IPO
Speaking at the company’s 49th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday, Mukesh Ambani said, “This is a deeply emotional moment for me, for the entire Reliance Family, and millions of its shareholders. The relationship Reliance shares with its shareholders is a deep and sacred relationship founded on pride, trust, respect, and shared growth.”
The industrialist added that the proposed listing of Jio will show the world that India can build technology companies of global scale, global capability, and global value. “I assure you, and all prospective new investors, that a brighter future awaits Jio,” he further said.
Mukesh Ambani announced that Reliance Jio Infocomm Chairman Akash Ambani, Reliance Retail Ventures Executive Director Isha Ambani Piramal and Reliance Industries Executive Director Anant Ambani will lead the IPO process.
“The Jio revolution is truly a result of the courage, creativity, and commitment of thousands of young Indian engineers. Before Jio, many believed that India could only import technology from the world. Our engineers proved otherwise. Today, Jio is not merely integrating technology. It is creating original technology,” Mukesh Ambani said.
Also read: Reliance Jio to file IPO DRHP today, plans fresh issue of up to 27 crore shares
Here’s what Akash Ambani said
Reliance Jio Infocomm Chairman Akash Ambani said that the telecom major’s user base has crossed 524 million, while its 5G user base has crossed 268 million, the largest for any single-country operator outside China. “Jio is evaluating the development of a sovereign Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation for India, while also partnering with leading global constellation providers. Jio is also building its own ground station infrastructure in India – strengthening India’s atma nirbharta in space,” he added.
The proposed Jio IPO is expected to overtake NSE’s nearly Rs 30,000 crore and Hyundai Motor India‘s Rs 27,870 crore (about $3.3 billion) public offering to become the country’s largest-ever IPO. The listing plans, however, have undergone multiple changes over the past year.Also read: LIVE updates from RIL AGM
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
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Sergey Young: Investor and Longevity Ambassador
Most investors spend their careers searching for the next technological breakthrough. Few dedicate themselves to a mission as ambitious as helping millions of people live longer and stay healthy.
The story behind Sergey Young is not simply about venture capital. The idea of helping people sits at the heart of his investor work. An entrepreneur, author, and founder of Longevity Vision Fund: how did his career bring him to this bigger mission? Let’s discover.
Why Longevity Has Become One of the Most Important Investment Fields of the 21st Century
For a long time, healthcare investing was mostly reactive. You fund treatments once something goes wrong and optimize around diseases that already exist. That model still exists, of course. But it’s no longer the whole story.
What’s changed lately is the direction of science itself. Researchers are no longer only focused on individual diseases — they’re increasingly looking at the biological processes behind aging as a shared root cause. That shift sounds subtle, but it changes the entire investment landscape.
According to WHO, the pace of population aging becomes faster, and the amount of elderly people grows. Luckily, today’s advances in biotechnology, artificial intelligence and preventive medicine are creating opportunities to address the underlying biological processes associated with aging itself.
Fields like geroscience are starting to treat aging less like a fixed timeline and more like a biological process that can potentially be slowed or modified. The U.S. National Institute on Aging has been funding research in this direction for years, specifically looking at how aging mechanisms connect multiple chronic diseases rather than treating each one separately.
From an investment point of view, that’s a big shift. Because instead of betting on single-disease solutions, you’re suddenly looking at platforms that could affect many conditions at once — cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders. Different endpoints, same underlying biology. And then technology is accelerating everything.
Investors are increasingly recognizing the niche. Now it’s clear that longevity is a broad ecosystem that includes biotechnology, digital health, precision medicine, and wellness technologies. As a result, capital is flowing into startups and research initiatives that aim to redefine how aging is understood and managed.
Sergey Young: investor life and the mission to help one billion people live to 100
Many investors tend to build portfolios around sectors. Some stay close to software, others specialize in healthcare, energy, or infrastructure. Sergey Young’s investor approach is different. His investment thinking keeps circling back to one long-term question: how do you actually help people stay healthier for longer?
That question eventually shaped the creation of the Longevity Vision Fund, which has become closely associated with longevity and health-focused investing. Instead of concentrating only on treatments after disease appears, the fund looks earlier in the chain — prevention and regenerative medicine powered by artificial intelligence.
Over time, Sergey Young has become one of the more visible voices in this space, consistently arguing that aging shouldn’t just be accepted as a fixed biological endpoint. In his view, it’s something science can increasingly understand, measure, and potentially influence.
For decades, healthcare has focused primarily on treating disease after it appears. Today, that approach is gradually expanding to include earlier risk detection, disease prevention, and helping people stay healthy for longer.
Looks like extending healthspan could end up being one of the defining economic and scientific opportunities of this century. Seen through that lens, Sergey Young’s biography shows a wider movement in medicine and technology.
Building bridges between science and capital
Breakthroughs rarely become reality without funding. Researchers need resources to develop technologies and conduct clinical trials. Sergey Young attracts attention because he is able to connect scientific innovation with investment capital. He regularly meets scientists, founders, healthcare innovators, and biotechnology companies searching for the next breakthrough.
Industry observers often note that he evaluates hundreds of biotech opportunities every year, helping identify promising developments long before they reach mainstream awareness. This ability to translate science into investment opportunities has become one of his defining strengths.
Another important chapter in Sergey Young biography involves collaboration with organizations dedicated to aging research. For example, he serves on the board of the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), a respected nonprofit organization supporting scientific studies on aging and age-related diseases. This involvement highlights a key aspect of his philosophy.
Healthspan XPRIZE and global longevity initiatives
As an investor, Sergey Young played an important role in major global initiatives designed to accelerate progress in aging research. Among the most notable is Healthspan XPRIZE, a large-scale competition created to encourage scientific breakthroughs capable of improving human health as people age.
Healthspan XPRIZE has attracted international attention because it focuses on measurable improvements in healthy aging rather than simply extending lifespan. The objective is not to help people live longer while managing illness. It is to help them remain active, independent, and healthy for more years.
The initiative reflects a philosophy frequently associated with Sergey Young: ambitious goals inspire ambitious solutions.
From investor to bestselling author
A lot of people first come across Sergey Young not through investing, but through his book The Science and Technology of Growing Young. It went on to become a Wall Street Journal bestseller and, for many readers, it was the first time longevity science felt understandable rather than abstract.
What makes the book stand out is that it doesn’t lean into science fiction or exaggerated future scenarios. Instead, it stays grounded. It walks through technologies that already exist or are actively being developed — things like early disease detection, regenerative medicine, and data-driven approaches to slowing age-related decline.
For readers who aren’t deep in the investment or biotech world, it works almost like a bridge. You don’t need to know the industry to follow it.
And in a way, that’s where the shift happens in Sergey Young’s public role. He’s no longer just operating behind the scenes as an investor. The book turns him into a communicator — someone translating complex scientific work into ideas that a much wider audience can actually engage with.
It also played a part in something bigger. As the topic of longevity started moving closer to mainstream conversation, the book helped frame it less as a fringe concept and more as a legitimate area of innovation attracting serious capital and research attention.
Longevity at work and a broader social mission
One of the less discussed aspects of the Sergey Young biography is the effort to bring longevity concepts into the workplace. Young helped create what is widely described as the first nonprofit corporate longevity program.
The program encourages companies to think more seriously about employee health — not just in terms of occasional wellness perks, but as part of long-term productivity and quality of life. That includes physical health support, mental wellbeing, preventive care, and everyday habits that can influence how people age over time.
The concept is simple but powerful. It connects back to a broader shift happening across industries. As healthcare moves from reactive treatment toward prevention and optimization, workplaces become part of the same ecosystem. Not separate from health, but part of it.
Looking ahead
Longevity is still early. But it’s no longer unclear. Science is moving. The demographics are already here. And the capital is starting to organize itself around both.
For Sergey Young, investor, longevity is not just a scientific challenge. It is also a social and economic opportunity. Long-term change depends on building an ecosystem where innovation can thrive.
As advances in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and healthcare continue to accelerate, longevity science is likely to become an increasingly important area of investment and innovation. However, progress in the field requires cooperation among researchers, entrepreneurs, healthcare providers, policymakers, and investors.
The work of Sergey Young demonstrates how investors can help drive that transformation by supporting ambitious ideas before they become mainstream. His career offers a compelling example of how capital, science, and vision can come together to address one of humanity’s most universal challenges: aging itself. The future chapters of the Sergey Young biography are still being written, but the direction is already clear: healthier lives accessible to more people.
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of GOOGL either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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‘Barack, look at me’: Michelle Obama’s emotional words about marriage and life bring Barack Obama to tears. Watch
Michelle Obama’s tribute leaves Barack Obama emotional
As Michelle Obama started her speech, she turned towards her husband and asked, “Barack you got to look at me.”
The former president responded with humour, saying, “No I’m not,” which brought laughter from the audience. “I’m gonna look down.”
The reason soon became clear as Michelle spoke about their families, the people who shaped them, their daughters Sasha and Malia, and Barack Obama’s time as president. She praised his achievements and described his “unshakeable moral fibre”, leaving him visibly moved.
At one point, Barack Obama wiped tears from his eyes as Michelle told him, “You always gave us the very best within you, and in doing so, you reminded the rest of us that we could too.”
Michelle said the centre was not only about celebrating a former president or an administration. She said it represented the stories, struggles and values that shaped them.
“Barack and I have always said that this center is grounded in our stories, but it has never been about us.”She also remembered a promise Barack made early in their relationship.
“You told me all those years ago that you couldn’t promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life, and of course you outdid yourself and managed to give me both.”
Barack Obama thanks Michelle and family
After taking the stage, Barack Obama began his speech by greeting his hometown crowd.
“Hello Chicago. Sweet home, Chicago,” he said.
He thanked the former presidents and leaders attending the event and described former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden as “family”.
Turning his attention to Michelle, Obama joked about her emotional speech.
“To Michelle, she did me wrong. She wouldn’t let me see her speech. She knew she was going to mess me up, but she did it anyway,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
He then added, “But she’s always made me better and I could not be more grateful.”
Obama also shared a message for his daughters.
“And to Sasha and Malia, what can I say? You mean everything to me.”
The former president also reflected on his connection with Chicago, recalling his arrival in the city in 1985 when he was 23 years old. He said he travelled there in a secondhand car bought in New York and already knew he wanted to create change.
Pointed remarks without naming Trump
During their speeches, both Barack and Michelle Obama made remarks about democracy and American values without directly mentioning the current administration.
Michelle Obama said, “No one, I mean no one, has the right to sit in judgment of who’s American enough,” receiving applause from the audience.
She also urged people not to give up during difficult times.
“We simply don’t have the luxury or time to be cynical or complacent, to wring our hands in despair, to wait for someone else to fix the problem. Y’all, hope is all we have.”
Barack Obama spoke about the importance of “shared values that make democracy possible”. While he did not name the current president, his comments appeared to focus on broader political debates and concerns around democracy.
The event highlighted the former president and first lady’s personal journey, their connection with Chicago and their message about hope, participation and public service.
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