Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, creator of the 24-hour news cycle, and Braves fan before they were good, died yesterday at 87. Turner earned the nickname “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South” while building one of the largest cable TV empires in the country. Outside of work, he was known as a sailor, conservationist, and, briefly, Jane Fonda’s husband.

At age 24, Turner took over his family’s Atlanta billboard business following his father’s suicide, and ultimately turned it into a media powerhouse and himself into a billionaire:

• Turner bought local radio stations and a struggling Atlanta TV station, and by 1976, jumped on satellite technology to broadcast around the country.
• In 1980, Turner introduced CNN and the idea of around-the-clock news. Over the next few decades, he snapped up movie and TV libraries and turned them into channels like Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network.
• In 1996, Turner merged his massive portfolio with Time Warner in an ~$8 billion deal.

Turner remained in the executive suite until 2003, when he was pushed out of the company following a disastrous $156.1 billion merger between Time Warner and AOL in 2000.

When the dot-com bubble burst, Turner lost a huge chunk of his fortune. But he didn’t seem to harbor much bitterness, telling Charlie Rose in a 2008 interview, “Hardly anybody wins all the time. I’ve won more than most.”

Plus, he had plenty of extracurriculars

Turner, a conservationist, owned an estimated 2 million acres of land across eight states, making him one of the largest individual landowners in the US.

He also owned the Atlanta Braves, helping the team become champions in the 1990s and being the last team owner to step in as manager before the league banned it. He was married three times, was a four-time Yachtsman of the Year recipient, went duck hunting with Fidel Castro, and donated $1 billion to the United Nations.

Breaking news…once the leader of cable news, CNN is currently set to be rocked by the highly protested $111 billion takeover of its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance.—MM

Iran war outlook is uncertain amid varying messages. Yesterday morning, President Trump posted on Truth Social that “Epic Fury will be at an end” and the Strait of Hormuz will be “OPEN TO ALL” if “Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to,” although he did not elaborate. He warned, however, “If they don’t agree, the bombing starts.” Also yesterday, the US military said it shot and disabled an Iranian oil tanker that was attempting to breach the US’ blockade of Iranian ports. The developments came a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Operation Epic Fury was “concluded” but that the president was still seeking “a path to peace.”—HVL

Disney and Uber say consumers are still spending. Despite rising gas prices, people are still shelling out cash to see Cinderella’s Castle and to have their own coachman—at least according to Disney and Uber, which both reported earnings yesterday. Disney blew past Wall Street’s expectations in its new CEO’s first quarter in charge, with its streaming and parks businesses boosting its revenue, despite a small dip in park attendance. Meanwhile, Uber released higher guidance than expected, and its CEO told CNBC, “The consumers are spending, they’re spending locally, and we don’t see any signs of that weakening at this point.”—AR

Sony in talks to acquire catalog that includes Justin Bieber. Count Sony Music among the Beliebers: The company is said to be in advanced talks to acquire Blackstone-owned Recognition Music Group, which owns or manages the rights to 45,000 songs, among them Bieber’s, Neil Young’s, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’. Neither side has publicly commented, but Bloomberg reports that the deal could be worth up to $4 billion, making it one of the largest of its kind. There have, however, been two other multibillion-dollar music catalog deals over the past few months.—AR

On Tuesday, Apple agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of misleading customers about the AI features that would be available on iPhones. Now, you may be entitled to enough compensation to cover one Uber Eats burrito.

Who’s eligible: People who bought the iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model in the US between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025. That shakes out to 37 million eligible devices. If you bought one of them:

• You’ll receive a letter or an email telling you how to file a claim.
• Expect $25 to $95 per phone (or possibly less, depending in part on how many people file claims).

Back in 2024, Apple promised certain Apple Intelligence features—including an AI-infused version of Siri that was promoted in a commercial starring actor Bella Ramsey—but failed to deliver on them when the iPhone 16 launched that year. Apple didn’t have to admit to wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

Zoom out: Though Apple has slowly rolled out some AI features, it’s still struggling in the AI race relative to peers. In January, the company said it would use Google Gemini to power its AI upgrades, including its much-delayed Siri overhaul, which is expected to finally launch this year.—ML

The Pussycat Dolls are the latest music act to cancel swaths of a US arena or stadium tour amid lagging ticket sales. It’s part of a spreading epidemic the industry is calling “blue dot fever,” after the blue dots that represent unsold seats on Ticketmaster’s website.

Others who recently succumbed include Meghan Trainor, Zayn, Jelly Roll, and Post Malone. Trainor and Zayn abandoned all of their US arena dates, while Post Malone and Jelly Roll shut down one-third of their co-headlining US stadium tour. Those venues had more open seats than a 4pm Friday work meeting, but only the Pussycat Dolls publicly blamed poor sales for canceling.

Why so blue? Mainly, everything is more expensive:

• The average concert ticket price in 2026 is $144, up from $115 last year and $82 in 2020.
• Meanwhile, the cost of gas has exploded since the start of the Iran war and hurt the profit margins of tours that rely on transportation to get between locations.

Also: There’s stiff entertainment competition this summer from the FIFA World Cup, which is being hosted in North America.

Big picture: Three weeks ago, a jury found Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, guilty of acting as a monopoly. However, some experts believe that it may not lead to a long-term decline in ticket prices.—DL

The online world can be a beautiful yet confusing series of tubes. On Thursdays, the Brew’s Molly Liebergall untangles them for you.

The cinnamon challenge, the Tide Pod challenge, the mannequin challenge—three social media trends that didn’t show us the bowels of the notoriously secretive Church of Scientology. Young people are rectifying that with the latest viral challenge: Scientology speed running, aka getting as far as possible into Scientology centers until you’re thrown out.

Origins. A late-March TikTok of a young guy running into a Scientology building garnered 43 million views in two weeks and inspired countless copycats:

• Viral videos show groups of semi-masked youths sprint deeper into Scientology buildings, often pushing past incensed staffers and knocking over furniture.
• In response, Scientology staffers have called the cops, linked arms to barricade buildings, and removed exterior door handles. The Church recently referred to the speed runs as hate crimes.
• That hasn’t stopped the trend’s spread from Los Angeles to New York City, Vancouver, the UK, and Australia, where two teens were arrested.

Why are the kids doing this? Some say they want to map out Scientology buildings, but plenty probably just want to go viral (see: the Minions attempt).—ML