The Cut that Saved Christmas; The House of Mouse is coming to ChatGPT; Mackenzie Scott is 'billionairing' right; Passport, keys, Visa, and 5 years worth of tweets?
- Dipo Owolabi
- Dec 12, 2025
- 4 min read
12th December 2025 The Federal Reserve delivers a third and final rate cut for 2025 while projecting just one more for next year amid internal dissent. Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI to bring its iconic characters to AI video generation. The Trump administration proposes requiring five years of social media history from visitors entering the US. Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announces $7.1 billion in new donations, bringing her total giving to $26.3 billion since 2019. All this and more in today’s Read It and Eat!
 Major Headlines
Disney ($DIS) has announced a groundbreaking partnership with OpenAI, investing £1 billion in the AI start-up and becoming the first major licensing partner for the Sora platform. The three-year agreement includes the provision of over 200 animated characters from the Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars libraries for video content generation. A key limitation of the agreement is the exclusion of celebrity images and actors' voices, meaning that generated videos may include visual characters but not the original performers' voices. Additionally, some user-generated videos will be available on the Disney+ platform, creating a new distribution channel for AI content.
In addition to capital investment and trademark licensing, Disney is becoming a major customer of OpenAI and will implement the start-up's tools to create new products, services, and experiences for Disney+, while also making ChatGPT available to its employees. This decision marks a significant shift in Hollywood's attitude towards AI technology, representing a turning point for the entertainment industry, which had previously expressed concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on creators' rights and job security. CEO Bob Iger emphasised that the partnership will allow them to "carefully and responsibly expand the reach of our storytelling through artificial intelligence, while respecting and protecting creators and their work."
The company's shares are gaining over 1% today following these announcements and are testing the 200- and 100-day EMAs, which can be considered key zones indicating the continuing downward trend in the company's shares. Both Disney and OpenAI have committed to implementing responsible safety measures, including age-appropriate policies and controls to prevent the generation of harmful content, demonstrating a shared commitment to the ethical use of AI in entertainment. Reuters
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points (0.25%) on Wednesday, as expected. But amid the easing came the subtext: There may not be many more going forward, making this partially the "hawkish cut" many cautioned would come, though Powell reaffirmed a "wait and see" philosophy from a "well-positioned" stance.
According to the Fed's dot plot, its anonymous survey of where the FOMC members see rates going, the committee's current median projection is just one cut next year as the cooling labor market and stubborn inflation pull on each other.
But with the inflation-worried Fed presidents of Kansas City and Chicago dissenting in favor of a pause and Governor Stephen Miran favoring a double cut, 2026 is shaping up to feature a hotly contested Fed as 2025 closes with the first triple dissent since 2019. Yahoo Finance
The Trump administration has proposed a significant change to U.S. entry rules, which would require visitors from 42 visa-waiver countries, including the UK, Australia, Japan, and many others in Europe, to submit five years of their social media history. This information, previously optional on the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form, would become mandatory under the new rule currently open for public comment.
The proposal mandates the disclosure of "high-value data elements," including all phone numbers used over the past five years, and email addresses used over the past ten years. Applicants must also provide extensive personal details for close family members, including their names, birth dates and places, residences, and phone numbers from the same five-year period.
This move aligns with the administration's broader push to overhaul immigration, placing heavy scrutiny on social media. For student visa applicants, a lack of online presence can already be held against them, indicating a wider trend of using digital footprints for vetting and escalating immigration enforcement. CNN
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced a monumental $7.1 billion in donations for 2025, a dramatic increase from her $2.6 billion giving last year. This brings her total philanthropic distribution since 2019 to $26.3 billion, drawn from a fortune largely comprised of Amazon shares following her divorce from Jeff Bezos.
Her giving is distinguished by its no-strings-attached, high-impact approach, with unsolicited gifts often doubling a recipient's annual budget. More than a dozen Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) received $783 million this round alone, part of over $1.35 billion she has directed to HBCUs since 2020. Major gifts also included $70 million to the UNCF and $50 million to the Native Forward Scholars Fund.
Scott's philosophy centers on empowering proven solutions, demonstrated by her $26.3 billion in total giving since 2019, to trusting organizations like the nonprofit 10,000 Degrees, which received a transformative $42 million gift, to use the funds without mandatory reporting. In a recent essay, she framed her donations as "mission-aligned" investments aimed at creating a ripple effect of equity and opportunity, urging others to act from a place of generosity. Bloomberg
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