Tag Archives: media

Business

Budweiser to pass on Super Bowl commercials this year

Leave a comment

The “king of beers” won’t be reigning over the Super Bowl 2021 commercial space this year.

Budweiser is the latest corporation to back out of advertising during this year’s broadcast, choosing instead to join a public awareness campaign for the COVID-19 vaccine.

For the first time in 37 years, the company won’t air its game-stealing commercials, Anheuser-Busch, which owns Budweiser, announced Monday.

“Like everyone else, we are eager to get people back together, reopen restaurants and bars, and be able to gather to cheers with friends and family,” said Monica Rustgi, vice president of marketing at Budweiser. “To do this, and to bring consumers back into neighborhood bars and restaurants that were hit exceptionally hard by the pandemic, we’re stepping in to support critical awareness of the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Thirty-second ad spots for the Super Bowl reportedly go for about $55 million a piece. Budweiser will instead route some of that money to the Ad Council’s efforts to raise public awareness about the vaccine, as well as a 90-second COVID-themed “film” called “Bigger Picture” narrated by actress Rashida Jones. It will air digitally leading up to the Super Bowl, which airs on Feb. 7, 2021 on CBS.

Other Super Bowl commercial giants such as Pepsi, Coke and Hyundai will also take a step back from this year’s game, reallocating their funds in light of the pandemic. Pepsi, for instance, will focus primarily on its halftime show, headlined by The Weeknd.

“Instead of buying a traditional 30-second in-game Super Bowl ad, we decided to double down on the 12 minutes Pepsi already has in the middle of the game — the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show,” vice president of marketing Todd Kaplan said in a statement.

Coca-Cola execs said they will no run ads in this year’s broadcast to “ensure we are investing in the right resources during these unprecedented times.”

Coca-Cola, which has featured endearing polar bears in past years’ Super Bowl commercials, said it will not run ads during this year’s CBS broadcast.
Coca-Cola

Many others are struggling to figure out how to strike the right tone amid the devastation caused by the virus.

“There is trepidation around Super Bowl advertising this year,” Bill Oberlander, co-founder and executive creative of ad agency Oberlander recently told The Post. “For the Super Bowl, you generally go big or go home. I think brands are going home rather than spending tens of millions of dollars and not getting it right. They’re saying, ‘Let’s wait until this s – – t storm clears.’”

In years past, Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercials have stolen the show, with ads featuring singing frogs and stately Clydesdales. Last year, their crowd-favorite ad challenged stereotypes of a “Typical American” by showcasing the extraordinary actions of ordinary Americans.

Read original article here

Entertainment

‘The Lady and the Dale’ Reveals Tucker Carlson’s Dad Once Led Trans Bullying of Grifter Elizabeth Carmichael

Leave a comment

If you’re going to be a criminal, it’s wise to maintain a low profile. Alas, playing it safe isn’t in most lawbreakers’ DNA, and that was certainly the case with Geraldine Elizabeth “Liz” Carmichael, who in 1974 took the world by storm by taking on Detroit’s “Big Three” auto manufacturers with the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation and its flagship product: the Dale, a three-wheeled car that promised to deliver 70 miles per gallon, thus making it the ideal vehicle for an oil crisis-wracked America. By the time Liz launched this dodgy creation, she had already begun transitioning into a woman, which added even more fuel to the media-frenzy fire that would soon engulf her.

Directed by Nick Cammilleri and Zackary Drucker, and executive produced by Jay and Mark Duplass (Wild Wild Country), HBO’s four-part docuseries The Lady and the Dale (debuting Jan. 31) begins with the rollicking early years of Liz’s life, when prior to transitioning she married and abandoned two wives—and the multiple kids she had with them—before shacking up with third spouse Vivian. They had five children together, and as Vivian’s brother Charles remembers, Liz (then known as Jerry) was always a gregarious sort of grifter, adept at creating fake identities and swindling suckers (especially businesses) out of their hard-earned cash. Given Liz’s fondness for con-artist schemes, it wasn’t long before the Michael clan was fleeing from federal agents thanks to an elaborate counterfeiting ruse. Present-day recollections from daughter Candi paint a picture of an itinerant life on the run, such that she and her siblings’ birth certificates boast phony names—a situation that still causes them headaches.

The Lady and the Dale spends almost its entire first installment on Liz’s wild backstory, which is enlivened by pop-up book-esque animated reenactment sequences created with old photos of the players in question. It’s a novel stylistic twist that further conveys the craziness of the Michaels’ early years, in which family gatherings were organized through coded newspaper messages, and everyone had to be ready, at a moment’s notice, to take flight in the middle of the night to a new town and home. In short, Liz was an inveterate charlatan. She was also a trans woman, and while evading authorities, she slowly began the process of transitioning—a development that was readily accepted by her children and, after some minor initial hesitation, her wife Vivian.

Following a surgical procedure in Tijuana, Liz began living publicly as a woman, and in 1973, while working at a marketing company, she discovered an invention that was as brash and unconventional as she was: the Dale, a three-wheeled car (created by Dale Clifft) that she immediately decided would be her revolutionary ticket to world domination. After overhauling Clifft’s original designs to make the Dale more attractive (replete with a canary yellow paint job), Liz got a prototype into the Los Angeles Auto Show. Then, she went on a press blitz to announce her intentions to take on America’s auto bigwigs—including by getting the Dale featured on The Price is Right. Before long, Liz was a front-page sensation, with the uniqueness of her product matched only by the boldness of her claims.

Considering Liz’s criminal past—and her ongoing status as a federal fugitive—it will come as no surprise to learn that she soon began enlisting the assistance of mob figures for the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation, whose name came from Atlas Shrugged, written by libertarian Liz’s favorite author, Ayn Rand. She also began taking customer deposits for the in-production car, which she was supposed to hold in an escrow account, but which she instead used to finance her upstart venture. This was a clear case of fraud, especially since the makeshift Dale—being constructed by a few random engineers in hodgepodge fashion with borrowed parts—was doomed to fail. A series of investigative stories by KABC reporter Dick Carlson soon exposed the sham, leading to criminal prosecution and, after Liz was convicted, yet another flight from justice and her shady, quasi-illegal business operation.

The Lady and the Dale thrives when it remains focused on Liz’s audacious scam, bolstered by first-hand accounts from relatives and colleagues who describe her as both a wily crook and loving wife and mother. For the majority of its first three episodes, it proves an entertainingly gonzo portrait of rebellious self-definition, as Liz strives to buck legal and social norms to make something of herself. Unfortunately, though, by the time its final installment rolls around, Cammilleri and Drucker’s series becomes infatuated with eliciting sympathy for its subject as a victim of intolerant anti-trans discrimination, largely because the media’s attitude toward Liz—led by Carlson, whose son Tucker carries on his ugly legacy on Fox News—was to ridicule and demean her as a man posing as a woman in order to elude law enforcement. (Dick Carlson eventually won a Peabody for his transphobic coverage of Carmichael and would later make headlines for outing the transgender tennis player Renee Richards.)

“…the media’s attitude toward Liz—led by Carlson, whose son Tucker carries on his ugly legacy on Fox News—was to ridicule and demean her as a man posing as a woman in order to elude law enforcement.”

That Liz was treated unfairly (and sometimes horribly) by journalists is undeniable from the archival footage on display. Yet via talking-head commentary and a score that makes its celebratory attitude clear, The Lady and the Dale attempts to depict Liz as an unjustly persecuted trans outlaw hero, which simply doesn’t jibe with her considerable rap sheet. To do this, it downplays and/or rationalizes her criminality, which only further mires it in messy and dubious logic. Most confounding of all, the series argues that Liz’s trans identity was not a deception and thus not related to her criminality (which makes sense), only to then turn around and contend that, had she grown up in a different, more tolerant era, she might have led a very different, law-abiding life—a contradictory stance which winds up suggesting that there is a link between her trans-ness and chronic charlatanism.

Consequently, The Lady and the Dale eventually loses the thread, culminating with a history lesson about maligned trans men and women that, by its very inclusion, casts Liz as a likeminded oppressed trailblazer rather than as the outlandish grifter she was until her dying day. It’s ultimately so consumed with imbuing its material with hagiographic import—with making Liz’s saga meaningful—that it forgets what made it compelling in the first place.

Read original article here

US

Fauci and Birx tell interviewers about the ‘nonsense’ of the Trump years

Leave a comment

When Congressman Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, announced that he would vote against the second impeachment of President Trump earlier this month, he hinted that he might regret it someday.

McCaul said he wanted more time to review “the facts and the evidence” about the events leading up to the Capitol riot. He said he opposed impeachment “at this time” but he added, “I truly fear there may be more facts that come to light in the future that will put me on the wrong side of this debate.”

That quote has been rattling around in my brain all weekend. The public is learning new facts about three different threads of the Trump presidency: Trump’s last-ditch coup attempt; the insurrection that triggered impeachment; and his mishandling of the pandemic.

“It was even worse than we knew” is the takeaway…

Dr. Deborah Birx speaks

Trump’s Covid-19 task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx granted an in-depth interview with Margaret Brennan of CBS. Portions aired on “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, and the full 89-minute interview is now online in both video and text form. Among the many newsworthy bits: She says she almost never saw or spoke with Trump. She says he was getting a “parallel set of data and graphics” that she wasn’t privy to. Brennan asked if it was “disinformation” but Birx didn’t answer.
Birx’s belated confessions drew widespread scrutiny on Sunday. Dr. Seema Yasmin’s reaction on Reliable: “It feels like now she’s on a national apology tour, but where was her skepticism… when she was in the administration and had the platform and the position, potentially at least, to be honest with the public?” Maggie Haberman also offered her insight on Twitter: “Lots of reporters tried to talk to Birx while she was there. She was not interested. And when she spoke publicly early on, she appeared in lockstep” with Trump…

“The skunk at the picnic”

I think we’re going to keep learning more and more about how Trump’s Covid denial hurt the country.

Over the weekend The NYT’s Donald G. McNeil Jr. went long with Dr. Anthony Fauci about life under Trump, and he said of Birx, “it was much more of a painful situation for her,” because she was much more closely tied to the WH. Fauci said Trump sometimes called him to “express disappointment in me that I was not being more positive,” and Trump surrounded himself “with people saying things that didn’t make any scientific sense,” but he always felt it was better to stay at his post rather than resign. “I always felt that if I did walk away, the skunk at the picnic would no longer be at the picnic,” Fauci said. “Even if I wasn’t very effective in changing everybody’s minds, the idea that they knew that nonsense could not be spouted without my pushing back on it, I felt was important.” Read on…

But are these revelations breaking through?

Thanks to the efforts of news outlets like the NYT, WSJ, and CNN, we keep finding out more about the last gasps of Trump’s coup attempt.
We’re also hearing more and more about the assault on the Capitol. I was struck by this WaPo story the other day, titled “Self-styled militia members planned on storming the U.S. Capitol days in advance of Jan. 6 attack, court documents say,” because it quoted messages that one of the accused ring-leaders received during the riot. “When he posted a one-word message, ‘Inside,’ he received exhortations and directions describing tunnels, doors and hallways, the FBI said.” Directions from whom? How? There is so much we still don’t know.
Similarly, this NYT story described how a Capitol Police lieutenant scrambled to protect House lawmakers by piling tables and chairs into a makeshift barricade. “He had 31 rounds for his service weapon, and he has told others that he feared he might need them all.” I can’t help but wonder: Is this new info sinking in? Or have most people made up their minds about 1/6?

The view from NW PA

Maria, a regular “Reliable Sources” viewer, emailed me after Sunday’s show to say this: “In my Northwestern Pennsylvania Trump town, it is as if the insurrection did not happen, Trump won the election, Trump was the most successful POTUS ever, and Dems are going to take their freedoms away. Moreover, it was ANTIFA, not MAGA that caused the violence, the insurrection. THERE IS ZERO TALK OF THE INSURRECTION OR THE PANDEMIC and much praise for Trump.” This is anecdotal, of course, but it’s exactly what I see on right-wing radio and TV…

“They don’t even share a vocabulary.” But…

The AP’s Claire Galofaro and Juliet Linderman filed a story about “bridging the political divide” datelined Frederick, Maryland, right up Route 80 from where I grew up. The story was ridiculed due to this tweeted summary: “She thinks the election was stolen from Donald Trump. He believes what dozens of courts and officials have found: that Joe Biden is the rightful winner. They’re trying to find common ground but wonder whether they — and the nation — can do it.”
I get all the criticism — namely, that she believes in fantasy and he believes in reality, and the story should simply say so. But I really wish people would click past the tweet and read about the subjects of the profile. The story might actually make you more hopeful about our collective future. Yes, the profile subjects “don’t agree on basic facts. They don’t even share a vocabulary. They use the same words — truth, proof, patriotism — but they don’t mean the same thing.” That’s all true. But they are still friends. And that still matters. Read on…

Impeachment will inch forward this week

The articles of impeachment will be walked from the House to the Senate on Monday evening. An impeachment trial is likely to consume the month of February. But “what’s clear,” CNN’s Manu Raju said Sunday, is that “after comments from GOP senators over the past week, there’s virtually no path to 17 votes to convict Trump – unless something changes in trial or the dynamics in the party change.”

>> “Trump has started to believe there are fewer votes to convict than there would have been if the vote had been held almost immediately after Jan. 6,” Haberman reported Sunday night, citing people familiar with his thinking…

FOR THE RECORD

— Margaret Hoover on CNN: “Let’s be clear, there’s not been a better opportunity for the Republican party to divorce itself from the conspiracy theorists and the kooks than this impeachment trial coming forward.” (Twitter)

— Speaking of conspiracy theorists, Maria Bartiromo will be hosting Fox’s 7pm hour this week…

— David Folkenflik on Fox’s strategy: “What they’re doing is trying to figure out what kind of public posture they can take to retain the greatest possible loyalty and audiences they can…” (NPR)
— Glenn Kessler and co. on “the final tally of Trump’s presidency: 30,573 false or misleading claims — with nearly half coming in his final year…” (WaPo)
— The “lost cause” of election fraud is alive and well on talk radio, including on Rudy Giuliani’s WABC radio show in NYC, Azi Paybarah reports… (NYT)
— Yet another reminder that America is not really a 50/50 country: “In his first week in the Oval Office, Pres. Biden yielded high approval ratings for his response to the coronavirus (69%) and confidence in his ability to unify the country (57%),” per this new ABC/Ipsos poll… (ABC)

No president should be graded on a curve…

But in many respects Trump WAS graded on a curve throughout his presidency. Every period without a hateful tweet was noted. Every sign of a “new tone” was lauded. The bar was set low, far too low, for Trump. Now the Biden team is willingly, gladly raising the bar back up. When WH chief of staff Ron Klain said on Twitter over the weekend that it was great to see Fauci on Rachel Maddow’s show — a place where Fauci was forbidden to go during Trump’s time in office — Klain said Fauci will now be seen “anywhere else he wants to speak his mind.” Maddow replied and thanked Klain and said “I will hold you to it.” That’s the really important part — the press now has to hold the Biden team to it…



Read original article here

Business

Apple, Tesla and Facebook ready to report record sales in busiest week of earnings

Leave a comment

U.S. companies have barely managed to eke out positive earnings growth so far in this quarterly results season, but the big test arrives in the week ahead.

Nearly a quarter of the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.30%
is set to report results, with those companies representing 39% of the index by market value, according to calculations based on FactSet data. Given that the S&P 500 is weighted by market capitalization, this roster of companies will have an outsize impact on the profit trajectory for the index.

Earnings are expected to decline for the fourth consecutive quarter once all results are in for the latest period, but those companies that have reported thus far have been beating expectations in aggregate.

The FactSet consensus now models a 5% earnings decline for the index, compared with the 6.3% drop projected a week ago. If profit growth for the S&P 500 ultimately ends up positive, it would mark an end to the current earnings recession, which takes place when corporate profits drop for two or more consecutive quarters.

Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+1.61%
and Facebook Inc.
FB,
+0.60%
are among the highlights of next week’s slate, along with Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+0.20%,
which will deliver results for the first time since it became a member of the S&P 500. All three high-profile companies are scheduled to report Wednesday afternoon and expected to have produced record revenue in the holiday quarter.

The holiday quarter is always crucial for Apple, which releases new iPhones in the fall. With a slightly later launch than usual this year due to the pandemic pushing sales into the period, Apple is widely expected to post its largest quarterly revenue total ever and its first ever total above $100 billion. The technology giant likely also continued to see benefits from remote-work and remote-schooling trends, which have driven strong iPad and Mac sales throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

Full preview: Get ready for Apple’s first $100 billion quarter in history

Facebook is also expected to post what should easily be a record quarter given strong digital advertising trends during the holiday period. Still, the company will face questions about user engagement and a decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform indefinitely over his role in inciting the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol. Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik points to “continued usage fatigue” across social media as well as a “conversation skewed towards unmonetizable political events.”

Full preview: Facebook earnings still flourishing amid pandemic, economic slowdown and antitrust scrutiny

Tesla already disclosed delivery numbers for the full year that came in ahead of analyst expectations, and all eyes will be on the company’s outlook for 2021. RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak anticipates a delivery forecast of 825,000 to 875,000 million units for the full year, even though Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tesla’s last earnings call that an analyst was “not far off” for expecting 840,000 to a million deliveries during 2021.

Full preview: Can Tesla’s sales growth match stock’s rise?

Here’s what else to watch for in the week ahead, which brings reports from 117 members of the S&P 500 and 13 Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.57%
components.

Up in the air

Boeing Co.’s
BA,
-0.76%
journey remains turbulent even as the company’s 737-MAX jets were recertified after being grounded for almost two years. Though the company began deliveries of these aircraft, “the pace of delivering all 450 parked 737-MAX will be dictated by airline customers ability to absorb aircraft as well as air traffic demand,” according to Benchmark Company analyst Josh Sullivan.

Boeing’s Wednesday morning report will offer perspective on the company’s recovery expectations amid the pandemic, though Sullivan sees volatility ahead stemming from a recent equity offering and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on airlines.

The fourth-quarter reports from U.S. airlines have been bleak so far, and American Airlines Group Inc.
AAL,
-0.06%
and Southwest Airlines Co.
LUV,
-0.80%
offer more on Thursday morning.

Can you hear me now?

Verizon Communications Inc.
VZ,
+0.35%
leads off a busy week of telecommunications earnings Tuesday morning, followed by AT&T Inc.
T,
+0.35%
Wednesday morning and Comcast Corp.
CMCSA,
-0.92%
Thursday morning.

For the wireless carriers, a key issue will be the impact of iPhone 12 promotions on recent results. Investors will also be looking for information about a recent wireless auction offering spectrum that will be crucial for 5G network deployments. Though the bids haven’t been made public yet, the auction drove record spending and AT&T and Verizon are both expected to have paid up handsomely to assert their standing. The question for investors is what impact these bids will have on the companies’ financial positioning.

Full preview: AT&T earnings to kick off a defining year for telecom giant

AT&T and Comcast have more media exposure than Verizon, and those two companies have been trying to contend with the new realities brought on by the pandemic. Both companies have made moves to emphasize streaming more with their film slates given theater closures, and the financial implications of these moves will be worth watching.

Paying up

The evolving situation with the pandemic is reflected perhaps no more clearly than in the results of Visa Inc.
V,
-1.52%,
Mastercard Inc.
MA,
-1.63%,
and American Express Co.
AXP,
-1.01%,
which have a pulse on the global consumer spending landscape. The companies should provide insight on a travel recovery toward the end of the year, as well as the impact of recent lockdowns.

Susquehanna analyst James Friedman wrote recently that his Mastercard revenue projection of $3.97 billion is slightly below the consensus view, though he also asked: “does anyone really care about Q4 2020?” Friedman is upbeat about mobile-payments and online-shopping dynamics that suggest “positive trends ahead” for Mastercard, which reports Thursday morning. Visa follows that afternoon, while American Express kicks of the week with its Tuesday morning report.

The chip saga continues

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
AMD,
+1.38%
is poised to keep benefiting from Intel Corp.’s
INTC,
-9.29%
stumbles, which analysts expect to last for some time even as Intel prepares for a new, technology-oriented chief executive to take the helm.

“We have low confidence that Intel will be able to close that transistor gap quickly, and therefore expect it to continue to lose share for the foreseeable future,” Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis wrote after Intel’s latest earnings report. AMD will show how that dynamic has played out on its side of the equation when it posts numbers Tuesday afternoon.

Full preview: If Intel gets its act together, can AMD maintain swollen valuation?

Other chip makers reporting in the week ahead include Texas Instruments Inc.
TXN,
-1.31%
on Tuesday afternoon; Xilinx Inc.
XLNX,
+1.26%,
which is in line to be acquired by AMD, on Wednesday afternoon report, when it will be joined by chip-equipment maker Lam Research Corp.
LRCX,
-0.06%
; and Western Digital Corp.
WDC,
-5.23%
on Thursday afternoon.

Busy week for the Dow

Among the 13 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.57%
set to report this week are 3M Co
MMM,
-0.96%.
, Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
+1.13%,
American Express, Verizon, and Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.44%,
all of which report Tuesday.

“Near term, we see the company’s COVID-19 vaccine readout as a key upcoming catalyst and believe efficacy in the 80%+ range would suggest a clear role for the product in the market,” J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Schott wrote of Johnson & Johnson.

Cowen & Co. analyst J. Derrick Wood sees tough comparisons for Microsoft especially in its Azure and server businesses, though he expects a more favorable situation going forward.

Full preview: SolarWinds hack may actually be a good thing for Microsoft

Wednesday brings results from Boeing and Apple, while Thursday features McDonald’s Corp.
MCD,
-0.07%,
Dow Inc.
DOW,
-0.10%,
and Visa. Honeywell International Inc.
HON,
-1.45%,
Chevron Corp.
CVX,
-0.30%,
and Caterpillar Inc.
CAT,
-0.13%
round out the week Friday morning.

Read original article here

Sports

Comcast’s NBCUniversal to Shut Down Sports Cable Channel NBCSN by Year-End

Leave a comment

NBCUniversal is shutting down its sports cable channel NBCSN at the end of the year and migrating much of its programming to its sister general entertainment network USA, the company said.

The premium properties on NBCSN are the National Hockey League and Nascar auto racing, both of which will start to transition to USA Network this year. Some content will remain on both channels until NBCSN officially turns off the lights. NBCUniversal informed staffers of the plan Friday afternoon in a company memo.

“We’re absolutely committed more than ever to live sports as a company, and having such a huge platform like USA Network airing some of our key sports content is great for our partners, distributors, viewers and advertisers alike,” said NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua.

By putting high-profile sports on USA Network, NBCUniversal—a unit of Comcast Corp. —is hoping to solve two problems with one move: Get rid of an underperforming asset and boost an already powerful one. The Premier Soccer League will also have matches on USA.

NBCSN has struggled to compete against bigger rivals such as Walt Disney Co. ’s ESPN and Fox Corp.’s Fox Sports cable network. While it has a large national reach, its ratings pale in comparison to its competition. Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

Read original article here

World

Putin critic finds support from NHL star Artemi Panarin on social media

Leave a comment

New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin posted a picture to Instagram on Thursday showing support for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was arrested on Sunday several months after he was poisoned. 

Panarin, a native Russian, posted the picture of Navalny, his wife and their two children with the caption “Freedom for Navalny.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most well-known critic, was arrested on Sunday when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

Panarin declined to comment further on the post through a Rangers spokesperson, ESPN reported. 

This isn’t the first time the Rangers alternate captain has spoken out against Putin. In a 2019 interview, he criticized the Russian president saying that he “no longer understands what’s right and what’s wrong.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Psychologically, it’s not easy for him to judge the situation soberly,” Panarin said at the time, via Sports Illustrated. “He has a lot of people who influence his decisions. But if everyone is walking around you for 20 years telling you what a great guy you are and how great a job you are doing, you will never see your mistakes.”

Panarin’s post comes just days ahead of planned protests against Navalny’s detention.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read original article here

World

Joe Biden’s inauguration featured on global front pages

Leave a comment

But for the most part, it was Biden who commanded the spotlight. Here’s a selection of front pages from various parts of the world.

Canada’s National Post was one of many papers to pick out Biden’s proclamation, made in his inaugural address, that “democracy has prevailed.”

It noted Biden’s message of healing, writing that “an extraordinary, sometimes violent, transition of American power came to a peaceful end Wednesday.”

United Kingdom

The UK’s Guardian newspaper highlighted the same line, splashing a picture of Biden delivering his speech across its front page, while The Daily Telegraph, focused on another line — Biden’s call to end “this uncivil war” that has divided the US.

Britain’s tabloid papers approached the inauguration with typical zeal, ignoring the high-minded rhetoric of Biden’s speech in favor of a swipe at his predecessor. “Don’s Gone… Let’s Go Joe!” the Daily Mail wrote. The Metro encouraged Biden to “Now Make America Great Again,” re-purposing Trump’s long-running slogan. The Daily Mirror called Wednesday “A day of hope” and the Daily Express said it was a “Big Moment for the US and Britain.”

Scottish newspaper The National went so far as to bid “good riddance” to Trump — adding the words “you’re fired” in reference to the former president’s past role on TV series “The Apprentice.”

But the most irreverent front page came from the Daily Star, which superimposed Trump’s face onto a picture of the Incredible Hulk.

Ireland

Biden has spoken frequently of his Irish heritage, and his win was marked by front page headlines across the country. The Irish Examiner called it “A New Day,” while The Irish Times said he “reset the tone” with his address.

Italy

“Welcome Back America” was the message on the front of La Stampa, one of Italy’s most-read newspapers. Trump was widely unpopular across western Europe, and many EU leaders expressed relief at the beginning of Biden’s term.

Spain

Spain’s El Mundo welcomed Biden with the frank assessment that “There is much to heal in the US.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said after Biden was sworn in: “Today is a great day … We’ll work with the US for democracy and the reinforcement of a more just, sustainable & inclusive global governance.”

Australia

Most of Australia’s Thursday papers went to print before Biden was sworn in, so many focused on Trump’s departure — with a fairly clear stance on the outgoing leader. “Don Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out” was the West Australian’s blunt sendoff, while the tabloid NT News opted for a pun in its equally dismissive farewell.

Nigeria

The Guardian picked up on Biden’s promise to lead all Americans, not just those who voted for him. Nigeria’s Burna Boy was included on Biden’s official inauguration playlist on Wednesday.

Hong Kong

The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based daily for English readers, featured a picture of Biden with his wife, Jill Biden, and the Second Family waving during the ceremony.

United Arab Emirates

Meanwhile, Gulf Today referred to Trump as a “trumped-up leader” in its front page coverage of the inauguration of Biden, which featured an image of the 46th president taking the oath.

Read original article here