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World Cup 2022: Media Confronts Moral Dilemmas and Coverage Quirks in Qatar

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Reporters and broadcasters are grappling with how to handle human rights concerns, political protests, and unusual restrictions—from filming to buying beer—while not missing the action on the pitch. “It feels,” says one journalist, “like a country that’s being unboxed for a World Cup.”

 

World Cup 2022 Media Confronts Moral Dilemmas and Coverage Quirks in Qatar

 

Illustration by Khoa Tran. Champion, Strong: Alamy; Players, Trophy, Qatar: Getty Images.

Reporters and broadcasters who cover a World Cup often don’t get a chance to unpack their luggage. The assignment is one that typically sends them hurtling from one airport to another, exploring the vast expanse of a host nation, rarely dwelling in one place for long. Barney Ronay, the chief sports writer for The Guardian, took 17 flights over the course of 30 days while covering the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. John Strong, the lead play-by-play soccer announcer for Fox Sports, likes to joke that he earned “silver status on Siberian airways” four years ago when the competition was held in Russia. “We were constantly on the move,” said Strong, who will be part of the team covering the United States’ opening match on Monday against Wales. “We would call a game, drive to the airport, and be on a 1 a.m. departure, and then connect through Moscow to go to the next city.”

This year’s World Cup in Qatar, which kicked off Sunday, will pose no such travel burdens. Visiting media personnel will take only two flights––one for arrival and one for departure. The eight stadiums hosting matches are all within a 35-mile radius of Doha, situated in and around the capital city. “The biggest change is how we’ll be living and existing,” said Jon Champion, who will provide play-by-play commentary for the British broadcaster ITV. This will be the first World Cup held in winter, a move to avoid Qatar’s stifling summer heat, and Champion says it will also be the first where he won’t be living out of his suitcase. “I’ll be able to set up camp in a hotel room in the middle of Doha, and I will return there every night regardless of where I’ll be calling my game,” said Champion, who’s covered every men’s World Cup since Italia ’90. “The longest journey I’ll face is 40 minutes.”

Those logistical anomalies offer some practical advantages––a less hectic itinerary will free up more time to take in the action on the field––but that might be the only easy part about covering the 2022 World Cup, where the assembled journalists in Qatar are finding it nearly impossible to treat it like another sporting event. This year’s edition of the tournament will test those in sports media who have strained to avoid politics in an era when sports are increasingly and explicitly political.

“We, as an outlet, have a responsibility to cover the tournament, top to bottom, and that’s not just the soccer side of it,” said Paul Tenorio, the national soccer reporter for The Athletic, who is covering his first World Cup in Qatar.

The decision to hold the tournament in the tiny Gulf state has been shrouded by allegations of bribery, and the staging of the event has come to be regarded as a human rights tragedy. Qatar’s treatment of its migrant workers, who built the stadiums and transportation infrastructure that will be used for the World Cup, has drawn international condemnation. A report published last year by The Guardian found that 6,500 of those workers had died since the country was selected in 2010 to host the tournament.

There are also concerns over how the host nation will treat its visitors. Homosexuality is outlawed in Qatar, although, according to The Guardian, law enforcement has reportedly agreed to show restraint when confronted with public displays of affection from those in the LGBTQ community. Members of the press may not be afforded such leniency. Organizers have imposed restrictions on where and what media outlets can document, prohibiting filming or photography of residential properties, private businesses, and government facilities. The government’s hardline posture has already led to incidents. Last week Qatari security officials interrupted a Danish television crew’s live shot on the streets of Doha and threatened to break their camera equipment; organizers for the World Cup later apologized and said it was a mistake.

“There’s a genuine hostility between media, fans, and host nation that I’ve never known before,” said Ronay, who is covering his third men’s World Cup this year. “It’s not supposed to be like this.” Ronay is concerned that there could be more incidents between journalists and the Qatari authorities, but he also believes the fraught atmosphere makes it impossible for the media to cover the event strictly through the prism of sport. “There is only one story,” Ronay said, “and the story is: ‘What the hell are we all doing here?’”

Fans walk passed Lusail Stadium before FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on 18 November 2022 in Lusail Qatar.
Fans walk passed Lusail Stadium before FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on 18 November 2022 in Lusail, Qatar.By Simon Holmes/NurPhoto/Getty Images.

Smaller in total area than Connecticut and with fewer people than Kansas, Qatar is easily dwarfed by the 17 countries to previously host the World Cup. “It’s just crazy when you look at the history of where this tournament has been played––Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Mexico––all these really prominent football nations,” said Sam Wallace, the chief football writer for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. “Then there’s Qatar. It just stands out.”

Wallace was in Zurich that night in 2010 when FIFA stunned the sporting world with its selection of Qatar, making it the first country in the Middle East to host the tournament. Qatar spent the next 12 years building around $220 billion worth of new infrastructure, including stadiums for the tournament and an underground metro. “Everything is new,” said The Athletic’s Sam Stejskal, who is staying in an apartment with Tenorio outside of Doha. The ground floor of the apartment building features a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Krispy Kreme, both of which just opened. “It feels sort of like a country that’s being unboxed for a World Cup,” Stejskal said.

The new infrastructure was built by Qatar’s population of migrant workers, most of whom come from South Asia. There are nearly 3 million people in the country, but only 300,000 of those are Qatari citizens. The rest are expatriates hailing from the likes of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. Wallace arrived in Doha earlier this month, well before most of his colleagues. He spent those first few days exploring the city on one of the many available e-scooters. On one of his first nights, Wallace came upon a large gathering of Argentina fans, nearly all of whom were Indian expats. As he continued on, Wallace saw another group of Indian expats, but this time they wore the colors of Brazil. “I think I’ve met one Qatari national,” Wallace said. “Most of the people you bump into are migrant workers.”

There was a similar scene last week when hundreds of ostensible England fans, mostly Indian expatriates, gathered at the team’s hotel, prompting accusations that they were paid to generate a spirited atmosphere. World Cup organizers pushed back forcefully against those claims, but there is precedent for similar arrangements. When Doha hosted the World Athletics Championships in 2019, organizers shuttled in migrant workers and schoolchildren to bolster the event’s sluggish attendance. (FIFA said last month that nearly 3 million tickets had been sold for this year’s World Cup.)

For those on the ground in Qatar, it is hard to disentangle the pageantry of the World Cup from those who toiled to make it possible. Stejskal attended a training session for the US team in Doha, where players and coaches had a kick-about with a group of migrant workers. FIFA organizers framed the meet-and-greet as a show of gratitude for the workers and their contributions to the World Cup, but it was impossible for Stejskal to look past the unsavory elements.

“That, to me, was an encapsulation of the entire tournament,” Stejskal said. “On a micro level, if you take out the context, it’s a fun and happy thing. But when you actually think about everything that’s going on, that fun and happy thing has a much darker side.”

Stejskal, covering his first World Cup, said he’s compartmentalizing the experience, separating his excitement for the competition from his squeamishness over the way it came together. “I’m trying to separate the art from the artist,” he said.

Other fans of the game have been forced into a similar bargain, as global football has been upended this century by the entrance of a number of Middle Eastern petro states. Manchester City has become the most dominant club in England thanks to the largess of its owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates. Another English club, Newcastle United, was purchased last year by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The Qataris, empowered by their country’s control of one of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas, have been players on this front too. Qatar’s state-run shareholding organization owns Paris Saint-Germain, a team of galacticos headlined by Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Neymar.

Those takeovers are widely seen as textbook cases of “sportswashing,” whereby a country with a tarnished image uses a beloved game to launder its reputation. The 2022 World Cup may be the ultimate expression of that. “Sports and the geopolitical power of these tournaments are indivisible,” said Wallace. “This is a tournament that was brought here for the glorification of a very tiny, very wealthy nation-state that has preoccupations with its standing in the world. That’s why we’re here. There is not a chance we would be here if not for the politics of sport.”

Qatari officials have hit back at the scrutiny surrounding the tournament, accusing some critics of racism and Islamophobia. Others have observed a double standard in the condemnations of Qatar. Piers Morgan, who has said he’ll be attending the games as a Fox pundit, questioned the consistency of those protesting the host of this year’s World Cup. “Once you start putting your moral halo on, where does this stop and who is morally clean enough to actually host a World Cup?” Morgan said in an interview on a British podcast last week, bringing up the “draconian” abortion laws in the United States and the invasion of Iraq.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino echoed those sentiments over the weekend. In a fiery press conference on the eve of the tournament’s opening match, Infantino defended Qatar and chastised Western critics for their “hypocrisy.” He added, “I think for what we Europeans have been doing around the world for the last 3,000 years, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons,” Infantino said.

SC Freiburg Fans with protest signs against the championships in Qatar during the Bundesliga match between SportClub...
SC Freiburg Fans with protest signs against the championships in Qatar during the Bundesliga match between Sport-Club Freiburg and 1. FC Union Berlin at Europa-Park Stadion on November 13, 2022 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. By Helge Prang/Getty Images.

Qatar has said that more than 12,000 journalists have been accredited to cover the World Cup, some of whom are content to stick to sports. Fox, which paid FIFA $425 million for the rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in the United States, has signaled that it has little appetite to wade into the off-field controversies.

“If a story affects the field of play, if it affects the competition in the tournament, we will cover it fully,” David Neal, the executive producer of Fox’s World Cup presentation, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “If it doesn’t, if it’s ancillary to the tournament, if it has to do with the construction of the venues or what have you, we’re going to leave that to other entities to cover. Our focus is entirely on the 64-game tournament.” Neal said that fans prefer it that way too, telling the Inquirer that “viewers come to Fox Sports during the World Cup to see the greatest sports event in the world.”

World Cup organizers clearly hope broadcasters stick to sports. Earlier this month, Infantino and FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura sent a letter to all 32 teams competing in the World Cup, urging them to “focus on football” and avoid being “dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists.”

When we spoke earlier this month, two days before he flew to Doha, Fox Sports’s Strong said the requirements of his job precluded him from addressing much beyond the match itself. “One of the key things they teach you when you’re a play-by-play broadcaster is to talk about what’s on the screen,” said Strong, who will call the World Cup final for Fox next month. “While the game is going on, it is difficult to get into other stuff.”

Strong spoke obliquely about the controversies surrounding the tournament, calling them “important topics” and praising the “really important journalism” that has been done on the matters. “I think all of us have our opinions,” said Strong. Indeed, Strong and other play-by-play commentators like Champion have a primary directive to inform viewers about and contextualize the events on the field. “It would be very dangerous to go into this as a broadcaster on some sort of crusade,” said Champion. But in Qatar, the controversy will never be far removed from the competition itself. Champion said he would be “very surprised to go through the entire World Cup and not be in some way forced into that territory.” A number of players are expected to wear rainbow armbands as a repudiation of Qatar’s anti-gay policies, which Champion said would demand an on-air mention. And any reference to the sites of the matches could nudge an announcer into thorny terrain.

“Normally, you go into these broadcasts and you wax lyrical about how marvelous the setting is for the game and what a wonderful job they’ve done on the stadium,” Champion said. “How do you do that when you know that at the same time you’ve got such a controversy raging about the conditions of the migrant workers who actually built this wonderful cathedral?”

Fox made a point to stray from the political when it broadcast the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which was also accompanied by international criticism over the host country’s human rights record. The veteran American soccer writer Grant Wahl was part of Fox’s coverage in Russia. When his contract with the network was up in 2019, Wahl said he chose to not pursue an extension.

“It was largely because of what I had seen with their approach in Russia, and knowing that their approach to Qatar would be very similar,” Wahl said. Wahl noted that NBC’s Mike Tirico provided candid and critical analysis of China’s human rights record earlier this year during the network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. “They didn’t put their heads in the sand like Fox is with Qatar,” Wahl said.

Wahl had hosted a podcast with the former US soccer star Landon Donovan throughout the United States’ qualification for the World Cup, and they had planned to continue the series during the tournament in Qatar. But after Donovan joined Fox’s broadcasting team, Wahl said, the network blocked him from continuing to work on the podcast. A Fox spokesperson did not respond for comment.

Wahl arrived in Qatar last week for what will be his eighth men’s World Cup, and his third time visiting the country. He first went there in 2013 while working for Sports Illustrated to do a story on the country’s preparations to host the tournament, interacting mostly with Qatari officials throughout the visit. “What I realized during that trip was that once they knew I was here, they wanted to schedule me out so I was so busy during my stay that I wouldn’t have any time to do independent reporting,” he said.

Wahl, who now writes for his own independent website, returned to Qatar earlier this year for another reporting trip, but this time he recalibrated his approach. He didn’t speak to any government officials, nor did he publicize his location on social media. Instead, Wahl spent his visit interviewing migrant workers. He wanted to find out if the country had made good on a number of reforms designed to give a greater level of protection to those workers. “It was pretty clear that several of these laws were not being followed on the ground,” Wahl said. “In my experience, Qatar almost treats the workers like they’re invisible.” The Qatari government did not respond for comment.

Wahl was motivated to report on the subject then because, as he said, “once the tournament starts, I expect that most of my stuff will be about soccer.” It may prove more challenging to cover those topics over the next month too. Wahl has already run afoul of the Qatari authorities since he arrived last week. While in the media accreditation center, he said, he was admonished by a security official for taking a photo of a slogan displayed on the wall. Wahl said the official told him to delete it from his phone.

That encounter, along with the incident involving the Danish TV crew, has only raised fears that the host nation will interfere with the media’s ability to report freely on the event. Organizations such as Reporters Without Borders have denounced the Qatari government’s restrictions on where outlets can film.

It also adds more bleakness to an event that has historically been defined by its carnival atmosphere. Photos of the fan villages, where visitors will sleep in plastic tents and rooms that resemble shipping containers, have evoked comparisons to Fyre Festival. The compact nature of this year’s tournament will make it less of an odyssey compared to the traditional World Cup–going experience, in which visitors are offered a grand sweep of a country’s varying cultures and geography. “To me, it seems like it’s going to be a World Cup without the vivid colors,” said Champion. “I think one place is going to look very much like another.”

It is already guaranteed to be the least boozy World Cup. Alcohol is highly restricted in the conservative Muslim country, and it’s normally only permitted in a few designated hotels and restaurants. Wahl, who is staying in a townhouse with three other journalists covering the World Cup, lamented that he wouldn’t be able to grab a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer after a long workday. “I literally can’t have alcohol in my house,” he said. Qatari organizers pulled an eleventh hour change on Friday, only two days before the opening match, when they abruptly announced a ban on beer sales at the stadiums. Alcohol sales will now only be allowed at the FIFA Fan Festival and other designated locations. But as he embarks on his ninth men’s World Cup, Champion remains bullish on its capacity to generate joy. “The World Cup always produces,” he said. “It’s yet to let us down.”

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Sutherland House Experts Book Publishing Launches To Empower Quiet Experts

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Sutherland House Experts is Empowering Quiet Experts through
Compelling Nonfiction in a Changing Ideas Landscape

TORONTO, ON — Almost one year after its launch, Sutherland House Experts is reshaping the publishing industry with its innovative co-publishing model for “quiet experts.” This approach, where expert authors share both costs and profits with the publisher, is bridging the gap between expertise and public discourse. Helping to drive this transformation is Neil Seeman, a renowned author, educator, and entrepreneur.

“The book publishing world is evolving rapidly,” publisher Neil Seeman explains. “There’s a growing hunger for expert voices in public dialogue, but traditional channels often fall short. Sutherland House Experts provides a platform for ‘quiet experts’ to share their knowledge with the broader book-reading audience.”

The company’s roster boasts respected thought leaders whose books are already gaining major traction:

• V. Kumar Murty, a world-renowned mathematician, and past Fields Institute director, just published “The Science of Human Possibilities” under the new press. The book has been declared a 2024 “must-read” by The Next Big Ideas Club and is receiving widespread media attention across North America.

• Eldon Sprickerhoff, co-founder of cybersecurity firm eSentire, is seeing strong pre-orders for his upcoming book, “Committed: Startup Survival Tips and Uncommon Sense for First-Time Tech Founders.”

• Dr. Tony Sanfilippo, a respected cardiologist and professor of medicine at Queen’s University, is generating significant media interest with his forthcoming book, “The Doctors We Need: Imagining a New Path for Physician Recruitment, Training, and Support.”

Seeman, whose recent and acclaimed book, “Accelerated Minds,” explores the entrepreneurial mindset, brings a unique perspective to publishing. His experience as a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and academic affiliations with The Fields Institute and Massey College, give him deep insight into the challenges faced by people he calls “quiet experts.”

“Our goal is to empower quiet, expert authors to become entrepreneurs of actionable ideas the world needs to hear,” Seeman states. “We are blending scholarly insight with market savvy to create accessible, impactful narratives for a global readership. Quiet experts are people with decades of experience in one or more fields who seek to translate their insights into compelling non-fiction for the world,” says Seeman.

This fall, Seeman is taking his insights to the classroom. He will teach the new course, “The Writer as Entrepreneur,” at the University of Toronto, offering aspiring authors practical tools to navigate the evolving book publishing landscape. To enroll in this new weekly night course starting Tuesday, October 1st, visit:
https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/courses/4121-writer-entrepreneur

“The entrepreneurial ideas industry is changing rapidly,” Seeman notes. “Authors need new skills to thrive in this dynamic environment. My course and our publishing model provide those tools.”

About Neil Seeman:
Neil Seeman is co-founder and publisher of Sutherland House Experts, an author, educator, entrepreneur, and mental health advocate. He holds appointments at the University of Toronto, The Fields Institute, and Massey College. His work spans entrepreneurship, public health, and innovative publishing models.

Follow Neil Seeman:
https://www.neilseeman.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seeman/

Follow Sutherland House Experts:

https://sutherlandhouseexperts.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sutherlandhouseexperts/

Media Inquiries:
Sasha Stoltz | Sasha@sashastoltzpublicity.com | 416.579.4804
https://www.sashastoltzpublicity.com

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What to stream this weekend: ‘Civil War,’ Snow Patrol, ‘How to Die Alone,’ ‘Tulsa King’ and ‘Uglies’

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Hallmark launching a streaming service with two new original series, and Bill Skarsgård out for revenge in “Boy Kills World” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Alex Garland’s “Civil War” starring Kirsten Dunst, Natasha Rothwell’s heartfelt comedy for Hulu called “How to Die Alone” and Sylvester Stallone’s second season of “Tulsa King” debuts.

NEW MOVIES TO STREAM SEPT. 9-15

Alex Garland’s “Civil War” is finally making its debut on MAX on Friday. The film stars Kirsten Dunst as a veteran photojournalist covering a violent war that’s divided America; She reluctantly allows an aspiring photographer, played by Cailee Spaeny, to tag along as she, an editor (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and a reporter (Wagner Moura) make the dangerous journey to Washington, D.C., to interview the president (Nick Offerman), a blustery, rising despot who has given himself a third term, taken to attacking his citizens and shut himself off from the press. In my review, I called it a bellowing and haunting experience; Smart and thought-provoking with great performances. It’s well worth a watch.

— Joey King stars in Netflix’s adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s “Uglies,” about a future society in which everyone is required to have beautifying cosmetic surgery at age 16. Streaming on Friday, McG directed the film, in which King’s character inadvertently finds herself in the midst of an uprising against the status quo. “Outer Banks” star Chase Stokes plays King’s best friend.

— Bill Skarsgård is out for revenge against the woman (Famke Janssen) who killed his family in “Boy Kills World,” coming to Hulu on Friday. Moritz Mohr directed the ultra-violent film, of which Variety critic Owen Gleiberman wrote: “It’s a depraved vision, yet I got caught up in its kick-ass revenge-horror pizzazz, its disreputable commitment to what it was doing.”

AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

NEW MUSIC TO STREAM SEPT. 9-15

— The year was 2006. Snow Patrol, the Northern Irish-Scottish alternative rock band, released an album, “Eyes Open,” producing the biggest hit of their career: “Chasing Cars.” A lot has happened in the time since — three, soon to be four quality full-length albums, to be exact. On Friday, the band will release “The Forest Is the Path,” their first new album in seven years. Anthemic pop-rock is the name of the game across songs of love and loss, like “All,”“The Beginning” and “This Is the Sound Of Your Voice.”

— For fans of raucous guitar music, Jordan Peele’s 2022 sci-fi thriller, “NOPE,” provided a surprising, if tiny, thrill. One of the leads, Emerald “Em” Haywood portrayed by Keke Palmer, rocks a Jesus Lizard shirt. (Also featured through the film: Rage Against the Machine, Wipers, Mr Bungle, Butthole Surfers and Earth band shirts.) The Austin noise rock band are a less than obvious pick, having been signed to the legendary Touch and Go Records and having stopped releasing new albums in 1998. That changes on Friday the 13th, when “Rack” arrives. And for those curious: The Jesus Lizard’s intensity never went away.

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

NEW SHOWS TO STREAM SEPT. 9-15

— Hallmark launched a streaming service called Hallmark+ on Tuesday with two new original series, the scripted drama “The Chicken Sisters” and unscripted series “Celebrations with Lacey Chabert.” If you’re a Hallmark holiday movies fan, you know Chabert. She’s starred in more than 30 of their films and many are holiday themed. Off camera, Chabert has a passion for throwing parties and entertaining. In “Celebrations,” deserving people are surprised with a bash in their honor — planned with Chabert’s help. “The Chicken Sisters” stars Schuyler Fisk, Wendie Malick and Lea Thompson in a show about employees at rival chicken restaurants in a small town. The eight-episode series is based on a novel of the same name.

Natasha Rothwell of “Insecure” and “The White Lotus” fame created and stars in a new heartfelt comedy for Hulu called “How to Die Alone.” She plays Mel, a broke, go-along-to-get-along, single, airport employee who, after a near-death experience, makes the conscious decision to take risks and pursue her dreams. Rothwell has been working on the series for the past eight years and described it to The AP as “the most vulnerable piece of art I’ve ever put into the world.” Like Mel, Rothwell had to learn to bet on herself to make the show she wanted to make. “In the Venn diagram of me and Mel, there’s significant overlap,” said Rothwell. It premieres Friday on Hulu.

— Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise and Betty Gilpin star in a new drama for Starz called “Three Women,” about entrepreneur Sloane, homemaker Lina and student Maggie who are each stepping into their power and making life-changing decisions. They’re interviewed by a writer named Gia (Woodley.) The series is based on a 2019 best-selling book of the same name by Lisa Taddeo. “Three Women” premieres Friday on Starz.

— Sylvester Stallone’s second season of “Tulsa King” debuts Sunday on Paramount+. Stallone plays Dwight Manfredi, a mafia boss who was recently released from prison after serving 25 years. He’s sent to Tulsa to set up a new crime syndicate. The series is created by Taylor Sheridan of “Yellowstone” fame.

Alicia Rancilio

NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

— One thing about the title of Focus Entertainment’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 — you know exactly what you’re in for. You are Demetrian Titus, a genetically enhanced brute sent into battle against the Tyranids, an insectoid species with an insatiable craving for human flesh. You have a rocket-powered suit of armor and an arsenal of ridiculous weapons like the “Chainsword,” the “Thunderhammer” and the “Melta Rifle,” so what could go wrong? Besides the squishy single-player mode, there are cooperative missions and six-vs.-six free-for-alls. You can suit up now on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

— Likewise, Wild Bastards isn’t exactly the kind of title that’s going to attract fans of, say, Animal Crossing. It’s another sci-fi shooter, but the protagonists are a gang of 13 varmints — aliens and androids included — who are on the run from the law. Each outlaw has a distinctive set of weapons and special powers: Sarge, for example, is a robot with horse genes, while Billy the Squid is … well, you get the idea. Australian studio Blue Manchu developed the 2019 cult hit Void Bastards, and this Wild-West-in-space spinoff has the same snarky humor and vibrant, neon-drenched cartoon look. Saddle up on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch or PC.

Lou Kesten

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Trump could cash out his DJT stock within weeks. Here’s what happens if he sells

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Former President Donald Trump is on the brink of a significant financial decision that could have far-reaching implications for both his personal wealth and the future of his fledgling social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). As the lockup period on his shares in TMTG, which owns Truth Social, nears its end, Trump could soon be free to sell his substantial stake in the company. However, the potential payday, which makes up a large portion of his net worth, comes with considerable risks for Trump and his supporters.

Trump’s stake in TMTG comprises nearly 59% of the company, amounting to 114,750,000 shares. As of now, this holding is valued at approximately $2.6 billion. These shares are currently under a lockup agreement, a common feature of initial public offerings (IPOs), designed to prevent company insiders from immediately selling their shares and potentially destabilizing the stock. The lockup, which began after TMTG’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is set to expire on September 25, though it could end earlier if certain conditions are met.

Should Trump decide to sell his shares after the lockup expires, the market could respond in unpredictable ways. The sale of a substantial number of shares by a major stakeholder like Trump could flood the market, potentially driving down the stock price. Daniel Bradley, a finance professor at the University of South Florida, suggests that the market might react negatively to such a large sale, particularly if there aren’t enough buyers to absorb the supply. This could lead to a sharp decline in the stock’s value, impacting both Trump’s personal wealth and the company’s market standing.

Moreover, Trump’s involvement in Truth Social has been a key driver of investor interest. The platform, marketed as a free speech alternative to mainstream social media, has attracted a loyal user base largely due to Trump’s presence. If Trump were to sell his stake, it might signal a lack of confidence in the company, potentially shaking investor confidence and further depressing the stock price.

Trump’s decision is also influenced by his ongoing legal battles, which have already cost him over $100 million in legal fees. Selling his shares could provide a significant financial boost, helping him cover these mounting expenses. However, this move could also have political ramifications, especially as he continues his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race.

Trump Media’s success is closely tied to Trump’s political fortunes. The company’s stock has shown volatility in response to developments in the presidential race, with Trump’s chances of winning having a direct impact on the stock’s value. If Trump sells his stake, it could be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his own political future, potentially undermining both his campaign and the company’s prospects.

Truth Social, the flagship product of TMTG, has faced challenges in generating traffic and advertising revenue, especially compared to established social media giants like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Despite this, the company’s valuation has remained high, fueled by investor speculation on Trump’s political future. If Trump remains in the race and manages to secure the presidency, the value of his shares could increase. Conversely, any missteps on the campaign trail could have the opposite effect, further destabilizing the stock.

As the lockup period comes to an end, Trump faces a critical decision that could shape the future of both his personal finances and Truth Social. Whether he chooses to hold onto his shares or cash out, the outcome will likely have significant consequences for the company, its investors, and Trump’s political aspirations.

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