WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants to ensure CNN gets new ownership as part of the Warner Bros Discovery sale, targeting the news outlet he has long feuded with.
Warner Bros Discovery has become the center of a bidding war between Paramount — led by CEO David Ellison, son of Trump ally Larry Ellison — and streaming giant Netflix.
Under Paramount’s offer, CNN would fall into the Ellisons’ hands. Under the Netflix deal, Warner Bros Discovery would sell off CNN and other cable news properties separately before closing the sale of its studio and streaming operations to Netflix.
“I think any deal should — it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately,” Trump told business leaders Wednesday at the White House.
“I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else,” he added.
In a break from the norm, Trump has said he would be involved in the government’s decision to approve the deal, instead of leaving the question solely to the Department of Justice, as is typically the case.
US media reports indicate that both bidders — which Trump called “good companies” in his remarks — have lobbied the White House and Trump directly to support their bids.
Trump has long had a hostile relationship with CNN and other major news organizations, branding them “fake news” and attacking them repeatedly on social media.
His insistence that CNN end up in friendly hands appears to favor the Paramount bid — even though the Netflix deal would also involve selling off the news network to an as-yet-unknown buyer.
Since David Ellison took over Paramount earlier this year, the company has named journalist Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Weiss is a prominent critic of what she calls bias in mainstream media, and the appointment won praise from conservatives who have long accused mainstream outlets of liberal bias.
Days before Ellison took the reins of CBS, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a late-night staple and major Trump critic, was canceled.
But Trump railed against Paramount and Ellison on Monday, posting on Truth Social that “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP” for allowing an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene, a political ally-turned-critic.
Netflix, by contrast, is closely associated with Democrats, with founder Reed Hastings a major Democratic Party donor.
Trump demands CNN get new owners in Warner bidding war
https://arab.news/m8xgg
Trump demands CNN get new owners in Warner bidding war
- Under Paramount’s offer, CNN would fall into the Ellisons’ hands
Egypt reveals restored colossal statues of pharaoh in Luxor
- Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt
LUXOR: Egypt on Sunday revealed the revamp of two colossal statues of a prominent pharaoh in the southern city of Luxor, the latest in the government’s archeological events that aim at drawing more tourists to the country.
The giant alabaster statues, known as the Colossi of Memnon, were reassembled in a renovation project that lasted about two decades. They represent Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt about 3,400 years ago.
“Today we are celebrating, actually, the finishing and the erecting of these two colossal statues,” Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said ahead of the ceremony.
Ismail said the colossi are of great significance to Luxor, a city known for its ancient temples and other antiquities. They’re also an attempt to “revive how this funerary temple of King Amenhotep III looked like a long time ago,” Ismail said.
Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt. The pharaoh, whose mummy is showcased at a Cairo museum, ruled between 1390–1353 BC, a peaceful period known for its prosperity and great construction, including his mortuary temple, where the Colossi of Memnon are located, and another temple, Soleb, in Nubia.
The colossi were toppled by a strong earthquake in about 1200 BC that also destroyed Amenhotep III’s funerary temple, said Ismail.
They were fragmented and partly quarried away, with their pedestals dispersed. Some of their blocks were reused in the Karnak temple, but archeologists brought them back to rebuild the colossi, according to the Antiquities Ministry.
In late 1990s, an Egyptian German mission, chaired by German Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, began working in the temple area, including the assembly and renovation of the colossi.
“This project has in mind … to save the last remains of a once-prestigious temple,” she said.
The statues show Amenhotep III seated with hands resting on his thighs, with their faces looking eastward toward the Nile and the rising sun. They wear the nemes headdress surmounted by the double crowns and the pleated royal kilt, which symbolizes the pharaoh’s rule.
Two other small statues on the pharaoh’s feet depict his wife, Tiye.
The colossi — 14.5 meters and 13.6 meters respectively — preside over the entrance of the king’s temple on the western bank of the Nile. The 35-hectare complex is believed to be the largest and richest temple in Egypt and is usually compared to the temple of Karnak, also in Luxor.
The colossi were hewn in Egyptian alabaster from the quarries of Hatnub, in Middle Egypt. They were fixed on large pedestals with inscriptions showing the name of the temple, as well as the quarry.
Unlike other monumental sculptures of ancient Egypt, the colossi were partly compiled with pieces sculpted separately, which were fixed into each statue’s main monolithic alabaster core, the ministry said.
Sunday’s unveiling in Luxor came just six weeks after the inauguration of the long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum, the centerpiece of the government’s bid to boost the country’s tourism industry. The mega project is located near the famed Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx.
In recent years, the sector has started to recover after the coronavirus pandemic and amid Russia’s war on Ukraine — both countries are major sources of tourists visiting Egypt.
“This site is going to be a point of interest for years to come,” said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy, who attended the unveiling ceremony. “There are always new things happening in Luxor.”
A record number of about 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8 percent of the country’s GDP, according to official figures.
Fathy, the minister, has said about 18 million tourists are expected to visit the country this year, with authorities hoping for 30 million visitors annually by 2032.
