Boris Johnson out of contest for Conservative Party leadership - BBC News
LONDON If there"s one person you really don"t want to get on the wrong side of, it"s Cersei.
Boris Johnson who argued for the UK to leave the European Union, won, and then announced yesterday that he wouldn"t be running for prime minister after all no longer merely has the wrath of a nation to contend with.
Now, it appears he"s also upset the current ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.
Following Johnson"s announcement yesterday, Twitter went into a frenzy of memes. Plenty of celebrities also chipped in with their thoughts, including actor Ewan McGregor (who, judging by the tweet below, wasn"t exactly thrilled with Boris" recent decisions).
Late Thursday night, Lena Headey (a.k.a. Cersei "Burn them all" Lannister) took to Twitter to back him up.
Ouch.
She wasn"t the only Game of Thrones actor to support McGregor, either.
Daniel Portman who plays the mild-mannered Pod in the show and also retweeted McGreggor"s original post made his views pretty clear, too.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Mike Tirico and Skip Bayless Leaving ESPN | What"s Going On With ESPN?
Syracuse, N.Y. June 30, 1991 was Mike Tirico"s first day on the job at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut.
Twenty-five years to the day, he"ll work his last assignment for the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" in Paris, France.
Tirico will host coverage of the Poland-Portugal quarterfinal (2:30 p.m. ET) and post-match "UEFA EURO 2016 Tonight" studio show (5 p.m.) from the City of Lights.
He"ll sign off Thursday night and then one of the most prominent alums of the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University will look to a future with NBC Sports.
The journey to Paris 25 years in the making, that began in Syracuse as a local sportscaster at WTVH-5 before signing with ESPN in 1991, had some of the best stops in sports along the way.
Bristol, the mecca for sportscasters looking to coin the next catchphrase on "SportsCenter."
Greeting the patrons on the greenest grass imaginable at The Masters in Augusta, Ga.
The elegance of Wimbledon across the pond.
The energy of Green Bay, "The Black Hole" in Oakland or trying to raise your voice just to be heard over the "12th man" in Seattle as just the fourth-ever voice of "Monday Night Football."
Calling a basketball game while feeling the breath of a student section on your neck in Ames, Iowa, or Bloomington, Ind., or rubbing elbows with Jack Nicholson courtside at the Staples Center on the latest NBA assignment.
Tirico"s journey at ESPN has taken him to almost every corner of the sports globe. If he left any stone unturned, NBC has given him a map to find the rest, starting in Rio in August.
Tirico will team with fellow Syracuse alum Bob Costas for a championship Newhouse tag team at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Tirico has become one of the biggest names in sports broadcasting but always made time to recognize those that were unrecognizable behind the cameras at ESPN.
"During his 25 years with the company, Mike has made tremendous contributions to ESPN across the variety of sports and properties he has touched; even more important, he has developed lasting friendships with his on-air colleagues and so many ESPN employees behind the camera," ESPN"s Executive Vice President, Programming and Production, John Wildhack said. "We thank Mike for all he"s done for ESPN and we wish him the best in this new chapter of his career."
With a busy schedule that took him to the best gigs in sports, Tirico could be forgiven if Syracuse was only mentioned in passing, but in many ways he never left.
It is not uncommon to bump into Tirico in a concession line at the Carrier Dome or on the way to a class he was guest lecturer for on campus. He has worked with the Newhouse Advisory Board, the Sport Management Advisory Council and the Athletics Advisory Board. He is a member of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees.
Appearing on ESPN Radio"s "Mike and Mike (start at 32:00 mark)," host Mike Golic spoke of the reverance Tirico holds in Syracuse.
"Through our time here we have had the chance to meet a lot of big time people who are adored by the public," Golic said. "I have never seen a person bowed down to than when I do a game with Tirico at Syracuse. It is unbelievable. We did college games together and did one or two there and you want to talk about kiss the ring moments? Mike, it"s pretty amazing how you are treated there. It"s pretty cool."
"It"s my school. It"s my alma mater," Tirico answered. "Those people have been wonderful to me. We did the game right after 9/11, the first game back (Syracuse vs. Auburn on Sept 22, 2001). We drove up to Syracuse and it was a special time to be on our campus there at that point. With what happened in Orlando we are always reminded all the time how unimportant what we all do is. Sports is a gathering place that reminds us that we go forward and do stuff."
Tirico isn"t going far on the dial. He"ll been seen on NBC at the Rio Olympics, on the network"s NFL and golf coverage and more.
That said, it feels like the end of an era with Tirico moving on from ESPN.
For 25 years, he"s been there on our television screens and heard on the radio airwaves, wherever "there" was, helping ESPN rise from a little cable channel with the crazy idea to broadcast sports 24 hours a day to the multi-billion dollar brand owned by Disney it is today.
From "Sportscenter" to launching "ESPNews" and ESPN Radio to doing play-by-play, in the studio or reporting from the field at all the sporting events that mattered.
"The friendships will stay," Tirico told ESPN"s Scott Van Pelt about leaving ESPN. "I think that"s what is getting me through the emotional and the sad part. You leave with unbelievable friendships that will last me in life far longer than whatever letters define where I"m employed."
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Loretta Lynch meets with Bill Clinton amid email scandal Photo Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch at the White House in May. Credit Zach Gibson/The New York Times
It is well documented that Bill Clinton has a propensity for being social when he sees someone he knows in public. But his decision to walk over to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch for a chat at the Phoenix airport on Monday spurred a firestorm of Republican criticism.
The meeting was not preplanned, and Ms. Lynch told reporters that nothing sensitive was discussed.
But as attorney general, Ms. Lynch oversees the Justice Department, which oversees the F.B.I., which is looking into the circumstances around Hillary Clintons use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
The reaction to the meeting was so politically fraught that Ms. Lynch is expected on Friday to announce that she will rely on the recommendations of career prosecutors and the F.B.I for the outcome of the email investigation.
The conversation lasted roughly 20 minutes, and Ms. Lynchs husband was present for it. But Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, pounced on the news in a radio interview on Thursday.
When you meet for a half-hour and youre talking about your grandchildren and a little about golf, I dont know, it sounds like a long meeting, Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Clinton has a habit of impromptu meetings and phone calls, including one with Mr. Trump before he entered the presidential race, and with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas during the Republican primaries.
Even some Democrats winced, suggesting it created needless questions about appearances. The question of the investigation into the email server has dogged Mrs. Clinton for nearly a year now. It is one of the cudgels that Republicans have used against her, and it has contributed to a decline in the number of voters who view her as honest and trustworthy. A central complaint about Mrs. Clinton in the email controversy has been that she chose not to follow rules that applied to others, and the meeting with Ms. Lynch only enhanced that perception among critics.
Mr. Trump has created a large hole for himself over many months with voters over his comments about Muslims, immigrants and terrorism. But he still has room to fight his way back, something that concerns Democrats. And the uproar over the meeting struck those Democrats as an unforced error.
ESPN Broadcaster Mike Tirico on Broadcasting Kobe Bryant"s Farewell Game & More - 4/14/16
By: Andrew Joseph| June 30, 2016 9:31 pmFollow @andyj0seph
Mike Tirico appeared on ESPN for the final time Thursday, as he is set to join NBC Sports on July 1.
Tirico, who has been with ESPN for 25 years, workedthe networks Euro 2016 coverage on location in Paris. With a stunning backdrop of Paris, ESPNs Bob Ley sat down with Tirico and wished him the best on his new venture.
The ESPN crew surprised Tirico on Wednesday with a going-away gathering. He thanked Ley and his colleagues for that and all the memories.
Tirico said:
This has been great. Top to bottom. I think twenty-fiveyears is something like over nine-thousand days. Every one of those days ESPN has been a part of my life. Ill never forget I did the SportsCenter about Week Twoof doing SportsCenter back in the nineties. Chris Berman was doing a baseball game in California the hotel California. And he said, Bob Ley and Mike Tirico. Bob, youre breaking in another one. Well, thank you for breaking me in.
His fellow Euro 2016 co-hosts then joined him on the set to send him off after a tremendous tenure with ESPN.
The 14 hottest takes of Skip Bayless" ESPN career2w agoGabrielle Union is very excited about husband Dwyane Wade appearing in the Body Issue2w agoSkip Bayless gives emotional goodbye to "First Take" and Stephen A. Smith2w ago
Volvo V90 - Made by Sweden - ”Epilogue” feat. Zlatan Ibrahimović
London (AFP) Five facts on Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic after he announced he is signing for English Premier League giants Manchester United on Thursday:
League titles but no Champions League crown
Ibrahimovics goals have delivered league titles wherever he has gone from the Netherlands to Italy to Spain and France but never has he touched the Champions League trophy. Inter Milan and Barcelona won it but after he had left them. United cannot give him it next season either as they failed to qualify, so he will just have to hope that they get a crack at it for the 2017/18 campaign and that he is still on the playing staff.
Carrot and stick approach needed for Ibracadabra magic
Ibrahimovic is such a contrary character that his coach at a previous club AC Milan Massimiliano Allegri says he needs constant attention if he is to be temperamentally ready to produce his magic turn on the pitch. With him, you have to use both the stick and the carrot, he was quoted in The Guardian in 2012. Ibra is a strong personality and needs to be relaxed at times, while in other occasions he has to be stimulated, otherwise he falls asleep. Swedish national coach Erik Hamren called him out when he retired from international football in 2009 telling him do come back but not as the depressed donkey Eeyore but as Winnie The Pooh.
Opponents pay homage to G*d
Fair to say Ibrahimovic through his exploits, his superstar appeal and lively temperament lit up a pretty moribund Ligue 1 for the past few seasons. To such an extent that even opposing clubs felt compelled to offer their thanks for his presence, even if he hurt them by scoring goals against them. Such a case was Toulouse, who would have pleased him with the divine being they compared him to given his penchant for adorning himself with epithets in 2014. Today is your birthday, 33, the age of Christ, your son. Happy birthday and long live the Z! Despite the perverse pleasure you took scoring goals against us the last two seasons, we are not vindictive. We want to thank you. For everything.
Bikes, bed and docks
No one can begrudge Ibrahimovic his riches given he has fought hard to rise to the top and at one point would have stuck with working on the docks in Malmo rather than attempting to carve out a football career. His youth team manager at the time persuaded him to stick with the beautiful game. Not that he needed a father figure for despite his Bosnian caretaker dad splitting from his Croatian mother when he was just two he spent more time with his dad Sefik, who nevertheless was badly affected by the Balkan War even though he had left Bosnia years before. Ibrahimovic who during his youth once stole a bicycle to get himself to training related to The Guardian in 2014 a moving story about his impoverished father shelling out for a bed from IKEA for him. However, they had no way of getting it back home. We carried it home between us. Its fantastic what we did. I had time with my mother but I really lived with my father. One time he gave all his salary so I could travel to a training camp. He couldnt pay the rent but he did that.
Literary Roth of G*d
Most footballers autobiographies generally dont provide much insight or indeed entertainment but Ibrahimovics I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic unsurprisingly bucked the trend. Not often in such tomes will you read anecdotes such as this about his companion and mother of his childen Helena Seger: She came from a model family from Lindesberg, one of those families where they say, Darling, would you please pass me the milk?, whereas we at table mostly we just hurled death threats at each other. Indeed one critic compared it to US literary legend Philip Roths fictional biography Portnoys Complaint, both about growing up as immigrants.
In what has been, by any measure, an extraordinary week for news, Boris Johnson ably demonstrated that the nation still has the capacity to be stunned by new developments when he ruled himself out of the running for the Conservative leadership contest.
In a dramatic press conference just moments before the deadline for nominations passed, Mr Johnson said that the next Tory leader would have to unify his party and ensure that Britain stood tall in the world.
Is Andrew Luck more HYPE than RESULTS? - "The Herd"
Andrew Luck just signed an enormous extension. Lets examine what it means for the Bills and Tyrod Taylor.
My friend, Matt, texted me right after Andrew Lucks extension was announced.
He wrote:
Luck has to be the Bills second-favorite quarterback now.
So Doug Whaley can say the best young QB in the league gets $23M per year.
Hes begging to say that sentence right after Tyrod Taylors agent Adisa Bakari tells him how much Brock Osweiler makes.
Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
That, right there... is a tremendous point.
(For the record, Osweiler signed a deal with the Houston Texans this offseason that averaged $18M per season.)
It makes perfect sense for Bills fans to be curious about how Lucks six-year, $140M contract would affect the impending money talks with Tyrod Taylor.
But I dont really think Lucks monster extension impacts most future quarterback deals in the traditional sense, as in... setting the market.
If anything, it just creates a (lower-than-expected) quarterback-contract ceiling. His $23M average per year (APY) should and probably will act as bargaining leverage for NFL front offices during contract discussions with their signal-callers.
How many agents can plop down at the negotiating table and say, with a straight face, ok, lets start with that Luck got?
Yeah, probably none.
To me, Luck has fallen sliiiiightly short of the gigantic, Elway-esque, Peytonian expectations set forth for him by, well, just about everybody when he entered the league out of Stanford in 2012, but those expectations still carry significant weight.
When youre a white, 64 pocket passer from one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, universally viewed as the most impeccably clean prospect in decades among the ever-bickering #DraftTwitter and are ultimately selected No. 1 overall, your reputation is hard to tarnish.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Luck looked the part from the start of his NFL career, throwing for 4,374 yards as a rookie en route to an unlikely playoff berth for the Colts. Both developments helped to serve as instant validation that, yes, the consensus draft evaluations were correct, and, yes, he was something special.
(Throwing for 4,761 yards and 40 touchdowns in his third season was super impressive, too.)
However, over his last 16 games which includes three playoff outings Luck has completed 56.7% of his passes (6.71 yards per attempt) with 30 touchdowns and 22 interceptions.
Still, though... if you survey NFL fans and media alike about the quarterback theyd select to start a franchise with today, the majority of the picks would be Luck.
Hence, even after an abysmal, injury-plagued fourth-year in the NFL, Indianapolis had seemingly no issue making him the highest-paid QB in league history.
Lucks guarantees $47M due at signing are critical, without a doubt. But his overall $23.3M APY and $24.5M APY in new money should have Whaley and Redskins GM Scot McCloughan smiling ear to ear.
That $23.3M equates to 15% of the 2016 salary cap. Just three years ago, $18.5M wouldve represented that same 15%.
In a few seasons, with the way the NFL salary cap is exponentially rising, well probably see Lucks contract as a colossal steal.
Obviously, theres no way to be sure what will ultimately happen with Tyrod Taylor and the Bills and, more specifically, how big his contract would be.
But it seems like Lucks mega extension actually did Buffalo a favor.
