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Olympic history in cartoons details how games defies threats

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — As public opinion in Japan turns against the pandemic-hit Tokyo Olympics, a book published Thursday by a long-time IOC insider details how calls for cancellation are now a part of organizing a modern games.

Fears of the zika virus menaced the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and nuclear diplomacy on the Korean peninsula was a risk ahead of the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Michael Payne writes in his unofficial and irreverent Olympic history “Toon In!”

Payne recounts how both also faced existential threats during the games — because of bad management in Rio and a Russian hack of the organizers’ operating systems in South Korea.

The adversity and late glitches with many host cities has made the International Olympic Committee resilient to prepare for Tokyo’s opening on July 23, Payne said.

“If you have been inside the IOC for a few years you begin to understand the problems or challenges that would crash a normal company or organization,” he said in an interview at the Olympic Museum.

“You just stay focused and drive through to the future,” the former IOC marketing director added. “I think in the end the (Tokyo) games will be remembered for the great sporting performances.”

Public opinion in Japan currently has between 50% and 80% of respondents wanting to cancel the games. A state of emergency has been extended in Tokyo and other regions to curb COVID-19 infections and a slow vaccine rollout means elderly people won’t be inoculated until the end of July.

About 11,000 Olympic athletes from more than 200 countries are due in Tokyo, with tens of thousands more sports officials and media arriving. All must follow strict health protocols and limit contact with Japanese residents.

Still, Payne said the Olympic brand would strengthen because “people will be generally relieved to see the world coming together.”

His book was created as a personal lockdown project in Switzerland last year.

More than 1,200 Olympic-themed cartoons published over decades in newspapers and magazines worldwide are included. About 360 cartoonists were tracked down to give permission to use their work.

“If I had understood it from the beginning I might not have gone on,” Payne said.

The result is a behind-the-scenes telling of the modern Olympics in a weighty, 500-page coffee table book. The cover image was created by Los Angeles Times cartoonist Jim Thompson.

The book is peppered with Payne’s stories giving context to satirical images about boycotts and doping controversies, world leaders and hosting bid campaigns.

In Rio, the mismanagement of local organizers left the games “on the brink of catastrophic failure every day,” Payne writes.

The “Olympic Destroyer” hack during the Pyeongchang opening ceremony was traced to Russian intelligence services disguised to seem to have come from North Korea.

Payne praised Korean ingenuity to “rebuild the games’ tech system overnight so the competitions could start the next morning.”

Although the 2014 Sochi Olympics are infamous for Russian doping, Payne tells a lighter story of officials wanting to make the airport seem more lively when an IOC inspection team arrived.

Hundreds of actors were hired to appear as airport staff and travelers when the Olympic delegation passed through to visit the city and region that was getting a $50 billion makeover for the Winter Games, he said.

Sales of the book and auctions of cartoon prints will raise money for four charities: Back Up Trust, Cartooning for Peace, Peace and Sport, and Yunus Sports Hub.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

US service sector growth surges in May

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Growth in the services sector, where most Americans work, hit an all-time high in May as people flock to bars, restaurants and other venues across the country that now have fewer or no pandemic-related capacity restrictions.

The Institute for Supply Management said Thursday that its monthly survey of service industries jumped to a reading of 64, topping the previous high of 63.7 in March. April’s reading of 62.7 was also considered strong, as any reading above 50 indicates the sector is expanding.

It’s the 12th straight month of expansion in the services sector following a two-month contraction in April and May of last year businesses were forced to shut down during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

The services report comes just days after the ISM’s manufacturing report, which showed that demand was so strong that companies were struggling to keep up. Supply chain shortages and difficulty finding enough workers contributed to a backlog of orders and late deliveries.

The services report also showed a significant slowdown in deliveries as companies struggle to keep up with demand. The deliveries index, in which a higher number means slower slower deliveries, registered 70.4, 4.3% higher than reported in April. Respondents said port congestion and labor shortages contributed to the delays.

Although services sector employment activity grew for the fifth straight month, it was down 3.5% from April as some respondents to the ISM survey said competition for workers remained intense, while others struggled to find qualified candidates.

The measurement for new orders ticked up in May to 63.9 from the April reading of 63.2, with all 18 industries surveyed reporting increases.

Prices for materials and services also increased to a reading of 80.6, their highest level in the survey since the 83.5 recorded in 2005.

White-knuckle thriller for AMC as it sells stock into frenzy

Got your popcorn? The wild ride for the summer’s blockbuster stock, AMC Entertainment, got even crazier on Thursday.

The movie-theater company’s stock plunged nearly 40% in the morning after it announced plans to sell 11.6 million shares to raise cash, while warning buyers they could lose all their investment. But it erased the loss in just a few hours. After the stock sale was complete, it climbed above the record closing price it had set a day earlier, only to sink back to a 17.9% loss by the end of trading.

It’s the latest stupefying, nearly unexplainable set of moves for one of the “meme stocks” that have rocked Wall Street this year. Many professional investors say AMC, GameStop and other meme stocks have hit heights untethered to reality and are primed for a steep fall, but that’s not stopping an army of smaller-pocketed and novice investors from holding their ground and promising to take their prices “to the moon.”

For AMC, that has vaulted its stock price from below $2 early this year to the $50.85 average price that it sold shares for on Thursday. The surge means its total market value climbed above $30 billion, putting it on par with bigger companies like AutoZone and Old Dominion Freight Line, which unlike AMC are making profits and didn’t have speculation of bankruptcy swirling around them after the pandemic shuttered theaters last year.

In a filing with regulators, AMC couldn’t give a reason for the rise in its stock price that’s tied to its profit prospects, the usual reason for a stock price to move. The company said it didn’t know how long the reasons behind its stock surge will last, while warning investors: “Under the circumstances, we caution you against investing in our Class A common stock, unless you are prepared to incur the risk of losing all or a substantial portion of your investment.”

The immediate reaction in the market was sour. AMC shares fell as soon as the market opened, and the plunge was so sharp that trading was temporarily halted three times during the morning. A day earlier, its trading had been halted four times when the stock was heading in the opposite direction and nearly doubled.

Other meme stocks also fell, including an 8.5% drop for GameStop. It was the poster child for the phenomenon early this year, when the struggling video-game retailer suddenly surged 1,625% in January. Back then, the maniacal moves for meme stocks shocked Wall Street, but many professional investors expected the fervor to peter out eventually.

Everyone agreed that a new generation of investors was seizing more power in the market, with their ranks growing because of easy-to-use trading apps and zero trading fees. But one big reason for the incoming wave of novices was that the pandemic had left them with little else to do.

When the pandemic eased, the thinking on Wall Street went, those traders would go back to eating out at restaurants, heading to bars and maybe even seeing movies at the theater instead of talking up and bidding up meme stocks.

It didn’t play out that way, at least not yet. Meme stocks did lose momentum following their January supernova, but they began soaring again recently. AMC quintupled in the two weeks through Wednesday, for example. GameStop is back above $250 after dropping from a peak of $347 in late January to $40 a few weeks later.

For their part, many retail investors said on the social media forums that have spurred the meme stocks’ moves that they’ll remain steadfast.

“We can stay irrational longer than they can stay solvent” was the title of one thread on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, which has been a central character in the rise of meme stocks.

Other users were asking if BlackBerry would be the next stock of a company overly maligned by professional investors to pop. The company’s stock careened from a 32% gain to a loss of 11% during Thursday morning trading. It ended the day with a gain of 4.1%.

They’re just the latest in a cacophony of crazy swings for meme stocks. AMC’s stock soared 95% Wednesday after it launched a program to share news with its newfound, massive base of fanatical shareholders. The new initiative will offer direct messages from the company’s CEO to retail investors, as well as offer free screenings, discounts and a free large popcorn this summer.

The huge moves for meme stocks have caused some critics to warn of a dangerous bubble, with investors taking excessive risks across financial markets after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to record lows.

One encouraging part of all this, though, is that the most worrisome behavior seems to be rolling through different investments rather than inflating the entire market, said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist for BMO Wealth Management.

He pointed to what are known as “blank-check companies,” which raise money and then hunt for companies to buy. Interest was exploding in these special-purpose acquisition companies early this year, but it’s fallen off recently. He pointed to a similar rise and fall for some of the more obscure cryptocurrencies.

“I wouldn’t say it’s healthy for the market, but it’s somewhat contained,” Ma said.

He thinks interest in meme stocks will likewise peter out.

“What happens is you get successive groups of investors that get burned with these things” after seductive runs higher in price yield to sharp drops, he said. “Some people make money, but the ones late to the party get burned, and that’s a recipe for fizzling out eventually.”

Longtime Steelers broadcaster Ilkin retiring to fight ALS

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Longtime Pittsburgh Steelers radio analyst Tunch Ilkin is retiring to focus on his fight against ALS.

Ilkin, who played 14 years on the offensive line for the Steelers from 1980-1993 and spent the last 23 as a broadcaster for the team, announced his decision Thursday.

The 63-year-old Ilkin, a two-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman during his playing career, revealed his ALS diagnosis last fall but continued to work through the remainder of the 2020 season. ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“I want to spend this time focusing on my treatment and fighting this disease,” Ilkin said in a statement. “I would like to thank Steelers President Art Rooney II, the Steelers organization, and the fans for their continued support and prayers at this time.”

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More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Cannes lineup features Wes Anderson, Sean Penn, Leox Carax

The Cannes Film Festival on Thursday unveiled a lineup of films from big-name auteurs — including Wes Anderson, Asghar Farhadi, Mia Hansen-Løve and Sean Penn — for its 74th edition, an in-person, summertime event that aims to make a stirring return in July after being canceled last year because of the pandemic.

Among the films that will be competing for Cannes’ Palme d’Or are the festival opener, “Annette,” by Leox Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard; Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” a film originally set to premiere in Cannes last year with an ensemble cast including Timothée Chalamet; “Red Rocket,” Sean Baker’s follow-up to his acclaimed “The Florida Project”; Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta”; and Sean Penn’s “Flag Day,” in which he stars alongside his daughter, Dylan Penn, as a conman.

Pierre Lescure, president of the festival, and Thierry Frémaux, artistic director, announced the Cannes’ lineup at the UGC Normandie theater in Paris in a live-streamed event that was part press conference and part pep rally for world cinema.

“Cinema is not dead. The extraordinary and triumphant return of the audience to movie theaters in France and around the world was the first good news,” said Fremaux. “I hope the film festival will be the second very good news.”

As cinema’s preeminent global stage, the annual French Riviera extravaganza is hoping to make a triumphant comeback when it runs July 6-17 — two months later than its usual May perch. But many things will be different at this year’s festival. Attendees will be masked inside theaters and required to show proof of full vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test. Cannes’ famed red carpet leading up to the stairs of the Palais des Festivals will resume in full, but with tweaks to the traditional pageantry.

“We’re used to kissing one another at the top of the stairs. We will not kiss one another,” said Fremaux.

Still, there are many questions leading up to a Cannes that will unfold just as France is reopening and loosening restrictions. Audience capacity limitations will be removed just five days before the festival opens. Concern over a new virus strain led France last week to institute a seven-day quarantine for travelers arriving from the United Kingdom — a potential blow to the British film industry that regularly decamps to Cannes.

For such an international festival as Cannes, many other travel regulations could pose complications. Fremaux acknowledged some filmmakers may not be able to attend. The movie market that typical runs in tandem with the festival and draws much of the film industry for a week of frenzied deal-making, will be held virtually in late June.

But the Cannes program, while perhaps lacking a Hollywood title as anticipated as Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (an entry in 2019, when Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” won the Palme), was praised as top-class. It includes former Palme d’Or winners Jacques Audiard (“Paris 13th District”) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (“Memoria,” starring Tilda Swinton).

Four of the 24 films in competition are directed by women, a low percentage but one that ties the festival’s previous top mark. That includes new films from Mia Hansen-Løve (“Bergman Island,” with Mia Wasikowska, Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps) and Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi.

Cannes has previously refused to play in competition any film that doesn’t have a theatrical release in France, leading to an impasse with Netflix. Though other movie institutions like the Academy Awards have bended theatrical rules during the pandemic, Cannes has not.

Among the standouts playing out of competition, or in Cannes’ new “Cannes Premiere” are: Andrea Arnold’s “Cow”; Todd Haynes’ documentary “The Velvet Underground”; Tom McCarthy’s “Stillwater”; and the Oliver Stone documentary “JFK: Through the Looking Glass.”

Spike Lee, who debuted “Do the Right Thing” at Cannes in 1989, will preside over the jury selecting the Palme d’Or winner. He’s the first Black person to ever head the Cannes jury. At the opening ceremony, an honorary Palme will be given to Jodie Foster, who first came to Cannes as a 13-year-old for the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver.”

Speaking to The Associated Press after the press conference, Fremaux said it will be “the ultimate Cannes.”

“It will be something special. In five years people will be asking ‘Were you in Cannes in 2021?’ and people would say ‘No I wasn’t.’ ‘Oh you weren’t? That’s a pity. It was really great,’” said Fremaux. “It’s going to be a special Cannes.”

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AP’s Jeffery Schaeffer contributed to this report from Paris.

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