Japan
Japan’s Top Concert Promoters Form Alliance to Bring Back International Acts
Promoters in Japan are currently in dire straits due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Ticket sales lost because of cancellations and postponements from the pandemic totaled approximately $333 million (36.3 billion yen) in 2020. Earlier this month, Japan extended a state of emergency until the end of May for Tokyo and three other areas amid a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, which are hitting Tokyo and Osaka particularly hard. Japan, where more than 12,100 people have died from COVID-19, recorded 216 deaths on May 18, the most since early January, according to Johns Hopkins University. The members of the new IPAJ are Avex Entertainment Inc., Creativeman Production Co., Hanshin Contents Link Co. (Billboard Japan), Hayashi International Promotions Ltd., Kyodo Tokyo, Inc., Live Nation Japa...
30 most beautiful mountains in the world
The most beautiful mountains in the world have captivated climbers for centuries. Here, we examine their lethal appeal “You are not in the mountains. The mountains are in you,” said John Muir, the renowned naturalist, author and environmental philosopher. If our resident seven-summit hopeful is anything to go by, Muir makes a valid point. Those who spend time in the mountains seem to be driven by a deeper force. These brave men and women will face vertiginous vertical falls, sub-zero temperatures and 8,000m death zones in pursuit of their summit dreams. It’s in ode to them that we present this list. Most beautiful mountains in the world 1. Cuernos del Paine Height: 2,600m (8,530ft) Location: Andes, Chile Emperorcosar/Shutterstock The stunning Cuernos del Paine Los Cuernos del Paine or ‘Pai...
Italian Open: Rafael Nadal beats Denis Shapovalov to reach quarter-finals
Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal saved two match points to defeat Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in a three-set battle and advance to the quarter-finals of the Italian Open on Thursday. Second seed Nadal won through 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) after nearly 3hr 30min on court against the 13th-seeded Shapovalov. “It was a really difficult match, the score was against me almost all the time, but I was there, I was fighting all the time, I didn’t give away anything,” said the 34-year-old. The Spaniard will be making his 16th last-eight appearance in Rome. It will also be his 97th ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final. Nadal trailed by 0-4 in the opening set, and 0-3 in the second. Shapovalov also broke for 3-1 in the third set but Nadal broke back immediately and held on despite two match points against him in the...
Minister charges para-athletics team to be worthy ambassadors
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has charged Nigerian Para-Athletics team to Notwil, Switzerland, to be worthy ambassadors of the country as they seek to qualify for the 2020 Paralympics taking place in Tokyo, Japan later in the year. The minister gave the charge when he bade farewell to the team for the qualifiers through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. He said: “Nigeria is solidly behind your bid for qualification for the Para-Athletics event in Notwil, Switzerland. There is no doubt about your abilities, which you have always proved over the years. You must be worthy ambassadors of our dear country by conducting yourselves well to attain the best standards for qualifiers. “Don’t be distracted; Nigerians are solidly behind you. You have always made ...
More than 90 killed in Myanmar in one of bloodiest days of protests
Security forces killed more than 90 people across Myanmar on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days of protests since a military coup last month, news reports and witnesses said. The lethal crackdown came on Armed Forces Day. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, said during a parade in the capital Naypyitaw to mark the event that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy. State television had said on Friday that protesters risked being shot “in the head and back”. Despite this, demonstrators against the Feb. 1 coup came out on the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and other towns. The Myanmar Now news portal said 91 people were killed across the country by security forces. A boy reported by local media to be as young as five was among at least 29 people killed in...
Japan releases softball squad for Tokyo Olympic Games
Japanese softball team head coach Reika Utsugi has urged her players to capture Olympic gold on home soil after naming a 15-strong squad for Tokyo 2020. The team features Yukiko Ueno, captain Yamada Eri and Yukiyo Mine who helped Japan clinch softball gold at Beijing 2008 – the last time the sport featured at the Games. Pitchers Yamato Fujita and Miu Goto, who was named Most Valuable Player in last season’s Japan Women’s Softball League, as well as star outfielder Saki Yamazaki are other notable names. Haruka Agatsuma, Nayu Kiyohara, Mana Atsumi, Yuka Ichiguchi, Hitomi Kawabata, Minori Naito, Yu Yamamoto, Nodoka Harada and Sayaka Mori have also been chosen. “Of course, skills and physical competence are the necessary elements,” said Utsugi. “But in selecting the 15 members, we also took th...
Naomi Osaka uncomfortable with tight schedule
Naomi Osaka dislikes long and busy stretches away from the comforts of home and so will plan the European portion of her schedule accordingly in the hope of improving her title hopes at the French Open and Wimbledon. Osaka, competing this week at the Miami Open near where she grew up, said that while she chases success relentlessly she is still trying to shape her playing schedule to give herself the best chance of success. “I’m not really sure what a normal schedule is but I’ve never thought of myself to be the type of player that would play week in and week out,” said Osaka. “I personally get homesick quite often and it makes me kind of sad sometimes.” Japan’s four-time Grand Slam champion collected her second U.S. Open title last September and followed that up with a second triumph at t...
Charles Udeogaranya: Ndigbo Republic may emerge if South-East fails to produce president in 2023
A Presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2019, Chief Charles Udeogaranya, has said that the way things are going in Nigeria, Ndigbo Republic may emerge instead of Biafra. According to him, “if after 50 years of Nigeria/Biafra civil war and political power brokers do not find it expediently urgent to close this monumental gap of inequality by giving a sense of belonging to the South-East region of Nigeria, then Ndigbo Republic (NR) is inevitable and I will lead the struggle of its actualisation.” Udeogaranya said that Ndigbo remains more Nigerian than any other Nigerian ethnic group and will always play their big brother role of pan-Africanism. Ndigbo, he said wants the best for the Yoruba nation, Hausa nation, Fulani nation, Ijaw nation and every other nationality ...
The travel that changed me: Nadine Matheson
Crime author Nadine Matheson tells us why a last-minute trip to Portugal changed her life forever Nadine Matheson is the author of The Jigsaw Man, a deliciously dark cat-and-mouse thriller that pits the best new detective in fiction against a truly menacing killer. Described as a ‘macabre love letter to South London’, the novel has a noirish, nightmarish quality redolent of hardboiled fiction recast for a contemporary audience. On the eve of publication, Nadine tells us why she chose South London as a setting, how her career as a criminal solicitor has helped shape her fiction and why a trip to Portugal changed her life forever. Your debut novel is described as a ‘macabre love letter to South London’. Why is this a compelling setting? Author Nadine Matheson I grew up in South-east Lo...
U.S. says North Korea an urgent priority for the United States
North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs are an urgent priority for the United States and Washington remains committed to denuclearization of the country, the U.S. State Department said on Friday. The Biden administration’s lack of direct engagement with North Korea should not be seen as an indication that the challenge posed by its weapons programs was not a priority, department spokesman Ned Price said. “It in fact very much is,” he told a regular briefing. North Korea continued to make progress in its nuclear and missile programs in recent years “which makes this an urgent priority for the United States and one that we are committed to addressing together with our allies and partners,” Price said. “And … the central premise is that we remain committed to denuclearizat...
Tokyo 2021: Japan, medical experts disagree over safe Olympics
Japanese infectious disease specialist Atsuo Hamada wants to see the Olympics happen in Tokyo this summer, but admits if they were being held anywhere else, he’d probably support a cancellation. “Even without the coronavirus pandemic, the Olympics as a mass gathering fosters all sorts of infectious diseases,” Hamada, a professor at Tokyo Medical University, told AFP. With less than six months until the pandemic-postponed Games, organisers say they’re confident the event will be safe. But some medical experts aren’t so sure, and think cancellation is safer. “I do understand the athletes’ sentiments,” said Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Britain’s University of Southampton. “But I think from… the global public health point of view, there’s nothing about the Olympic...
Anti-coup protests ring out in Myanmar’s main city
The din of banging pots and honking car horns reverberated through Myanmar’s biggest city of Yangon late on Tuesday in the first widespread protest against the military coup that overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The party of the detained Nobel Peace laureate called for her release by the junta that seized power on Monday and is keeping her at an undisclosed location. It also demanded recognition of her victory in a November election. A senior official from her National League for Democracy (NLD) said he had learned she was in good health a day after her arrest in a military takeover that derailed Myanmar’s tentative progress towards full democracy. The U.N. Security Council was due to meet later on Tuesday amid calls for a strong global response to the military’s latest seizure o...