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Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan disqualified after refusing to shake hands with Russian opponent

Marietta Reformado
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Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan disqualified after refusing to shake hands with Russian opponent

Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan disqualified after refusing to shake hands with Russian opponent

ITALY (Reuters) – Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan has been disqualified after refusing to shake hands with Russian Anna Smirnova at the World Championships in Milan on Thursday.

Kharlan, a four-time Olympic medallist and world champion, won the individual sabre bout 15-7 and then refused to shake hands with her opponent, instead offering her sabre to tap blades.

Smirnova remained on the piste for over half an hour after the incident, speaking with a number of officials before leaving.

READ MORE : Sumo championship: Hoshoryu beats Hokutofuji in playoff for maiden championship

Ukrainian athletes in other sports – including tennis players Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk – have also refused to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Moscow using Belarus as a staging ground for what it calls a “special military operation”.

In fencing’s rules, shaking an opponent’s hand is mandatory and failure to do so results in a ‘black card’.

“We fully support Olga Kharlan in this situation. We are preparing a protest,” Mykhailo Illiashev, president of Ukraine’s fencing federation (NFFU), said in televised comments.

“We will appeal this decision, because the referee who judged this match did not give directly a black card or disqualify her.

“It was only later that the underhanded games began and this disqualification appeared already after the next opponent was determined, already after a judge for the next competition was determined.”

Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Huttsait described the incident as “an obvious provocation from the Russian side”.

Huttsait, a gold medallist in team sabre at the 1992 Barcelona Games, told a press conference that Smirnova “approached (Kharlan), provoked her, holding her hand up for a long time and waiting.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, writing on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, said Smirnova “lost the fair competition and decided to play dirty with the handshake show. This is exactly how Russian army acts on the battlefield.”

Illiashev said the NFFU anticipate the appeal to be considered within the next few days.

“In this case, we will seek to cancel this black card because this disqualification will make it impossible for her to participate in the team competition, which will be held in Milan in a few days,” Illiashev said.

“And it is important for us that our team performs.”

The women’s team sabre event begins on July 29.

Kharlan is representing Ukraine at the competition after the country’s sports ministry on Wednesday relaxed its rules over national sports teams competing in Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic events that have competitors from Russia and Belarus.

Smirnova was competing as a neutral.

The International Fencing Federation (FIE) did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Reporting by Aadi Nair and Anna Pruchnika, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ron Popeski

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Climate change: July set to be world’s warmest month on record

Roshan Bilung
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Climate change: July set to be world’s warmest month on record

Climate change: July set to be world’s warmest month on record

Gloria Dickie (Reuters) – July 2023 is set to upend previous heat benchmarks, U.N. Secretary-general António Guterres said on Thursday after scientists said it was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record.

The U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service also said in a joint statement it was “extremely likely” July 2023 would break the record.

“We don’t have to wait for the end of the month to know this. Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board,” Guterres said in New York.

READ MORE : Mumbai Rain, CM Orders, All Schools In Mumbai To Be Closed Tomorrow Due To Heavy Rain

“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” he told reporters, adding “the era of global boiling has arrived”.

The effects of July’s heat have been seen across the world. Thousands of tourists fled wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes, and many more suffered baking heat across the U.S. Southwest. Temperatures in a northwest China township soared as high as 52.2C (126F), breaking the national record.

While the WMO would not call the record outright, instead waiting until the availability of all finalised data in August, an analysis by Germany’s Leipzig University released on Thursday found that July 2023 would clinch the record.

This month’s mean global temperature is projected to be at least 0.2C (0.4F) warmer than July 2019, the former hottest in the 174-year observational record, according to EU data.

The margin of difference between now and July 2019 is “so substantial that we can already say with absolute certainty that it is going to be the warmest July”, Leipzig climate scientist Karsten Haustein said.

July 2023 is estimated to be roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial mean. The WMO has confirmed that the first three weeks of July have been the warmest on record.

Commenting on the pattern, Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said it was clear by mid-July that it was going to be a record warm month, and provided an “indicator of a planet that will continue to warm as long as we burn fossil fuels”.

Normally, the global mean temperature for July is around 16C (61F), inclusive of the Southern Hemisphere winter. But this July it has surged to around 17C (63F).

What’s more, “we may have to go back thousands if not tens of thousands of years to find similarly warm conditions on our planet”, Haustein said. Early, less fine-tuned climate records — gathered from things like ice cores and tree rings — suggest the Earth has not been this hot in 120,000 years.

Haustein’s analysis is based on preliminary temperature data and weather models, including forecast temperatures through the end of this month, but validated by unaffiliated scientists.

“The result is confirmed by several independent datasets combining measurements in the ocean and over land. It is statistically robust,” said Piers Forster, a climate scientist at Leeds University in Britain.

The planet is in the early stages of an El Nino event, borne of unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific. El Nino typically delivers warmer temperatures around the world, doubling down on the warming driven by human-caused climate change, which scientists said this week had played an “absolutely overwhelming” role in July’s extreme heatwaves.

While El Nino’s impacts are expected to peak later this year and into 2024, it “has already started to help boost the temperatures”, Haustein said.

July is traditionally the hottest month of the year, and the EU said it did not project August would surpass the record set this month.

However, scientists expect 2023 or 2024 will end up as the hottest year in the record books, surpassing 2016.

(This story has been refiled to remove the double attribution of Guterres)

Photo Source : BBC

Reporting by Gloria Dickie in London, Ontario; additional reporting by Ali Withers in Copenhagen and David Stanway in Singapore; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alison Williams

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Saudi Arabia is spending billions to become a global gaming hub. Some fans don’t want to play

Mark Kenya
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Saudi Arabia is spending billions to become a global gaming hub. Some fans don’t want to play

Saudi Arabia is spending billions to become a global gaming hub. Some fans don’t want to play

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia, the new home of some of soccer’s biggest stars and a co-owner of professional golf, is proving to be no less ambitious when it comes to another global pastime – the $180 billion-a-year video game industry.

Last September, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund earmarked nearly $40 billion for a new conglomerate aimed at transforming the kingdom into the “ultimate global hub” for games and esports by 2030. In February, the Saudi fund became the biggest outside investor in Nintendo, and just this month the kingdom hosted a major gaming tournament with a record $45 million prize pool.

That’s made Saudi Arabia an increasingly important player in the industry and contributed to its breakneck transformation from an insular kingdom best known for oil and ultraconservative Islam into an emerging sports and entertainment powerhouse.

READ MORE : A diplomatic fight breaks out after a man desecrated the Quran

The move into gaming has sparked the same kind of backlash seen in soccer and golf, where critics accuse the Saudis of “sportswashing” human rights abuses, including the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident.

With gaming, a kingdom that sentences people to decades in prison over a few tweets is joining a worldwide community dominated by the young and very online.

“It’s the Romans and the Colosseum all over again, and you have countries at the top layer using sports as a theater to display their wealth and their power,” said Joost van Dreunen, a professor at New York University who has written a book about the business of video games.

“You have to ask the question: Who is the architect behind this, and what are the intentions of these architects?” he said.

Saudi Arabia’s 37-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reportedly an avid gamer himself, sees the foray into gaming as part of Vision 2030, his ambitious plan to overhaul the kingdom’s economy, reduce its reliance on oil and provide jobs and entertainment for its youthful population.

“We are harnessing the untapped potential across the esports and games sector to diversify our economy,” he said last September, when he announced the establishment of the Savvy Games Group.

Owned by Saudi Arabia’s $700 billion Public Investment Fund and led by CEO Brian Ward, an industry veteran, Savvy aims to invest $39 billion in the gaming industry. It hopes to establish 250 local companies and create 39,000 jobs in the next seven years.

Earlier this month, it completed the $4.9 billion purchase of Scopely, the creator of “Monopoly Go,” “Star Trek Fleet Command” and “Marvel Strike Force.”

Gaming is a massive and fast-growing industry. Market research firm Newzoo says an estimated 3.2 billion people play games on PCs, consoles, mobile devices or cloud gaming services, with the industry generating $184.4 billion in revenues in 2022. Gaming brings in more money than the combined earnings of the global box office, music streaming and album sales, and the top five wealthiest sports leagues, according to a 2021 report by the Boston Consulting Group.

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West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attack in first six months of 2023, regional official says

Mark Kenya
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West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attack in first six months of 2023, regional official says

West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attack in first six months of 2023, regional official says

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attacks in the first six months of the year resulting in nearly 4,600 deaths with dire humanitarian consequences, and a top regional official said Tuesday that’s just “a snippet of the horrendous impact of insecurity.”

Omar Touray told the U.N. Security Council that half a million people in the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States known as ECOWAS are refugees and nearly 6.2 million are internally displaced. If there isn’t an adequate international response to the 30 million people ECOWAS assesses need food right now, he said, the number of people in need will increase to 42 million by the end of next month.

Touray, who is president of the ECOWAS Commission, singled out the following drivers of insecurity in the region: terrorism, armed rebellion, organized crime, unconstitutional changes of government, illegal maritime activities, environmental crises and fake news.

READ MORE : Sudan clashes intensify with no mediation in sight

He said the region is worried about the resurgence of the military, with three countries – Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea – under military rule.

“The reversal of democratic gains runs parallel to insecurity that West Africa and the Sahel have been facing for some time now,” he said, and insecurity continues to inflict pain and suffering on millions of people.

For example, Touray said, the 4,593 deaths in terrorist attacks between January and June 30 include 2,725 in Burkina Faso, 844 in Mali, 77 in Niger and 70 in Nigeria. He added that terrorist attacks in Benin and Togo which have coastlines on the Atlantic Ocean are a “stark indication of the expansion of terrorism to littoral states, a situation that poses additional threat to the region.”

Touray said there have been a multiplicity of initiatives to tackle terrorism and insecurity which have had an impact on the ground, but there is a lack of coordination and ECOWAS wants to integrate the various initiatives into a regional plan of action.

ECOWAS military chiefs of staff have held consultations to strengthen a regional standby force “in a manner that will enable it to support member states in the fight against terrorism and against threats to constitutional order,” he said.

Touray said the military chiefs proposed two options, establishing a 5,000-strong brigade at an annual cost of $2.3 billion or deployment of troops on demand at an annual cost of $360 million.

He reiterated the African Union’s request for African peace operations to receive funding from the U.N. regular budget, to which all 193 U.N. member states contribute.

Touray said the military staff recommendations were made before Mali’s military junta demanded that the more than 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in the country leave, which was followed by the Security Council’s unanimous vote on June 30 to immediately end the mission. Mali has brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help fight an Islamic insurgency.

Touray told the council that ECOWAS leaders “have reflected on the possible adverse impact of the withdrawal on the region and have decided to convene an extraordinary session on peace and security by the end of August.” Ahead of that meeting, he said, Benin’s president will visit Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea and press for “an expeditious return to constitutional order.”

The Security Council was also briefed by the new head of the U.N. office for West Africa, Leonardo Santos Simão, who said the security situation in the central Sahel, especially the border region of Burkina Faso. Mali and Niger, “has deteriorated further, with multiple attacks against civilians and defense and security forces.” He also said “the southward expansion of insecurity remains a potent threat.”

Simão appealed for “robust and decisive support” for the ECOWAS action plan to eradicate terrorism in the region and for the African Union and efforts by countries to stem insecurity in the Sahel.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council “the United States remains gravely concerned by democratic backsliding across the region” and is “deeply concerned by the spread of instability in coastal West Africa.”

He accused the Wagner Group of “committing human rights abuses and endangering the safety and security of civilians, peacekeepers and U.N. personnel.”

Russia’s deputy ambassador Anna Evstigneeva called the security situation in West Africa and the Sahel “difficult,” pointing to increased activity by fighters from the Islamic State extremist group, subversive activities by Boko Haram, and the spread of terrorist activity to coastal West African countries.

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Wildfires in Algeria kill at least 34 and injure hundreds but 80% now extinguished, officials say

Mark Kenya
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Wildfires in Algeria kill at least 34 and injure hundreds but 80% now extinguished, officials say

Wildfires in Algeria kill at least 34 and injure hundreds but 80% now extinguished, officials say

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Fires raging through forests, mountain villages and towns in northern Algeria have left at least 34 people dead, with 23 of them in the coastal region of Bejaia, according to authorities and a local radio station keeping track of the grim toll.

The blazes were being drastically curtailed. The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that 80% of the fires, which started Sunday, had been put out, the daily El Watan newspaper reported. A ministry statement quoted by the paper credited uninterrupted mobilization of firefighters, the use of firefighting aircraft and a drop in wind and in temperatures.

Among those killed in hard-hit Bejaia were 10 soldiers encircled by flames during an evacuation, the Defense Ministry reported Monday night.

READ MORE : Repatriation flights head for Greece as wildfires force tourists to flee

In neighboring Tunisia, the official TAP news agency reported one death, a school principal who died of asphyxiation from a fire in Nafza, in the northwest. That was one of several areas in Tunisia’s northwest where firefighters battled flames devouring forests and citrus and hazelnut groves as scorching heat made nations on the Mediterranean increasingly vulnerable to wildfires.

Spain’s defense ministry said Tuesday it will send Tunisia two firefighting planes and 27 military personnel, including crews and technicians from the Military Emergency Unit to help combat the wildfires there. That came in response to an EU request.

Strong winds and successive heat waves have fueled vicious fires in Greece and elsewhere around the Mediterranean this summer.

Algeria’s Bejaia — part of the Berber-speaking Kabyle region east of Algiers, the capital — was the hardest-hit area, with 23 deaths since Sunday, the local Soummam Radio reported Tuesday. Counting the deaths from the wind-driven blazes that swept through villages to the seaside, the radio report said that 197 other people were injured in the flames.

In Bouira province, closer to the capital, dead trees and burned brush dotted the hills around the town of Zbarbar, where firefighters moved in to douse scattered blazes on Monday. Some homes were transformed into burned out hovels, a video shot by The Associated Press showed. But firefighters’ efforts were limited. One grey-haired man tossed water from a plastic bottle onto the corrugated roof of what was left of his small damaged home in an effort to dampen it.

The official APS news agency reported Monday night that 34 people had died across several regions, or “wilayas.” Some 8,000 firefighters and 530 trucks, backed by military fire-fighting aircraft, fought the blazes in scorching heat, according to the latest update.

The Algerian Defense Ministry said Monday night that 10 soldiers died in the hardest-hit region of Bejaia. It added that 25 people were injured and evacuated to the closest hospitals.

Wildfires in this North African nation have taken heavy tolls in recent years.

At least 37 people were killed last August after wildfires blazed in the Kabyle region and near Algeria’s northern border with Tunisia. Parts of the mountainous Kabyle region, dotted with villages, are difficult to access.

August blazes in 2021, mainly in Kabyle, killed at least 90 people in the deadliest sequence of fires in recent years, centered in Kabyle. Arson was suspected in some cases, and in one town an angry crowd attacked and burned to death an artist who had traveled from afar to help firefighters. A hysterical crowd accused him of setting fires.

The Algerian online news site TSA quoted the National Meteorological Office as saying that temperatures that soared to around 50 C (122 F) in some of the fire-hit regions were expected to drop starting Tuesday.

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Repatriation flights head for Greece as wildfires force tourists to flee

Marietta Reformado
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Repatriation flights head for Greece as wildfires force tourists to flee

Repatriation flights head for Greece as wildfires force tourists to flee

RHODES, Greece (Reuters) – Wildfires burned across Greece on Monday, forcing people to be evacuated from a beach on the island of Corfu while tourists crowded an airport on Rhodes after thousands fled hotels and resorts at the weekend.

Fires burning since Wednesday on Rhodes forced the evacuation of 19,000 people over the weekend as an inferno reached coastal resorts on the island’s southeastern coast.

Rhodes and Corfu are among Greece’s top destinations for tourists mainly from Britain and Germany.

READ MORE : Shift to the right expected in parliamentary elections in Spain

“We are in the seventh day of the fire and it hasn’t been controlled,” Rhodes Deputy Mayor Konstantinos Taraslias told state broadcaster ERT.

Tourists spent the night on the airport floor, waiting for repatriation flights.

“It was quite a bit of a struggle on the beach with the smoke,” said John Hope, a tourist from Manchester, England.

Tour operators Jet2, TUI and Corendon cancelled flights leaving for Rhodes. Britain’s easyJet (EZJ.L) said on Sunday it was operating two repatriation flights on Monday from Rhodes to London’s Gatwick airport in addition to the nine flights already operating between the island and Gatwick.

The airline said it will add another repatriation flight on Tuesday.

Ryanair (RYA.I) said on Sunday its flights to and from Rhodes were operating as normal. Its Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan said the airline was monitoring the situation on Monday.

“We have a lot of customers there who want to get home. We’re not going to leave them behind so we’ll travel back in and out,” he said.

“It’s not necessary at this period in time (to put on more flights), we’re letting people book onto earlier flights.”

Evacuations by sea were underway on Corfu, where about 59 people were evacuated from a beach on Sunday. Footage from the island showed the skyline ablaze from fires in a mountain region.

On Rhodes, some holidaymakers said they walked for miles in scorching heat to reach safety. The fires left blackened trees and dead animals lay in the road near burnt-out cars.

Greece is often hit by wildfires during the summer months but climate change has led to more extreme heatwaves across southern Europe.

Temperatures over the past week have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many parts of the country and were forecast to persist in the coming days.

Emergency services were also dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens, and Aigio, southwest of Athens.

Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris in Athens, Michele Kambas in Nicosia and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Janet Lawrence

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Shift to the right expected in parliamentary elections in Spain

Marietta Reformado
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Shift to the right expected in parliamentary elections in Spain

Shift to the right expected in parliamentary elections in Spain

MADRID (APA)- Spain is electing a new parliament this Sunday. Polls predict a defeat for the left-wing minority government of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE). The conservative People’s Party (PP) is likely to be the strongest force in the country with around 47 million inhabitants, but will fall short of an absolute majority.

Top candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, would then have to rely on the extreme right-wing populist party Vox to form a government.

READ MORE : Flights between Andorra and Madrid for 49 euros in August

If there was a slightly higher turnout in the early afternoon than in the last election in 2019, this value fell until the early evening. According to the newspaper “El Mundo” (online edition), 53.07 percent of those entitled to vote cast their votes by 6:00 p.m. CEST, almost four percentage points less than in 2019. At that time it was 56.85 percent at this time.

Polling stations close at 20:00 CEST, in the Canary Islands at 21:00 CEST. A total of 37.5 million Spaniards are called to vote for 350 MPs. 1.6 million are voting for the first time. According to the opinion research institute GESOP on Friday, Feijóo’s PP can count on 32.7 percent of the votes, Prime Minister Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE) on 28.5 percent.

Feijóo would prefer to govern alone. But not a single poll predicts the PP will win more than 156 seats in a Congress where the absolute majority is 176 seats. So everything depends on the large army of undecided people, who make up 15.2 percent of those entitled to vote. But also the turnout.

According to experts, the main reason for the Socialists’ election debacle was the low turnout in the nationwide local elections and the twelve regional elections at the end of May.

It was all the more astonishing that Spain’s socialist head of government, in a kind of flight forward, brought the new elections forward to July 23 of all times. The country is actually in vacation mode at this time and not in election mode.

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards are already on the country’s Mediterranean shores, enjoying paellas and “tintos de verano” (red wine with lemonade) on the beach.

So it was only logical that the Spanish postal service had to hire up to 20,000 additional helpers in order to be able to process the 2.5 million applications for postal votes – twice as many as in the provisionally last parliamentary elections in 2019.

So, at least in advance, there is no sign of electoral fatigue. No wonder, there is a lot at stake.

Since an absolute majority for one of the two major mainstream parties would be a surprise, there are only three possible scenarios, political expert Pablo Simón explains to APA: “New elections” or a renewed, but less likely majority of socialists and the link pact “Sumar”, which also includes the previous government partner Unidas Podemos.

“Or, and this is what all the polls are predicting, an election victory for the conservatives, who, however, would depend on the right-wing populist Vox party.”

The conservatives have no parliamentary alternatives. Sánchez, on the other hand, has already made it clear that he will not support a conservative minority government, even if this means that the conservatives have to bring the right-wing extremists into government.

When Sánchez cast his vote in Madrid on Sunday, he was greeted by a small group of people who shouted “liars” at him, according to Reuters news agency. However, a similar number of his fans were also there, celebrating him as “Prime Minister”, as seen on Spanish television TVE. He told reporters he had a “good feeling” about the election.

PP lead candidate Feijóo told his polling station in Galicia that he hoped Spain could start a “new era”. Vox boss Santiago Abascal emphasized “the most important thing” is that Spain changes course”. Sumar leader Yolanda Díaz said that people must understand that their “rights are at stake” and that they should turn out in large numbers in “probably the most important elections” of their generation.

 

Flights between Andorra and Madrid for 49 euros in August

Marietta Reformado
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Flights between Andorra and Madrid for 49 euros in August

Flights between Andorra and Madrid for 49 euros in August

La Seu d’Urgell (ANA) – Air Nostrum, Iberia’s franchised airline for regional flights, is launching this Friday a promotion for the month of August on the route between Andorra-La Seu and Madrid. In this way, as reported by the company, tickets can be purchased from 49 euros per journey, so the round trip can be purchased for 98 euros.

The summer promotion is now on sale and will be available until next August 31. The journey takes place every Friday and Sunday. The only condition for these prices is that the tickets must be purchased seven days in advance of the flight departure date.

During the summer season the timetables of the route between Andorra-La Seu and Madrid are delayed to make better use of the weekend in the Principality. Thus, this August the route takes off from Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport on Fridays and Sundays at 6.20pm, arriving at the Pyrenees airport at 8pm. The return from Andorra is at 20:30 and the estimated arrival in Madrid is scheduled at 22:10. Tickets can be purchased at www.iberia.com and travel agencies.

READ MORE : Italian PM Giorgia Meloni launches ‘dialogue of equals’ on migration in Rome

Air Nostrum, Iberia’s franchise airline for regional flights, inaugurated in December 2021, its flights between Madrid and Andorra-La Seu d’Urgell, thereby ending almost four decades without regular connections from this airport to others in Spain.

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Italian PM Giorgia Meloni launches ‘dialogue of equals’ on migration in Rome

Shasi Kumar
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Italian PM Giorgia Meloni launches ‘dialogue of equals’ on migration in Rome

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni launches ‘dialogue of equals’ on migration in Rome

ROME (ANSA) – Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday inaugurated a “dialogue of equals” on migration and development based on converging interests between Europe and countries in the broader Mediterranean area. “What we are inaugurating today is above all a dialogue between equals, based on mutual respect,” said Meloni, opening an international conference at the foreign ministry in Rome that seeks to address irregular migration and promote growth.
“Between Europe and the enlarged Mediterranean there cannot be a competitive or conflictual relationship, because in reality the interests are much more convergent than we ourselves recognise,” she added.
“Italy and Europe need immigration, but we cannot send the signal that those who enter illegally will be rewarded.

READ MORE: Top Chinese diplomat proposes talks with Japan, South Korea

If, on the one hand, we are open to letting people in but then do not address what will become of them in our countries, that is not solidarity,” said Meloni
“Mass irregular migration harms everyone except criminal organizations, which use their strength to play with the lives of the most fragile people,” she continued, calling for “joint efforts and more cooperation to fight the network of traffickers”.
Meloni said in tackling migration the partnership with countries of origin “must be equal, predatory, multidimensional and long-term”.
“It must be based on respect and not on a paternalistic approach, on solidarity, on respect for each other’s sovereignty, on shared responsibility for upholding legality,” said the premier.
This, she insisted, “is the only serious way to strengthen our bond, trust each other and foster the development and prosperity of our peoples”.
Before the conference Meloni met with Tunisian President Kais Saied and other leaders, according to Palazzo Chigi sources.
“This is the beginning of a path,’ the premier reportedly told Saied.
“Tunisia and Italy have a common future,” Saïed is said to have replied. ANSA

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Sumo championship: Hoshoryu beats Hokutofuji in playoff for maiden championship

Um Kwang Ho
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Sumo championship: Hoshoryu beats Hokutofuji in playoff for maiden championship

Sumo championship: Hoshoryu beats Hokutofuji in playoff for maiden championship

Nagoya, Japan (KYODO)- Sekiwake Hoshoryu captured his first elite makuuchi-division championship after beating rank-and-file wrestler Hokutofuji in a playoff Sunday at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament.

The 24-year-old nephew of former Mongolian great Asashoryu is also set for promotion to ozeki after finishing with a 12-3 record that gives him 33 wins over three consecutive meets as a sekiwake, meeting a key benchmark to attain sumo’s second-highest rank.

He reached the playoff by winning his final regulation bout against 19-year-old rookie sensation Hakuoho, who was bidding to win the title in his top-division debut.

READ MORE : Top Chinese diplomat proposes talks with Japan, South Korea

Hoshoryu, No. 9 maegashira Hokutofuji and No. 17 Hakuoho came into the final day of the 15-day meet at Dolphins Arena as the only remaining contenders at 11-3, guaranteeing that a first-time champion would be crowned.

Former komusubi Hokutofuji (12-3) stayed in the hunt by beating No. 1 Nishikigi (10-5) before Hoshoryu took care of Hakuoho (11-4) in their head-to-head bout

“I had to win, because that was my ticket to the championship playoff,” Hoshoryu said at his victory ceremony.

Anticipating his opponent’s opening charge, Hoshoryu secured a belt grip and used it to drop the powerfully built Hakuoho to the clay with an overarm throw.

Pusher-thruster Hokutofuji was aiming to beat Hoshoryu for just the second time after winning their scheduled bout on Day 12. He kept the sekiwake off his belt but could not stop his advance, desperately opting for a pull that hastened Hoshoryu’s victory by push out.

Normally known for his fierce expression inside the ring, Hoshoryu began shedding tears as he stepped off the dohyo.

“I was just so overwhelmed with joy, I was trying to hold it back but the tears just came,” said Hoshoryu, who also thanked his illustrious uncle at the ceremony.

A highly skilled grappler, Hoshoryu entered the sumo world under a spotlight on account of his family ties. He has compiled a winning record in every one of his tournaments among the three elite “sanyaku” ranks below yokozuna since debuting at komusubi in March 2022.

“I now think that I did everything I could, and I did well,” he said. “I didn’t think one bit about ozeki promotion.”

A protege of former yokozuna Hakuho at the Miyagino stable, Tottori Prefecture native Hakuoho was aiming to become the first wrestler in 109 years to win a top-division championship on debut.

He would have also been the youngest top-division winner, at 19 years and 11 months, since former yokozuna Takanohana, then known as Takahanada, won the January 1992 tournament at 19 years and five months.

The Japan Sumo Association’s prize selection committee recognized Hakuoho’s headline-grabbing tournament with both Fighting Spirit and Technique prizes, making him the first debutant to garner two of the three special awards since Ichinojo in September 2014.

Ozeki Kirishima, who missed the first three days with bruised ribs, finished with a 6-7-2 record and will fight as a demotion-threatened “kadoban” ozeki at the next meet.

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