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Two tropical storms approaching Japan have prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents and the cancellation of more than 100 flights, amid warnings of flooding and landslides in parts of the country's south and west.Typhoon Mikhala is approaching Japan with winds of up to 144 km/h, while heavy rainfall continues to affect southern and western regions.Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways announced the cancellation of 70 and 50 flights, respectively, to and from Okinawa and Kagoshima.Authorities in Kyoto, on the southern island of Honshu, also urged thousands of residents to evacuate, warning of possible landslides and rising water levels in major rivers.The storm is expected to move across the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku over the weekend, with the possibility of merging with Typhoon Higos over the Pacific Ocean.Meanwhile, the Japanese military canceled the first scheduled flight of an MV-22 Osprey aircraft to Miyako Island, which was due to take place as part of joint military exercises with the United States. Source link
Venezuelan Health Minister Carlos Alvarado announced that the death toll from the two devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela has risen to 235, as search and rescue operations continue for those missing and trapped under the rubble.For his part, Venezuelan parliament president Jorge Rodriguez confirmed that the country is racing against time to rescue the injured and those trapped, amidst continuing aftershocks, which numbered more than 138 by Thursday afternoon. This prompted the government to declare several regions, including La Guaira state, disaster areas.He indicated that at least 346 buildings were damaged, including eight hospitals, some of which were evacuated, as international rescue teams arrived to participate in relief efforts. Related Story Source link
New Zealand’s Devon Conway (left) and Tom Latham celebrate their record partnership on the first day of the third Test against England at Trent Bridge in…
Former champions Madison Keys and Jelena Ostapenko stormed into the semi-finals of the Eastbourne WTA tournament on Thursday with commanding straight-sets victories in the Wimbledon warm-up event.Keys, the 2014 and 2023 Eastbourne title-winner, has still to drop a set at this year’s edition following a 6-3, 6-1 quarter-final win over McCartney Kessler in an all-American clash on England’s south coast.Meanwhile, 2021 Eastbourne champion Ostapenko cruised into the last four with a 6-3, 6-0 defeat of Zeynep Sonmez, despite suffering from heat stroke the previous night. Keys and Ostapenko are the last two seeds left in the women’s draw.They each have one Grand Slam singles title to their credit, with Latvia’s Ostapenko, 29, the 2017 French Open champion and Keys, 31, triumphing at last year’s Australian Open.Keys will face Petra Martinko in her semi-final after the Croatian defeated Caty McNally 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a gruelling two hours and 18 minutes.”I’m very happy with today’s performance,” said Keys after reaching her fourth semi-final on Eastbourne’s grass courts.Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Ostapenko, who will now face Tatjana Maria after she won 6-3, 7-5 against Tereza Valentova, was just pleased to back in action on Thursday.”I didn’t think I was going to play today,” she said. “After the match yesterday at 10:00 pm (2100 GMT) I had heat stroke so I felt really bad.”In the parallel ATP men’s event, former wold number four Jack Draper continued his promising return from injury under the guidance of British tennis great Andy Murray with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Gabriel Diallo that saw him into his first semi-final since Queen’s last year.Draper will now play France’s Ugo Humbert at Eastbourne after he defeated compatriot Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-4.And Draper won’t be the only British man in the semi-finals at Devonshire Park after ‘lucky loser’ Toby Samuel enjoyed the biggest win of his professional career with a 6-3, 6-4 success against eighth seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo.Samuel will now face Belgium’s Zizou Bergs after he defeated British qualifier Jan Choinski 6-3, 6-3. Related Story Source link
When Qatar squad arrived in North America for only their second FIFA World Cup, one name carried the weight of a nation’s expectations.Akram Afif arrived as one of Asia’s finest footballer – a two-time AFC Player of the Year, reigning Qatar Football Association Best (QFA) Player and the man who had inspired back-to-back Asian Cup triumphs. If Qatar were to finally make their mark on football’s biggest stage after the disappointment of 2022 at home, the 29-year-old was expected to lead the way.Just weeks before the tournament, after collecting his sixth QFA Best Player award, Afif made clear where his priorities lay. “The individual awards is not my first priority. We did not perform at the required level at 2022 World Cup and the results were not acceptable to me. We will try our best to prove that we deserve to be at the World Cup with a strong performance,” he said.Instead, his second World Cup ended much like his first.Afif finished the tournament without a goal or an assist as Qatar exited in the group stage with one point from three matches. For a player who scored eight goals to win the Golden Boot at the 2023 Asian Cup after supplying a record 10 assists during Qatar’s 2019 triumph, it was another frustrating tournament where his influence never translated into numbers.But the statistics also paint a more nuanced picture than the score sheet suggests. At the World Cup, Akram Afif struggled heavily in physical duels, winning only 41.7% of them (5 out of 12). He was dispossessed 4 times…
As wars persist in different parts of the world, it’s perhaps easy to lose sight of the many countries that have managed to recover from past…
Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Mike Burgess prepares to speak at the ASIO headquarters in Canberra. (AFP) Australia faces multi-faceted threats from autocratic regimes, hackers and antisemitic extremists that present a systemic challenge to national security and are degrading the security environment, the country’s spy chief said. While Australia’s terrorism threat level remains at “probable”, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said the designation does not accurately capture the “concurrent, cascading and compounding threats.” ASIO’s annual assessment followed a year in which Australia confronted threats on multiple fronts, from online radicalisation, state-sponsored cyberattacks to arson against Jewish businesses and a mass shooting in Sydney. “’Probable’ does not tell the full story. The next level on the scale is ‘expected’, which applies when we have intelligence about a specific attack. We do not,” Burgess said in the annual threat assessment speech on Wednesday night. “But we do know the environment is degrading and acts of politically motivated violence are becoming more likely than ‘probable’ suggests.” Despite the challenges, Australia is well-placed to meet security threats, Burgess said. ASIO has foiled 31 major terror plots since 2014 and resolved more than a dozen major terror-related cases since the Bondi Beach mass shooting in December at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration that killed 15 people. Police said the two alleged gunmen appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State militant group. Burgess defended ASIO’s resource allocation leading up to the Bondi attack, saying the agency was countering multiple threats simultaneously and it was extremely difficult to “simplistically pivot” from one threat to another. “We cannot stop every terrorist, just as we cannot catch every spy. But we continue to work around the clock to keep Australians safe,” Burgess said. Encrypted chat platforms are radicalising people, including minors, within weeks, while social media is amplifying grievance narratives, eroding trust in institutions, promoting discord and inflammatory rhetoric, and exacerbating polarisation, he said. Foreign spies are targeting classified information on Australia’s AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership with the United States and Britain. An official with security clearance was contacted by someone pretending to be from a consulting firm, Burgess said. Related Story Source link
Midfielder Assim Madibo was sent off during Qatar’s 6-0 defeat on June 18 following a foul which resulted in Canada’s Ismael Kone sustaining a broken leg.…
France star Aurelien Tchouameni said his team were aiming to make Didier Deschamps ‘as proud as possible’ as they go into their final World Cup group game against Norway on Friday without their coach, who has returned home to attend his mother’s funeral.“It is a difficult time for everyone. Our objective is to make him as proud as possible,” Real Madrid midfielder Tchouameni told reporters at France’s base near Boston on Thursday.Deschamps learned the news of his mother’s death on Tuesday and has flown back to France to attend the funeral on Friday, before he then returns to the United States to be with his squad.”I am thinking a lot about Didier and his family. We are deeply affected by what has happened,” said assistant coach Guy Stephan, who will lead the team in their final Group I match against the Norwegians at the Gillette Stadium.”I am just trying to make a difficult situation as normal as possible.”For Deschamps, the news came the day after France beat Iraq 3-0 in Philadelphia to make it two wins out of two at the tournament and seal their place in the knockout stages.”Didier called me early in the morning so I went to see him in his room,” said Stephan.”He told me the bad news and very quickly he asked me to lead the team until he gets back, which will be on Saturday.”Stephan, 69, previously took charge of the France team for a UEFA Nations League game in 2022, following the death of Deschamps’ father.”I feel like I don’t belong here in front of you. I belong on the training ground,” Stephan added.”This is a cruel situation for Didier and his family and so we need to just get through the third match.”France and Norway are level on six points each from two games, meaning both have qualified already. But France have a superior goal difference so will advance as group winners with a draw.The winners of Group I will play a last-32 tie against a third-placed finisher in New Jersey on June 30.The group runners-up will play in Dallas the same day against the runners-up in Group E.Arsenal centre-back William Saliba will not feature for France against Norway as he nurses a back problem.Stephan indicated that Maxence Lacroix of Crystal Palace will replace him in the starting line-up. Related Story Source link
The US Supreme Court Thursday backed a Trump administration move to strip deportation protections from some 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians living in the US.The conservative-dominated court, in a 6-3 ruling, said the Department of Homeland Security's decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian immigrants was not subject to judicial review.TPS protects its holders from deportation and is granted to people deemed to be in danger if they return home because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances.Lawyers for Haitian and Syrian TPS holders contended during oral arguments before the court in April that conditions in their home countries remained unsafe and the administration's move was motivated at least in part by racial hostility.Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion in which he was joined by the five other conservative justices on the top court, rejected claims that race was a ‘motivating factor’ in President Donald Trump's decision to strip Haitians of TPS status.’None of the cited statements by either the President or the (Homeland Security) Secretary was overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications,’ Alito wrote.Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to expel millions of migrants and has pushed to dismantle the TPS programme as part of his broader immigration crackdown. At the height of the 2024 election campaign, Trump stoked fears about Haitian immigrants by falsely claiming they were eating Americans' pets.The Supreme Court ruling in the TPS case could have implications for more than one mn beneficiaries of TPS status from more than a dozen countries.TPS status has been revoked for nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Venezuela, Yemen, and others in addition to Haitians and Syrians since Trump took office.Haitians became eligible for TPS in 2010 following a devastating earthquake, and the country continues to suffer from severe poverty, rampant violence from heavily armed gangs and chronic political instability.The State Department advises Americans not to travel to the Caribbean nation ‘due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and limited health care.’TPS was extended to war-torn Syria in 2012.Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, questioned during oral arguments whether a ‘discriminatory purpose may have played a part’ in the Trump administration's decision to strip TPS status from Haitians and referred to statements by the Republican president.’We have a president saying at one point that Haiti is a quote filthy, dirty and disgusting s-hole country — I'm quoting him — and where he complained that the US takes people from such countries instead of people from Norway, Sweden or Denmark,’ Sotomayor said.Solicitor General John Sauer replied that the president's comments were being taken out of context and he was referring to ‘problems of crime, poverty and welfare dependency.’Sauer said court review of TPS decisions was barred to prevent ‘judicial micromanagement’ of foreign policy determinations. Source link