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Auckland – Naomi Osaka retired from the final of the Auckland Classic with an abdominal injury Sunday, a blow to the Japanese star just a week before the start of the Australian Open. Playing in her first WTA final in three years, against Denmark’s Clara Tauson, the four-time Grand Slam champion called for the physio after taking the opening set 6-4 and pulled out shortly afterward. Osaka’s sudden withdrawal from the Australian Open warmup event came as a shock after playing with no apparent problem in the 35-minute opening set. She unleashed powerful groundstrokes to break her opponent in the third and fifth games. Source link

Increasingly brazen “gray zone” attacks against Europe and the U.S. have left defense officials with a dilemma: How to respond? Source link

Japan plans to map out a strategy within 2025 to boost defense equipment exports by enhancing the international competitiveness of its defense industry. The government aims to strengthen the industry’s foundation by helping expand its market reach, hoping to accelerate related efforts in cooperation with the private sector as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to power soon with his “America First” policy. The strategy, which will present medium- and long-term targets for defense equipment exports, will be worked out through cooperation among government agencies, as well as the defense and trade ministries. Opinions of the industry will also be reflected in the strategy. Source link

Lamar Jackson delivered another impressive record as the Baltimore Ravens clinched the AFC North and the third seed in the conference with a 35-10 win over the Cleveland Browns on Saturday. The win means the Ravens will begin the NFL playoffs next week at home against either the Los Angeles Chargers or the Pittsburgh Steelers — who fell to Cincinnati 19-17 in a result that gave the Bengals some hope of making the NFL playoffs ahead of the final Sunday of the regular season. There was concern, however, for Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh as his leading wide receiver, Zay Flowers, suffered a right knee injury in the second quarter. Source link

Seoul – South Korea’s suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol ignored the objections of key Cabinet ministers before his failed martial law bid last month, according to a prosecutors’ report seen Sunday. Yoon plunged the country into political chaos on Dec. 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence, surrounded by hundreds of security officers resisting arrest efforts. The full 83-page prosecution report to indict former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said the country’s then-prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister all expressed reservations the night of the decision. Source link

Paris – On a flight I took recently from Paris to Osaka, the screen displaying our plane’s route reflected the state of the world in 2024: the aircraft zigzagged from France to Austria, over Romania, Turkey, Georgia and Turkmenistan, crossing China via the Gobi Desert then rounding North Korea before making a 90° turn toward our destination. Our flight carefully avoided the hot war zones (Ukraine, the Middle East, Iran) and a heavily sanctioned Russia that is now thoroughly alienated from the West. We were flying over a world in shambles. Day after day, with its images of shelled schools, wrecked hospitals, women screaming in despair, mass protests and tent encampments at universities, 2024 was a year of super-charged gloom. Having spent much of the past decade researching my book “Picasso the Foreigner,” I was reminded by this turmoil and devastation of the artist’s monumental masterpiece, “Guernica.” In the spring of 1937, the first spring of the Spanish Civil War, Pablo Picasso found a universal language to denounce an extreme episode in modernity’s escalation of horror: the destruction, in fewer than four hours, of a Basque country town enjoying a sunny market day. Solemnly calling on centuries’ worth of sources, and summoning all the references his prodigious literary, pictorial and religious erudition could muster, Picasso set to work creating a huge, tragic tableau. Even today, when refugees in transit camps are asked about a major work of art, “Guernica” springs to mind. Source link

The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died at the age of 116, the city where she lived, Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, announced Saturday. Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on Dec. 29 at a nursing home where she had resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement. She was born on May 23, 1908, in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya — four months before the Ford Model T automobile was launched in the United States. Itooka was recognized as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117. “Ms. Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor, Ryosuke Takashima, said in the statement. “We thank her for it.” Tomiko Itooka died of old age in a nursing home for the elderly in the city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture. | Jiji Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs. As a student, she played volleyball. In her older age, Itooka enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement. Women typically enjoy longevity in Japan, but the country is facing a worsening demographic crisis as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labor force to pay for it. As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older — 88% of whom were women. Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older. After Itooka’s death, the world’s oldest person is now 116-year-old Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born on June 8, 1908, according to the U.S. Gerontological Research Group and LongeviQuest. Source link

Thirty-seven floors above Osaka’s bustling streets, French chef Yannick Alleno is orchestrating a conversation across oceans. At Sushi L’Abysse Osaka Yannick Alleno, his newest restaurant that opened in late October in Kita Ward’s Four Seasons Hotel Osaka, the dialogue takes many forms. Sometimes it centers on serious exploration of tradition and technique — as in silken tofu made with artichoke and sprinkled with smoked fish roe. Other times, whimsy prevails: The first bite of what appears to be a classic slice of fatty tuna nigiri sushi reveals a hidden crackle of crispy shallots atop the morsel of rice. The meal unfolds in three thoughtful stages. The first courses showcase dishes like layered endive and marinated radicchio brightened with parsley oil; a caviar-crowned soft-boiled egg nestled amid a whip of tuna blended with a tuna-fat “mayonnaise” mixture; and lightly poached oysters enveloped in a creamy rice emulsion with aonori seaweed gelee. Source link

Hong Kong – Injury-ravaged Japanese veteran Kei Nishikori reached his first final in six years when China’s Shang Juncheng retired with an illness at the Hong Kong Open on Saturday. The 35-year-old Nishikori, who reached a career-high No. 4 in the world a decade ago and was a U.S. Open finalist in 2014, was 4-3 up when Shang called it quits in their semifinal. The 19-year-old has been suffering with a fever. Nishikori, who was the first Grand Slam men’s singles finalist from Asia, faces France’s Alexandre Muller for the title on Sunday. It is the Japanese player’s 27th tour-level final, but first since winning in Brisbane in 2019. Nishikori has emerged from years of injuries, including major hip surgery, to roll back the years in Hong Kong. A wildcard at the tournament, he beat third-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov, Britain’s Cam Norrie and Denis Shapovalov on the way to the last four. The Japanese player will return to the top 100 for the first time since June 2022 on Monday. Nishikori is a 12-time winner on the ATP Tour and a 2016 Rio Olympic bronze medalist. Source link

Vienna – Austria’s conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Saturday he would step down in the “coming days” after breaking off coalition talks with the Social Democrats over disagreements on key issues. The surprise move might lead to snap polls being called in the Alpine EU member country — or the conservatives might negotiate with the far right that won national elections in September. Nehammer announced in a video message on X that he would step down “both as chancellor and party chairman of the People’s Party (OeVP) in the coming days and enable an orderly transition”. Source link