Author name: admin

At first glance, Sony Group’s $1.2 billion acquisition of the anime streaming site Crunchyroll in 2021 looks like a success. Subscribers to the $8-a-month service have tripled to 15 million since then, and the number of new shows has doubled to more than 50 every quarter. But the rising popularity of anime — Japanese cartoons featuring complex plots and colorful characters — has attracted competition. Netflix, Walt Disney and Amazon are all digging into their deep pockets to license shows, making it more expensive for Crunchyroll to compete and giving fans less reason to subscribe to the niche service. Internally, employee support for management and its vision has trailed downward in recent months. Expensive forays into video games and e-commerce aren’t going well. And the company’s ambitious goals for new subscriber additions seem unlikely to be met. Source link

Nick Kyrgios said the recent doping incidents involving Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek were “disgusting” for the sport, as the Australian slammed authorities on Saturday over what he saw as lenient treatment in their cases. World No. 1 Sinner failed two drug tests in March for trace amounts of the anabolic androgenic steroid clostebol but was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent tribunal that accepted his explanation of unintentional contamination. World No. 2 Swiatek accepted a one-month ban after a positive test for hormone and metabolic modulator trimetazidine, which she said was the result of contamination of her sleep medication. Source link

Geneva – The head of the World Health Organization said Saturday he only narrowly escaped death in fatal Israeli strikes on the airport in Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told BBC radio his ears were still ringing following Thursday’s attack as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, and stressed that the protection for civilian installations under international law must be respected. Israeli air strikes hit Sanaa’s international airport and other targets in Yemen on Thursday. The attacks against what Israel’s military called rebel “military targets” marked the second time since Dec. 19 that Israel has hit targets in Yemen after rebel missile fire toward Israel. Source link

Right-hander Corbin Burnes, arguably the top remaining free agent on the market, agreed to a megadeal with the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to multiple media reports late Friday night. The contract reportedly is for six years and $210 million, but Burnes has the right to opt out after two seasons. It would be the largest contract in Diamondbacks history. Burnes lands with a team that already features one of the major leagues’ deepest rotations with Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery and Brandon Pfaadt. Burnes, 30, spent the 2024 season with the Baltimore Orioles, earning his fourth consecutive All-Star selection while going 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA in 32 starts. He tied for seventh in the American League in wins and came in fourth in ERA while striking out 181 in 194⅓ innings. A fourth-round draft pick of the Brewers in 2016, Burnes broke into the majors in 2018 and spent six seasons in Milwaukee before he was traded to Baltimore before spring training this year. He won the 2021 National League Cy Young Award after going 11-5 with a league-leading 2.43 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 167 innings over 28 starts. Burnes logged more than 190 innings in each of the past three seasons. In 199 career major league appearances (138 starts), Burnes is 60-36 with a 3.19 ERA. He has 1,051 strikeouts and 254 walks in 903⅔ innings. The Diamondbacks missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker in 2024. They went 89-73, the same mark as the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets, who claimed the last two NL wild-card berths. Source link

Nago, Okinawa Pref. – Japan’s Defense Ministry on Saturday began ground improvement work on the Oura Bay side of the Henoko coastal area in Okinawa Prefecture, as part of a U.S. base relocation project in the southernmost prefecture. The work is expected to be difficult due to the unusual depth of the soft ground. It is part of the project to build a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa. On Saturday, the Defense Ministry began dropping sand on the seabed using a special work vessel. It plans to drive metal pipes into the seabed and harden the sand inside to create some 71,000 so-called sand piles. The soft ground is believed to extend as far as 90 meters below the sea surface, while the ground improvement work is planned for depths of up to 70 meters. The ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau has said that the work can “sufficiently ensure the stability of structures.” Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki told reporters at the prefectural government office Friday that he will closely monitor whether stability can be ensured. The Defense Ministry applied to Okinawa Prefecture for a design change to the base relocation project in 2020, following the discovery of the soft ground. The prefecture rejected the application, but the central government approved the change by proxy last December. The ministry has since accelerated preparations, including the construction of seawalls on the Oura Bay side starting in August. Source link

Japanese lawmaker Toshiyuki Adachi of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has died during his visit to the Maldives, informed sources said Saturday. Adachi, 70, was believed to have died in an accident at sea. A native of Hyogo Prefecture, Adachi was first elected to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament, in 2016 after serving as vice minister for engineering affairs at the land ministry. Source link

The mayors of some of Tokyo’s 23 special wards are urging the Japanese government to grant same-sex couples greater rights, such as health insurance coverage for dependents. Among the wards, Setagaya and Nakano launched initiatives in November to register the relationships of same-sex couples in the same way as for common-law couples, if the partners take an oath under Tokyo metropolitan and ward government rules. Still, these steps do not directly lead to greater social security privileges for same-sex couples. “It’s essential to enshrine same-sex marriage in law,” said Suginami Mayor Satoko Kishimoto, who is asking the central government to treat it in the same way as common-law marriage. Kishimoto and nine other ward mayors jointly submitted a request to the central government earlier this month, asking it to consider reviewing same-sex partners’ rights and related systems. A sample of a certificate of residence issued in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward to a same-sex couple who requested it. | Jiji On the other hand, Shinjuku Mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi has voiced reservations, saying that a marriage relationship involves obligations and responsibilities such as dependency and inheritance, including liabilities, in addition to legal protections and rights. “I want to closely observe whether (systems for same-sex couples) would include rules similar” to those for common-law couples, Yoshizumi said. Discussions on greater rights for same-sex couples have not deepened at the national level despite recent court rulings saying that said Japan’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. Adachi Mayor Yayoi Kondo is one of the ward mayors who submitted the joint request to the central government. “I thought about what each local government could do to be there for those affected, albeit in small ways,” Kondo said. Source link

Police have arrested a 77-year-old man in Tokyo for allegedly murdering his wife by running her over with a car. The man, Norio Nakamura, has admitted to the allegations, saying that he killed his wife because he was angry and upset after she suspected him of having an affair, according to police sources. Nakamura is suspected of killing his wife, who is also believed to be in her 70s, with a car in a parking lot in Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward at around 5:15 a.m. Friday. He explained to police that, after an argument, he went to the parking lot near their home and started his car to cool off, but the wife came over and stood in front of the car, the sources said. A passerby found a woman unconscious and bleeding at the scene and called an ambulance, but she died after being taken to a hospital. Police are working to confirm the identity of the woman, who suffered a broken pelvis and rib. Nakamura was captured in the city of Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, around 1 p.m. that day. Source link

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday hinted at the possibility of holding a snap election for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, on the same day as next summer’s election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber. “It’s possible,” Ishiba told a television program. “There’s no rule that says (they) can’t be held at the same time.” Ishiba, who heads a minority government, would not survive a no-confidence motion against his Cabinet if opposition parties table it together. Source link

After a surprise offensive earlier this year, Ukraine’s forces have lost about half the territory seized in Russia’s Kursk region and may lose the rest in a matter of months, according to U.S. officials, potentially depriving Kyiv of important leverage for ceasefire talks with Russia. Ukraine’s military is already grappling with a lack of manpower and uncertainty about the future flow of supplies from the U.S. and other allies, even as it struggles to fend off Russian advances in its east. In Kursk, the region in western Russia where Ukrainian forces seized a swath of land, Ukrainian troops are also facing off against about 12,000 North Korean troops reinforcing the Russians. With a more concerted effort by Moscow to push Ukrainian troops out of Kursk, possibly as soon as next month, Kyiv’s forces may only be able to hold the land until spring before they are forced to retreat — or risk being encircled — the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss their confidential assessments. Source link