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Double Olympic road cycling champion Remco Evenepoel says he faces “a long journey” after breaking a hand, ribs and shoulder blade in a collision with the door of a postal van during a training ride. The 24-year-old Belgian, who won road race and time-trial gold at the Paris Olympics, was rushed to hospital Tuesday after striking the open door of a stationary van in Brussels while preparing for the new season. “After a scary accident on training yesterday, I underwent surgery last night and everything went well,” Evenepoel wrote on social media Wednesday. The post was accompanied by a picture of Evenepoel in his hospital bed, with his right arm in a sling. “With a fracture to my rib, shoulder blade, hand, contusions to my lungs and a dislocation of my right clavicle which has caused all surrounding ligaments to be torn, it’s going to be a long journey,” he said. “But I’m fully focused on my recovery and I’m determined to come back stronger, step by step.” The boss of Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step team, Patrick Lefevere, said Evenepoel had called him shortly after the fall, saying a postal worker had opened a door of the stationary van as he cycled past it. Witnesses to the accident said Evenepoel, a former international youth soccer play, lay stricken and ashen-faced but conscious, with the top tube of his bike frame broken in two by the force of the impact. Quick-Step said he would be off the bike for at least the next two weeks, but it was not immediately clear what impact the injuries would have on his racing plans. In 2025, Evenepoel plans to race the one-day races Milan-San Remo in March and Liege-Bastogne-Liege the following month, as well as July’s Tour de France and possibly the Giro d’Italia, which starts in May. Evenepoel thanked the emergency services, medical staff and those who first arrived on the scene after the accident, while also expressing his support for the postal worker. “The comeback starts now,” he said. Source link

Landslides, a ship dragging its anchor, military skirmishes and sabotage can all damage cables. Source link

More than 900,000 people in Lebanon are classified as living with disabilities, according to the United Nations Development Program. Source link

Recent remarks by Japanese basketball star Rui Hachimura voicing discontent toward the Japan Basketball Association and the national team have caused a stir in the domestic basketball scene. The JBA has said that there was “miscommunication” between it and the Los Angeles Lakers forward. JBA leader Yuko Mitsuya has signaled that the association will create a new post in charge of liaising with Japanese players in the United States. Hachimura first expressed dissatisfaction with the Japanese men’s national team, nicknamed Akatsuki Japan, on Nov. 13, saying, “I don’t want to say this much, but I don’t like the way the national team does things.” Source link

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is planning to introduce a four-day workweek starting April next year as part of a push for work-style reform. The capital is joining a growing number of local governments introducing similar measures to improve working conditions amid a labor shortage. During a policy speech Tuesday at a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s regular session, Gov. Yuriko Koike emphasized the importance of flexible work-styles, especially for women. Source link

If you had to pick one word to describe Japan’s global soft power in 2024, it would be “triumphant.” Thanks to a weak yen, tourists flocked to the country this year, with October marking a monthly record of 3.31 million visitors, bringing the yearly total to date to 30.2 million (and nearing 2019’s peak of 31.9 million). Sure, the locals didn’t always appreciate the crowds, but interest in Japan was more than just cheap meals and Instagrammable sights. In a year that included major achievements for Japanese and Japan-oriented film and television, sports milestones and even a Nobel Peace Prize, the country was never really far from international headlines, making it all the more enticing a visit. Source link

Since the euro came into existence in 1999, the currency has traded at equal value to the U.S. dollar only a handful of times. The last instance was in 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy crisis in Europe and provoked fears of a recession, plunging the currency pair to a 1:1 ratio for the first time in two decades. Now, market watchers see a chance it will happen again. Why is the euro falling? Europe is one of the regions most vulnerable to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on U.S. imports. The U.S. is a big buyer of the European Union’s exports, from cars to chemicals to luxury handbags, and tariff hikes would weigh on the single market’s already weakening economy. Growth has been anemic in the euro area, and interest rates there are lower than in other developed economies. (Lower interest rates mean euro-denominated assets earn less interest, reducing demand for the currency.) In addition, political turmoil in France and Germany — the two biggest economies in the EU — has increased the risks of investing in those countries and made it harder for their governments to fix structural issues holding back growth. Source link

WASHINGTON – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is considering dropping his nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, and nominating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in his place, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the discussions. Hegseth’s nomination has run into trouble on Capitol Hill over allegations about his personal and professional life and Trump allies increasingly think Hegseth may not survive further scrutiny, the Journal reported. A combat veteran and former Fox News host, Hegseth would need the support of Senate Republicans to win confirmation to the post. The Trump transition office and DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. So far, two Trump picks for senior positions have dropped out. Chad Chronister on Tuesday withdrew from consideration to run the Drug Enforcement Administration, weeks after former Rep. Matt Gaetz dropped out of consideration for attorney general amid intense scrutiny about allegations of sex with an underage girl. DeSantis, who lost his bid for the Republican presidential nomination to Trump, was on an earlier list of potential defense secretary candidates but Trump decided to go with Hegseth, the Journal said. DeSantis served in the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 2004 to 2010. The Journal said Trump could decide not to choose DeSantis and select another replacement, if Hegseth’s nomination falls apart. Source link

Market prices of drugs purchased by medical institutions from wholesalers in Japan were 5.2% lower than the state-set official prices on average as of September, a health ministry survey showed Wednesday. Based on the survey results, presented to a relevant panel advising the health minister, the government plans to lower official drug prices for fiscal 2025 while carefully considering the scope of items subject to the planned cuts in light of the impacts on drugmakers. Official drug prices had been revised every two years. In fiscal 2021, the government switched to a system of conducting a revision every year in order to reduce financial burdens on the public. The annual revision system has been criticized by some for pressuring drugmakers’ earnings and causing a decline in their abilities to develop new drugs as a result. Some ruling bloc lawmakers are demanding a longer interval between revisions. The ministry also said the penetration rate for generic drugs stood at 62.1% by value as of September. The government aims to raise the share to at least 65% by the end of fiscal 2029 in an effort to curb medical costs. Source link

Democratic Party for the People (DPP) chief Yuichiro Tamaki has been suspended as leader of the party for three months, starting from Wednesday, following a report about his involvement in an extramarital affair. Following a probe conducted over the course of the last month, an internal committee judged Tamaki’s conduct as having contravened the party’s ethics regulations and damaged its honor and trust, DPP Secretary-General Kazuya Shimba told reporters after a party meeting Wednesday. As a result of the probe, Tamaki was suspended from the leadership post until March 3, 2025. Until then, the party’s Diet affairs chief, Motohisa Furukawa — a former national strategy minister — will serve as acting leader. Source link