JAPAN
UN recognizes ‘washoku’
The UN cultural organization has added traditional Japanese food to its cultural heritage list, making it only the second national cuisine to receive the prized designation. A UNESCO committee announced the decision on Wednesday at a meeting in Azerbaijan. Previously only French cooking had been distinguished as a national culinary tradition. UNESCO has also recognized specific dishes from Mexico and Turkey, and added the Mediterranean diet — the tradition of sharing food and eating together — at this week’s meeting. Known as washoku, the traditional cooking embraces seasonal ingredients, a unique taste and a style of eating steeped in centuries of tradition. The government hopes that UNESCO recognition will both send a global message and boost efforts to save washoku at home.
CHINA
Tibetan sets self alight
A father of two set himself on fire in protest at Beijing’s rule in Tibetan regions, triggering clashes and a security crackdown, a US broadcaster and an overseas pressure group said yesterday. Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Konchok Tseten, 30, torched himself in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province. He was severely burned, and local Tibetans clashed with police as they tried to stop them from taking him away, sources told RFA. London-based campaign group the International Campaign for Tibet named the man as Kunchok Tseten, and said his wife and some relatives were believed to have been taken into custody.
UNITED KINGDOM
PM nets pig semen deal
Local farmers will begin exporting pig semen to breeders in China next year, officials said on Wednesday, as they try to cash in on the Asian superpower’s growing consumption of meat. The deal, involving fresh or frozen sperm from four artificial insemination centers in England and Northern Ireland, was agreed during Prime Minister David Cameron’s three-day trade visit to China this week. Cameron’s office said the deal could be worth ￡45 million (US$74 million), although the farming ministry said the figure also included live pig exports. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson also used the trip to lay the groundwork for a deal to export trotters from pig farmers. “Pig trotters at home will often go to waste, but in China they are a real delicacy,” he said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
No iPhone for Obama
The troubled mobile phone maker BlackBerry still has at least one very loyal customer: President Barack Obama. At a meeting with youth on Wednesday to promote his healthcare law, Obama said he is not allowed to have Apple’s iPhone for “security reasons,” but he still uses an iPad. Apple was one of several tech companies that may have allowed the National Security Agency direct access to servers containing customer data, according to revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The companies deny the allegation.
UNITED STATES
‘Newsweek’ to resume print
Nearly a year after Newsweek published what it called its final print edition, the magazine said it would begin producing a weekly print edition as early as next month. Newsweek editor in chief Jim Impoco told the New York Times on Tuesday that the new magazine would be “a premium product, a boutique product” — with a higher price than its predecessor. He said the publication plans to rely more on subscribers instead of advertisers to support production costs.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS