(ANN/KOREA HERALD) – Jeweler Cartier has chosen Hyunjin of Stray Kids as its brand ambassador.
He appeared on the cover of men’s magazine Esquire Korea’s October issue, draped in the accessories from the French jewelry house, which had previously appointed Jisoo of Blackpink and V of BTS to represent its campaigns.
The dancer and rapper has shown affinity for Cartier, wearing its jewelry on a number of occasions and attending an event hosted by the jeweler.
Hyunjin. PHOTO: Cartier
The news set the idol’s fans abuzz, celebrating that he is the first male idol from a so-called “fourth-generation” band to be the face of two brands. Hyunjin has been serving as one for Versace since last year and Donatella Versace whipped up four tailormade costumes for him for the octet’s international tour that began late last month.
The band also collaborated with Tommy Hilfiger for a namesake range and was featured in its ad campaigns.
SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday seized about USD3 million from bank accounts belonging to social media platform X and satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, both companies controlled by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The move by Justice Alexandre de Moraes was aimed at collecting funds that are equivalent to the amount that X owes to the country in fines. The bank accounts of the two companies have since been unfrozen.
Legal analysts have questioned de Moraes’ prior decision to freeze Starlink’s bank account to pay for cases related to X. While Musk owns both X and SpaceX, which operates Starlink, the two companies are separate entities.
Brazil’s Supreme Court said Friday in a statement that de Moraes ruled to transfer more than BRL7.2 million (USD1.3 million) from an X bank account and almost BRL11 million (USD2 million) from a Starlink account.
(COMBO) This combination of files pictures shows Elon Musk and Brazil Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes. PHOTO: AFP
De Moraes made the decision on Wednesday, Brazil’s Supreme Court said. His ruling on the case is yet to be made public.
Brazil’s Supreme Court also said that the banks that hold accounts of the two companies were informed on Thursday they had complied with the decision.
“After the payment of the full amount that was owed, the justice (de Moraes) considered there was no need to keep the bank accounts frozen and ordered the immediate unfreezing of bank accounts/financial assets,” the Brazilian Supreme Court said.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The social media platform has been under fire in Brazil since it refused to remove content flagged as illegal by the Supreme Court justice.
De Moraes is the same justice who suspended X in Brazil due to Musk’s decision to not have a legal representative for the company in the South American nation, which is against the law.
The company has claimed that de Moraes wants an in-country representative so that local authorities can exert leverage by having someone to arrest.
Many legal analysts, including some who have supported de Moraes’ rulings related to X, disagree with charging Starlink for X’s fines.
“Starlink is a different company. Belonging to the same economic group doesn’t mean it is also responsible for a debt it did not take part of. It didn’t even have a chance to defend itself,” Lênio Streck, a renowned Brazilian jurist, said in his social media channels. “What could Starlink have done to avoid what other company did?”
Luís Henrique Machado, a law professor at the IDP university in the capital, Brasilia, said de Moraes’ decision is consistent.
“The social media company was sanctioned for not removing content after an order of the Supreme Court amid ongoing investigations. It is totally understandable that the judge requests that the fines be paid,” Machado said. “The ruling is legitimate in imposing the transfer of the amounts in compulsorily fashion.”
Since last year, X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to block some users, mostly far-right activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. Musk has called the Brazilian justice a dictator and an autocrat due to his rulings affecting his companies in Brazil.
On Aug. 31, Musk’s social media platform was banned nationwide and de Moraes set a USD9,000 daily fine for anyone using a virtual private network (VPN) to skirt the suspension. Brazil’s X users mostly started washing up on Threads and Bluesky.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro flooded Sao Paulo’s main boulevard for an Independence Day rally, buoyed by de Moraes’ decisions on X, a ban they say is proof of their political persecution.
X had 22 million users in Brazil, according to estimates in the Digital 2024: Brazil report, just one-sixth the number on Instagram, and about one-fifth of Facebook or TikTok.
Since January 2022, when Starlink began operations in Brazil, it has captured a 0.5 per cent share of the internet market, according to Brazil’s telecommunications agency Anatel.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy softened in August, extending a slowdown in industrial activity and real estate prices as Beijing faces pressure to ramp up spending to stimulate demand.
Data published by the National Bureau of Statistics Saturday showed weakening activity across industrial production, retail sales and real estate this month compared to July.
“We should be aware that the adverse impacts arising from the changes in the external environment are increasing,” said Liu Aihua, the bureau’s chief economist in a news conference.
Liu said that demand remained insufficient at home, and the sustained economic recovery still confronts multiple difficulties and challenges.
China has been grappling with a lagging economy post-COVID, with weak consumer demand, persistent deflationary pressures and a contraction in factory activity.
A worker loads shared bikes from a truck on a roadside in Beijing on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. PHOTO: AP
Chinese leaders have ramped up investment in manufacturing to rev up an economy that stalled during the pandemic and is still growing slower than hoped.
Beijing also has to deal with increasing pressure to implement large-scale stimulus measures to boost economic growth.
While industrial production rose by 4.5 per cent in August compared to a year ago, it declined from July’s 5.1 per cent growth, according to the bureau’s data released.
Retail sales grew 2.1 per cent from the same time last year, slower than the 2.7 per cent increase last month.
Fixed asset investment rose by 3.4 per cent from January to August, down from 3.6 per cent in the first seven months.
Meanwhile, investment in real estate declined by 10.2 per cent from January to August, compared to last year.
The figures released Saturday come after trade data for August saw imports grow just 0.5 per cent compared to a year ago.
The consumer price index rose 0.6 per cent in August, missing forecasts according to data released Monday. Officials attributed the higher CPI to an increase in food prices due to bad weather.
But the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by just 0.3 per cent in August, the slowest in over three years.
BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll in Myanmar from flooding and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi has reached at least 74, with 89 people missing, Myanmar’s state television said Saturday.
Difficulties in compiling information have raised fears that the number of casualties may be higher.
The new official death toll announced by the country’s military government was more than double the 33 reported on Friday. Typhoon Yagi earlier hit Vietnam, northern Thailand and Laos, killing more than 260 people and causing major damage.
The new totals were announced after state media reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the ruling military council, said that Myanmar was requesting relief aid from foreign countries.
Local residents travel by boat on a flooded road in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. PHOTO: AP
Nearly 240,000 people have been displaced, according to the reports. There were already 3.4 million displaced people in Myanmar at the beginning of September, according to the UN refugee agency, mostly because of war and unrest in recent years.
In Myanmar, low-lying areas in the central regions of Mandalay and Bago, as well as eastern Shan state and the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, have been inundated by water since Wednesday.
Min Aung Hlaing and other military officials inspected flooded areas and reviewed rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts in Naypyitaw on Friday, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported. Its report said that he instructed officials to contact foreign countries, as other countries affected by the storm did, to receive rescue and relief aid for the victims.
“It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible,” he was quoted as saying.
Local residents wade through water with their cows in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. PHOTO: AP
The exact extent of the damage still wasn’t clear, but there were fears that the death toll may rise sharply. Local news outlets reported more than 100 people missing.
Efforts to tally casualties and damage and provide relief are complicated. Myanmar is in a state of civil war that began in 2021, after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Independent analysts believe the military controls much less than half of the country’s territory.
Myanmar experiences extreme weather virtually every year during the monsoon season. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 people. In that case, the military government then in power delayed accepting international assistance, and when it finally relented, tightly controlled its distribution, with little or no oversight by aid donors.
Saturday evening’s state television news said that 24 bridges, 375 school buildings, one Buddhist monastery, five dams, four pagodas, 14 electrical transformers, 456 lampposts and more than 65,000 houses were damaged by floods in central and eastern parts of the country.
Naypyitaw is one of the areas that was hit hardest by the floods. Myanmar’s Eleven Media group reported on Friday that record rainfall had damaged several pagodas in Bagan, the country’s ancient capital that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The rain, said to be the heaviest in 60 years, collapsed walls at several centuries-old old temples, it said.
JAKARTA (Xinhua) – Indonesia on Saturday inaugurated its first electric vehicle (EV) battery factory which will operate entirely on renewable energy at the Neo Energy Morowali Industrial Estate in Central Sulawesi.
Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that the factory was part of the critical minerals downstream policy aimed at boosting national economic competitiveness, improving public welfare and utilising environmentally friendly technology.
“Successful downstream processing of nickel has significantly boosted the export value of nickel derivatives, rising from USD4.31 billion in 2017 to USD34.44 billion in 2023,” Airlangga said at the event.
With abundant mineral resources especially nickel, Indonesia holds substantial potential for EV battery production, with an estimated annual capacity of 210 GWh. The factory’s high-pressure acid-leaching smelter will process nickel ore into mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), a key material for EV battery cathodes, adding 120,000 tons of MHP to the country’s production capacity each year.
The Investment Ministry revealed that as of June 2024, the total investment in nickel downstream activities, particularly smelter and EV battery factory development, has reached USD30 billion in the country.
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka is parting ways with Belgian coach Wim Fissette, the former world number one said on Instagram on Friday.
“Four years, two Slams and a whole lot of memories,” Osaka wrote in a post to her Instagram stories.
“Thanks Wim for being a great coach and an even greater person. Wishing you all the best.”
Fissette had two stints coaching Osaka, from 2019 through the summer of 2022 and again when they reunited last year as Osaka launched her return to the game after the birth of her daughter Shai in July of 2023.
Osaka won the 2020 United States (US) Open and 2021 Australian Open titles under his guidance, and also reached the finals of the 2020 Cincinnati Open and the 2022 Miami Open.
But the four-time Grand Slam champion has struggled to put together victories since she returned to the WTA Tour at Brisbane in January.
Her US Open first-round win over Jelena Ostapenko last month was her first in four years over a top-10 player – and she bowed out in the second round at Flushing Meadows to 52nd-ranked Karolina Muchova.
GUADALAJARA (AFP) – Fourth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France advanced to the semi-finals of the WTA hard court tournament in Guadalajara on Friday as ailing sixth seed Marie Bouzkova withdrew before their scheduled quarter-final.
Garcia, 30, had fought through two tiebreak sets to edge Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara on Thursday, snapping a three-match losing streak that included a first-round exit at the United States (US) Open.
Garcia next faces fifth-seeded Magdalena Frech of Poland, who beat Canadian teenager Marina Stakusic 6-4, 6-3.
Frech needed an hour and 44 minutes to get past Stakusic, who had saved four match points on the way to a second-round upset of top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko on Thursday.
Australian qualifier Olivia Gadecki was the first player to book a semi-final berth, seeing off Italian Martina Trevisan 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
The victory puts Gadecki through to her first WTA semi-final.
She had reached the quarters for the first time with victories over former US Open champion Sloane Stephens and second-seeded American Danielle Collins.
Gadecki will play Colombian Camila Osorio for a place in the final. Osorio defeated Russian Kamilla Rakhimova 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.
QUEBEC CITY (AFP) – Jayco rider Michael Matthews dedicated his win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec on Friday to his recently passed away grandmother after edging Biniam Girmay in a last sprint as Tadej Pogacar faded.
On his first race since completing the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia double Slovenian superstar Pogacar broke early but ended seventh.
Pogacar tried to drop his rivals on the hill in the final lap but was reeled in by defending champion Arnaud de Lie, whose efforts appeared to blow his own chances in the sprint.
“I made the wrong decision but the legs were good and I can’t wait for (today),” Pogacar said of the second Canadian classic in the city of Montreal with a more hilly route.
“I’m ready for the world championships,” he said of the September 29 race in Switzerland.
“I thought I could stay away with the three guys but it was really fun and I enjoyed it,” said Pogacar, who skipped the Olympics.
Michael James Matthews of Australia. PHOTO: AP
A chasing elite clique engulfed Pogacar De Lie and Julian Alaphilippe with around one kilometre (km) to go with Matthews cruising ahead from 150 metres for the win.
“My grandmother passed away on Wednesday and I dedicate this to her,” said Matthews.
“I knew I had the power to do a 20 or 30 second sprint so i went early.
“Tadej is the number one in the world, I’m a fan also, the fans love him but I’m here to do my job and win the race,” he said.
Eritrean Girmay said he suffered toward the end of the race after a fast pace.
“My legs were hurting at the end especially with the pace Tadej set over the last two laps.”
The race over sixteen laps of 12.6km around the city of Quebec was contested if perfect racing weather for the 13th edition of the event.
A second Canadian race in the city of Montreal takes place on Sunday with a more hilly route.
DORTMUND (AFP) – Karim Adeyemi scored a first-half brace and laid on a goal for Donyell Malen as Borussia Dortmund survived a late scare to beat Heidenheim 4-2 at home on Friday.
Dortmund ran out to a 2-0 lead after 17 minutes and Adeyemi was on the spot to score a third just two minutes after Heidenheim had struck back through Marvin Pieringer.
Heidenheim cut the deficit to a goal late in the second half through a Maximilian Breuning penalty, giving Dortmund bad memories of the same fixture last year when they let a 2-0 lead slide to draw 2-2.
Dortmund survived a wave of Heidenheim attacks and sealed the result in injury time thanks to a penalty from Emre Can.
Promoted for the first time last season, minnows Heidenheim travelled to Dortmund on top of the table, one of only three teams to have won both their opening fixtures.
Dortmund’s German forward Karim Adeyemi scores against 1 FC Heidenheim. PHOTO: AFP
Both sides came into the match as the only Bundesliga sides yet to concede a goal this season, but there were four on the board by halftime – three to the home side, with Adeyemi having a hand in each.
Fresh from scoring a hat-trick in Germany U21’s 10-1 win over Estonia on Wednesday, Adeyemi laid on Dortmund’s first after 12 minutes, finding Malen to hammer through a crowded penalty box.
The 22-year-old got on the scoreboard himself just five minutes later, curling in a Julian Brandt pass to double Dortmund’s lead.
Dortmund were cruising but Heidenheim struck back, Pieringer drilling in a low shot to cut the deficit. The visitors’ joy was short-lived however, with Guirassy letting a ball roll through his legs into the path of Adeyemi to restore the two-goal lead.
The hosts looked to take the sting out of the game in the second half but Suele gave away a lazy penalty by tackling Mikkel Kaufmann on the edge of the box, with Breuning sending Gregor Kobel the wrong way to cut the deficit.
Heidenheim pushed upfield in hopes of keeping their unlikely unbeaten start to 2024-25 alive, but Heidenheim gave away a handball penalty from a corner, which Can cooly converted to ensure a win for the home side.
LONDON (AFP) – Movie stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney will go head-to-head with NFL legend Tom Brady in the unlikely surroundings of English football’s third tier tomorrow as Wrexham face Birmingham in the “Hollywood derby”.
Reynolds and McElhenney are co-owners of League One leaders Wrexham, while Brady is a minority shareholder in promotion-chasing Birmingham.
Both teams have made unbeaten starts to the season and their celebrity powerbrokers are fired up for the crucial clash at St Andrew’s.
McElhenney took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share a message with Brady ahead of the fixture, writing: “See you next Monday, Tom Brady. Should be an absolute banger.”
Deadpool star Reynolds and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor McElhenney joined forces to buy Wrexham in 2020.
PHOTO: ENVATO
The surprise takeover was chronicled in the Welcome to Wrexham documentary that gave the previously unheralded Welsh club a cult following around the world.
Wrexham have enjoyed a remarkable period since they were sprinkled with Tinseltown stardust, rising from the fifth-tier National League to League One with back-to-back promotions.
In stark contrast to Wrexham’s rise, Birmingham have endured the darkest period in their recent history since Brady came on board as part of a takeover by United States-based Tom Wagner’s Knighthead group in August 2023.
Brady travelled to Birmingham last season to watch a game, but his investment hasn’t gone to plan so far, with the Blues relegated to the third tier last season for the first time since 1995.
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney, who presided over a miserable 83-day reign that ended with his dismissal, was among six managers used by Birmingham in a chaotic campaign.
Former Tottenham assistant coach Chris Davies has been tasked with restoring order at a club that last played in the Premier League in 2010-11.
Davies has been backed with an outlandish budget for League One that included smashing the division’s transfer record to sign Jay Stansfield from Fulham for a reported fee in excess of GBP15 million.
Birmingham have made a strong start with 10 points from a possible 12, while Wrexham have won four and drawn one of their opening five fixtures.
“It’s the Hollywood derby! There’s so much glitz and glamour about it,” Sky Sports Football League pundit Don Goodman said. “It brings eyes from around the world to the lower levels of the EFL.”
