AP – BuzzFeed is shrinking and shifting the focus of its Pulitzer prize-winning news division as the digital media company, best known for its lighthearted lists and quizzes, strives to increase its profitability.
The New York-based company is offering voluntary buyouts in its high-profile, 100-person newsroom and some top editors are leaving.
They include, Editor in Chief of BuzzFeed News Mark Schoofs, and Deputy Editor in Chief Tom Namako, who announced a move to NBC News Digital on Tuesday. Ariel Kaminer, the Executive Editor for Investigations, is also leaving.
BuzzFeed News is unprofitable but has won awards, including its first Pulitzer last year, and its staff has been regularly poached by traditional news organisations.
BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said about 35 people were eligible for the buyouts, but the company doesn’t expect all of them to take one. Buyouts will be offered to news staffers on the investigations, inequality, politics and science teams, as BuzzFeed focusses more on big breaking news and lighter content.
Beyond the newsroom buyouts, the company also said it is cutting 1.7 per cent of its staff. In a January filing with securities regulators, Buzzfeed said it had 1,524 US and international employees, so the cuts would amount to roughly 25 people.
PARIS (AFP) – The World Cup hopes of the last two European champions are on a knife edge with Portugal and Italy on a collision course in decisive qualifying play-offs over the next week.
A potential clash in Porto between the Euro 2016 winners, captained by Cristiano Ronaldo, and an Italy team who succeeded them as continental champions last year is a mouth-watering prospect.
However, both must first come through semi-finals early tomorrow (3.45am Brunei time)that are far from foregone conclusions, with Portugal hosting Turkey and Italy facing North Macedonia.
Failure to reach this year’s World Cup would be a catastrophe for the Azzurri, who had gone to every finals since 1958 until missing out in 2018 when they lost a play-off to Sweden.
It would be all the more remarkable given that they bounced back from that under Roberto Mancini to win Euro 2020 while on a world record 37-game unbeaten run.
Yet four draws in their last five World Cup qualifiers last autumn saw them finish second in their group to Switzerland, and now they must come through these two one-off ties to secure a place in the April 1 draw in Doha. “Our goal is to win the World Cup, and to win the World Cup we have to win these two matches. There’s nothing else to say,” Mancini said on Monday.
Portugal’s national football team captain Cristiano Ronaldo takes part in a training session at the Cidade do Futebol training camp in Oeiras, outside Lisbon. PHOTO: AFP
Italy host North Macedonia in Palermo, and they will know not to take the Balkan nation of two million people lightly.
After all, they beat Germany away in qualifying last year before appearing at their first major tournament at Euro 2020, and they also held Italy to a damaging draw in Turin in qualifying for the last World Cup.
“We are not going to Italy as tourists, but to outplay (them) and to win,” said coach Bobi Milevski, who is aiming to take North Macedonia – born in 1991 out of the break-up of Yugoslavia – to their first World Cup.
Portugal skipper Ronaldo will be 41 come 2026, so Qatar surely represents his last chance to win the World Cup. Missing out altogether is unthinkable for the all-time top scorer in international football with 115 goals.
“We know the road will not be easy and we have full respect for our opponents, who share the same objective as us. But together we will fight to take Portugal where we belong,” Ronaldo posted on Instagram this week.
Portugal, who are ranked eighth in the world, two places behind Italy, must beat Turkey in Porto to reach the play-off final, in which they would have home advantage.
However, their two first-choice centre-backs have been ruled out – Manchester City’s Ruben Dias succumbed to injury before 39-year-old veteran Pepe tested positive for coronavirus.
Three World Cup berths from Europe remain up for grabs, with 10 teams led by holders France having already qualified.
The play-offs were meant to feature 12 teams, split into three separate paths, but they have been impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with both of those countries initially due to take part.
Hosts of the 2018 World Cup, Russia were excluded after being suspended by FIFA and UEFA until further notice.
That meant Poland getting a walkover to a final against either 2018 quarter-finalists Sweden or the Czech Republic, who meet in Solna.
Ukraine were due to face Scotland in Glasgow, but that match has been postponed until June.
Therefor, whoever wins tonight’s clash between Wales and Austria in Cardiff will also have to wait until June for their play-off final.
JAKARTA (THE STRAITS TIMES/ANN) – International air travellers arriving in Indonesia no longer have to serve quarantine, as Covid-19 cases trend downwards around the vast archipelago.
“The government decided to take several measures to ease restrictions. International travellers arriving in all airports across Indonesia no longer need to serve quarantine,” President Joko Widodo said in a speech yesterday.
Travellers will still need to do a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test upon arrival in Indonesia, Widodo added, without saying if pre-departure test would continue to be
a requirement.
Previously, travellers from overseas who were fully vaccinated or had a booster shot must serve a one-day quarantine, while those who were partially vaccinated served seven days of quarantine.
Yesterday’s announcement came after a successful two-week trial of quarantine-free travel for visitors arriving on the main tourist islands of Bali, Batam and Bintan.
Currently, international arrivals by air are only allowed at the Soekarno-Hatta main international airport outside Jakarta and six other airports: Juanda in East Java; Ngurah Rai in Bali, Hang Nadim in Batam; Raja Haji Fisabilillah in Tanjung Pinang; Sam Ratulangi in Manado and Zainuddin Abdul Madjid in Central Lombok.
Travellers will still need to do a polymerase chain reaction test upon arrival in Indonesia. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Other than the seven airports, overseas travellers may arrive in Indonesia by sea only via Bali, Batam, Tanjung Pinang, Nunukan in North Kalimantan, and by land via Entikong in West Kalimantan and Motaain in Nusa Tenggara Timur.
Other entry points have temporarily been closed because of the pandemic.
Widodo did not say yesterday if the lifting of quarantine also applied to land and sea travellers.
In his speech, he also said Indonesians who have had their booster shot can go on their annual Hari Raya home trips this year.
Despite a ban on such trips in the past two years, millions of people had travelled across the vast archipelago during the festive period, causing a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Breaking-of-fast gatherings and Hari Raya open house gatherings are banned for civil servants and high-ranking officials this year, Widodo added. Last year, the ban was for everyone.
Indonesia’s Covid-19 infection and death numbers have been on a decline in recent weeks. It has reported 5.98 million cases so far, with 6,376 new infections yesterday, down from 7,464 the day before.
The authorities said yesterday there were 159 deaths in the past 24 hours – down from 170 on Tuesday – bringing the total death tally to 154,221.
At the peak of the Omicron wave in the third week of February, daily new cases were reported to be above 30,000 and daily deaths above 300.
Indonesia has been praised for accelerating its vaccine roll-out despite the vast geographical challenge.
It has fully vaccinated 75 per cent of its eligible population. Some 94 per cent of the people had received the first shot as at March 22, placing Indonesia among the world’s top five countries with the highest number of vaccinations.
Very rarely does a series or form of media revolutionise and shape a culture, not only in its place of origin but also across the world.
Kagami Yoshimizu’s Lucky Star could be argued to be one of them, having provided a platform for the otaku culture before it became a worldwide phenomenon.
Many terms such as Tsundere, to the myriad of hotspots and sites that otakus around the world adore, such as Akihabara, can trace its roots back to the series, first published in the early 2000s.
While many factors went into the success of the otaku – a Japanese word that refers to people with a passion for a certain interest, particularly towards anime and manga – Lucky Star was a pinnacle platform in the global spread of the culture.
It had an impact on the anime scene, with its influence is still felt to this day.
Lucky Star is a slice-of-life story of stereotypical everyday at school, following Konata Izumi, who constantly skips her schoolwork to watch anime, play video games and read manga.
Lucky Star’s main and side characters. PHOTO: KYOTO ANIMATION
She is accompanied by her three friends – Kagami Hirragi, whose character traits form the basis of foundation of being a Tsundere, (which refers to a person who has a cold expression on the outside but is friendly on the inside), airhead little sister Tsukasa Hiiragi, and the mature but also slightly clumsy Miyuki Takara – each providing a unique perspective of those on the outside of the otaku culture. Each character is relatable, whether one is an otaku, only slightly familiar with the culture or not at all.
Lucky Star set itself apart from other school life anime at the time by not being afraid to make homage and references to popular culture, including other manga, anime and even tokusatsu, otherwise known as Power Rangers of Japan. Lucky Star in its heyday was the ultimate fan-service anime.
Part of the charm of Lucky Star is spotting these references. For those outside the loop it was also a moment to ponder on the weirdness that just occurred in the episode.
There are references to older hits such such as Initial D with an impromptu racing scene and more overt fourth wall-breaking homages to other anime like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (also a school life series) where the protagonists of both anime series were played by the same voice actress.
Alongside showcasing the otaku culture of the day, Lucky Star also explores various cultural hotspots – places such as Akihabara and its storefronts supporting the otaku culture were placed front and centre, cementing them as must-visit locations for otakus.
Lucky Star began as a manga before being adapted into an anime by Kyoto Animation, which received a positive response, staying true to the original material with all its over-exaggerated references recreated by the studio.
The work that went into the adaptation was also a turning point for the studio, as alongside the previous success of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star catapulted Kyoto Animation as ‘a studio to watch’. It later released other hits such as the light music-based K-On! to Free!.
While the manga itself is close to 20 years old at this point, Lucky Star still stands as one of the important animes to watch, not just to its significance in the growth of anime and otaku culture, but also because it offers a glimpse back in time to the early days of before to the worldwide explosion of popularity of all things otaku.
Fifty Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA) students stepped forward to assist youth volunteers with food ration distribution at the Bandar Seri Begawan Youth Centre last week.
The initiative – carried out by UNISSA through the Community Services Division, Co-Curriculum Unit, Knowledge and Language Upgrading Centre – provides students with valuable experiences, while at the same time allowing to cultivate positive values and strengthen relations.
The initiative will continue to be held weekly to embed in students a caring nature.
ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show UNISSA students assisting at the Youth Centre in the capital. PHOTOS: AZLAN OTHMAN
BUKAVU, DR CONGO (AFP) – Among rolling hills around the southern tip of majestic Lake Kivu, huge layers of plastic waste ride the water and block the turbines of the largest hydroelectric plant in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Ruzizi dam is polluted by thousands of bottles, cans and other objects thrown into the lake, which stretches 90 kilometres along the border between DR Congo and Rwanda.
“Since the lake flows towards the Ruzizi River, the waste thrown into it comes here little by little,” production manager at the dam’s power station Lievin Chizungu told AFP.
The mountainous terrain and rainy climate around lakeside Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, do not help.
“The rainwater carries the waste into the lake and then into the river,” engineer for the national electricity company (SNEL) in south Kivu Jovy Mulemangabo told AFP.
Chizungu said piles of waste can “reach a depth of 14 metres”. Divers clean the river bed to keep debris from clogging the turbines. If waste gets trapped, towns in the area are deprived of power.
Other employees clean the surface, using barges.
“I have been doing this job for 13 years,” Byunanine Mubalama told AFP. “Every day there is garbage I have to clean up.”
Ruzizi 1 hydroelectric plant workers take an inspection tour of the Ruzizi River in Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. PHOTO: AFP
But it is not enough. One of the four units in the plant was damaged by debris at the end of January, and it is still down.
“The impact is huge. We have a deficit of 6.3 megawatts out of 30 total MW that we must produce not only for South Kivu, but also for neighbouring North Kivu province and for Burundi,” Chizungu said.
Garbage also caused an alternator to fail at the Ruzizi 2 power plant about 25 kilometres south of Bukavu. With the damage at both plants, they are 20 MW short, Chizungu said.
This has provoked “many power outages in Bukavu and Uvira”.
Nicole Menemene, 29, collects plastic waste on the lake’s shores to make baskets, flowerpots, stools and nightstands.
She runs a private company called Plastycor that transforms trash into “beautiful and useful” objects.
“We do the work by hand,” Menemene said.
The company has 10 employees, but her goal is to “industrialise” their work. With her project and other local efforts, Menemene hopes to see a “90 per cent reduction of Lake Kivu’s pollution”.
Education is a crucial first step in reducing the lake’s plastic pileup, Chizungu said.
“First, we have to teach people that they cannot dump waste in the lake,” he said, adding that authorities should crack down on people tossing garbage in the waters.
But for some local residents, it is not so simple.
“Our houses are crammed together on small plots. There is no way to manage garbage,” Mathilde Binja said. “I have no choice but to throw it into Kawa river, which dumps into the lake.”
The city does offer garbage collection and disposal services for USD3 to USD5 per month, director of Bukavu Household Waste Management Program (PGDM) Malgache Malyanga told AFP.
“Many inhabitants prefer to throw their garbage out on the road at night or in the lake,” Malyanga said.
This could be either from ignorance or lack of funds to pay for waste removal services, he added.
To combat the plague of plastic waste filling the world’s lakes, oceans and lands, the United Nations (UN) launched negotiations in March in Kenya for a global treaty against plastic pollution.
KAMPALA, UGANDA (AP) – Widespread hunger across East Africa could become “a catastrophe” without an injection of funds to the region’s most vulnerable communities, the international aid group Oxfam warned on Tuesday.
An estimated 13 million people are facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa as a result of persistent drought conditions, according to the United Nations (UN).
Only three per cent of the needed USD6 billion has been raised for food assistance amid “competing priorities,” as the world’s attention has focussed on the humanitarian crisis in the war in Ukraine, Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher said in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
“The brutal truth is that at the moment East Africa is not on the global agenda,” said Bucher.
The world risks “ignoring one of the greatest crises,” she said. “2022 cannot be the year in which hundreds of thousands die from an unavoidable hunger crisis in East Africa because we couldn’t get this into the agenda.”
Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya face the driest conditions recorded since 1981, the UN World Food Program reported in February. More forecasts of below-average rainfall threaten to worsen conditions in the coming months, the agency warned.
Herders supply water from a borehole to give to their camels near Kuruti, in Garissa County, Kenya. Aid agency Oxfam International warned that widespread hunger across East Africa could become ‘a catastrophe’ without an injection of funds to the region’s most vulnerable communities. PHOTO: AP
Malnutrition rates are high in the region and drought conditions are affecting pastoral and farming communities.
While it “feels like a world on fire,” donors “don’t have to choose. The human rights and humanitarian needs of all people must be met,” said Bucher. “Our world is more than capable of doing so.”
Somalia is particularly vulnerable because it faces sporadic violence and there is concern the situation could deteriorate. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have already fled their homes in search of help.
About 250,000 people in Somalia died from hunger in 2011, when the UN declared a famine in some parts of the country. Half of them were children.
Bucher called for “a life-saving” cash injection to support local responders to cope with the impact of drought conditions.
“A life in Somalia is equal to the life of anyone else in the world,” she said.
TOKYO (AP) – Global shares rose yesterday following a rally on Wall Street led by tech companies.
Benchmarks edged up in Europe in early trading, while shares finished higher across Asia despite worries about rising energy costs. The dollar gained against the Japanese yen while United States (US) futures fell.
France’s benchmark CAC 40 rose 0.1 per cent in early trading to 6,667.05, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.3 per cent to 14,516.18. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3 per cent to 7,500.58.
The futures for the Dow industrials and S&P 500 were 0.1 per cent lower.
Investors were closely watching what might happen with US President Joe Biden joining a NATO meeting and European Union (EU) Summit in Europe, where sanctions and the Russian oil embargo will likely top the agenda.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to make a much anticipated online speech in Japan’s Parliament. Japan, which has abided by a pacifist constitution after its defeat in World War II, has taken an unusually vocal position on the war in Ukraine, joining in sanctions against Russia alongside the Western nations.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 3.0 per cent to finish at 28,040.16. Telecoms and technology company SoftBank Group Corp. gained 7.2 per cent and Fast Retailing added 5.2 per cent.
A currency trader watches computer monitors near the screens at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea. PHOTO: AP
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5 per cent to 7,377.90. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9 per cent to 2,735.05. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.2 per cent to 22,154.08, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3 per cent to 3,271.03.
Chinese network equipment maker ZTE Corp’s shares briefly soared nearly 27 per cent and closed 10 per cent higher after the company said a US judge has allowed a probation period to end after the company was nearly destroyed in a clash with Washington over its dealings with Iran and North Korea.
Bond yields rose sharply for the second day in a row, reflecting expectations of more aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve as the central bank moves to squelch the highest inflation in decades. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed yesterday to 2.37 per cent. The yield, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, was at 2.14 per cent late Friday.
Bond yields rose after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was prepared to move more aggressively in raising interest rates in its fight against inflation if need be.
Last Wednesday, the central bank announced a quarter-point rate hike, its first interest rate increase since 2018. The Fed hasn’t raised its benchmark rate by a half-point since May 2000.
Energy and commodity prices were already high as demand outpaced supply amid the global economic recovery, but the war in Ukraine has pushed oil, wheat and other prices even higher. Those higher costs and shipping problems make it more expensive for businesses to operate.
Many of those costs have been passed on to consumers and higher prices for food, clothing and other goods could lead them to cut spending, resulting in slower economic growth.
In energy trading, US benchmark crude added USD1.14 to USD110.41 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international pricing standard, rose USD1.51 to USD116.99 per barrel.
“With few levers remaining to pressure Russia short of military intervention, the market is beginning to price in the loss of a significant amount of Russian oil needing to be backfilled. It could take years for Russian oil markets to normalise, if ever,” said managing partner Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.
Investors will soon start readying for the next round of corporate earnings reports as the current quarter nears its close at the end of March, and that could provide a clearer picture of how industries continue handling rising costs.
LONDON (AP) – An overhaul of financial restrictions in European football will be discussed by leading clubs at a meeting today with limits on spending rather than salary caps.
UEFA is set to replace its Financial Fair Play rules, which placed limits on losses, after more than a decade.
Instead, teams in competitions including the Champions League will eventually only be allowed to spend up to 70 per cent of their income on football-related activities, people with knowledge of the plans told The Associated Press. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the plans that are still being formulated.
The European Club Association will assess the proposals that have been worked on with UEFA at an executive board meeting today. The final rules are set to be concluded at a UEFA executive committee meeting in April.
There are still issues about disparities across Europe, including domestic tax regimes and social contributions that could benefit clubs over rivals.
Manchester City players in a team photo. PHOTO: AP
The New York Times reported that some clubs had been pushing to be allowed to spend up to 85 per cent of their earnings. While the spending limit could be 90 per cent to start, that would come down to 70 per cent.
Teams over-spending could be relegated within UEFA’s competitions, from the Champions League to the Europa League and the third-tier Europa Conference League. There could be an addition USD10 million allowed in spending above the cap for what is being called a sustainability bonus if they are in strong financial health.
The moves are designed to try to achieve a form of competitive balance and greater sustainability for clubs but still provide a built-in advantage to the richest clubs rather than narrowing the gap.
UEFA had been exploring salary caps, but their legality under European law was questioned.
Despite more than a decade of lavish investment in players, Abu Dhabi-funded Manchester City and Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) have yet to win the Champions League.
Key to rules tying spending to income will be whether UEFA assess of the true value of potentially inflated sponsorships linked to the state-backed ownership with both City and PSG benefiting significantly from deals linked to their Gulf ownership.
PSG’s president is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is chairman of the influential European Club Association that has been working on the new financial regulations with UEFA.
The Qatari is also a member of the executive committee at UEFA, which has yet to finalise the plans for entry for the expanded Champions League from 2024 with a jump from 32 to 36 teams.
Two places were being lined up to be awarded to teams based on historic achievement in Europe if teams don’t qualify through their domestic leagues but that plan is still in flux in the wider fallout from the collapse of the Super League last year.
KUALA LUMPUR (XINHUA) – Malaysia reported 21,483 new COVID-19 infections, as of midnight on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 4,032,435, according to the Health Ministry.
There are 394 new imported cases, with 21,089 being local transmissions, data released on the ministry’s website showed.
A further 73 deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 34,535.
The ministry reported 32,561 new recoveries, bringing the total number of cured and discharged to 3,745,229.
There are 252,671 active cases, 339 are being held in intensive care and 209 of those are in need of assisted breathing.
The country reported 28,377 vaccine doses administered on Tuesday alone and 84 per cent of the population have received at least one dose, 79 per cent are fully vaccinated and 47.6 per cent have received boosters.
