PARIS (AFP) – France coach Fabien Galthie has insisted his side will be “ready to respond” to some typical Eddie Jones taunts when they attempt to win a first Six Nations title since 2010 by defeating England in Paris today.
Les Bleus are also bidding for a first Grand Slam in 12 years and victory over England in the final game of this season’s Championship would be a huge morale boost ahead of next year’s World Cup on home soil.
France entered this Six Nations as favourites after a November campaign that culminated with a dazzling 40-25 win over New Zealand at a raucous Stade de France.
But they were far from their attacking best in a nervous 13-9 victory away to Wales last week, for all a defence marshalled by specialist coach Shaun Edwards held firm.
None of this is lost on England boss Jones, who loves to unsettle the opposition with a few well-chosen words.
Galthie, however, speaking after naming his side, said on Thursday: “We listen and absorb what our opponents say about themselves and us. And that contributes to our work, our preparation.
France’s rugby union national team head coach Fabien Galthie and general manager Raphael Ibanez. PHOTO: AFP
“But the rendezvous is Saturday evening at the Stade de France. And we will be ready to respond.”
The former France captain, who took charge after the 2019 World Cup, added: “We have learnt from our defeats.”
Galthie has recalled Damian Penaud after the wing, who has scored three tries in this year’s tournament, missed the Wales match following a bout of coronavirus.
Former scrum-half Galthie said England had “transformed its game-play” under veteran Australian coach Jones as he recalled their 2016 Grand Slam, part of a record-equalling run of 18 successive Test wins by a leading rugby nation.
England, however, have been nowhere near those heights lately, managing just seven tries this tournament – five against perennial strugglers Italy – and they could now finish as low as fifth for a second successive Six Nations if they lose in Paris.
Jones, however, has made France 2023 his over-riding goal since guiding England to a 2019 World Cup final in Japan where they were beaten by South Africa.
But France team manager Raphael Ibanez, who spent several seasons in the English Premiership, insisted England were always “back-breakingly” tough opponents.
England, who arrived in Paris earlier than usual to simulate pre-match conditions at next year’s World Cup, go into the game after a record 32-15 home defeat by Ireland.
They played most of that match a man down, with lock Charlie Ewels sent off after just 82 seconds – the quickest red card in Championship history.
“One extra player will help,” said Jones. “You don’t have to be a genius at maths to tell you that 15 v 15 is better than 14 v 15.”
Jones has selected Nick Isiekwe to replace the banned Ewels, while recalling full-back George Furbank and veteran scrum-half Ben Youngs, with Sam Underhill replacing Tom Curry (hamstring injury) at openside flanker.
But how those England players who put in a massive physical effort against Ireland – the score was 15-15 with 20 minutes to go – back up could determine the course of today’s match.
“If they play with that intensity, spirit and tactical discipline, we’ll give ourselves a hell of a chance to win the game,” said Jones.
UPI – A Florida school’s swim team practice was delayed when the students discovered the pool was already occupied – by an alligator.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that deputies responded to Montverde Academy on a report of an alligator crashing the swim team practice and refusing to vacate the pool voluntarily.
The deputies used a safety hook to pull the three-foot gator closer to the edge of the pool, where it was grabbed by another deputy.
The alligator was taken to Lake Apopka, where the tape was removed and “the gator was released on its own recognisance”.
CNA – Amazon.com on Thursday said it had closed its USD8.5 billion deal to buy MGM, combining the fabled moviemaker behind Rocky and James Bond with the online retailing giant as it looks to draw consumers through more streaming video.
In a statement, Amazon said it would welcome all MGM employees to the company and work with the studio’s leadership, indicating there would not be layoffs. Its decision to close comes after a deadline passed for the United States (US) Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to challenge the deal.
The Seattle-based retailer announced the transaction in May 2021, saying MGM offered a trove of content to draw consumers to its fast-shipping and streaming club Prime, which costs USD14.99 per month in the US.
Nearly a year later, Amazon is clear of regulatory hurdles.
The European Commission approved the deal on Tuesday, with no conditions.
Smartphone with an Amazon logo is seen in front of displayed MGM logo. PHOTO: CNA
Likewise, Amazon earlier informed the FTC that it had “substantially complied” with requests for information about the deal. According to Amazon, MGM’s staff will join the organisation of senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios Mike Hopkins.
MGM bolsters Amazon Prime Video’s offering with more than 4,000 film titles, as well as this year’s Oscar-nominated Licorice Pizza and a long list of television shows that may help Amazon compete with streaming rivals Netflix and Disney+.
Hopkins praised MGM’s “broad slate of original films and television shows”.
“We welcome MGM employees, creators, and talent to Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and we look forward to working together,” he said in a statement.
An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment on the specific transaction but noted that the agency may challenge a deal after it closes “if it determines that it violates the law.”
The FTC has a broader probe open into Amazon as part of government antitrust investigations begun under the Trump administration into the four big tech platforms, including Facebook and Google.
THE WASHINGTON POST – I thought I was over the Souls formula but Elden Ring has me reconsidering.
Since the release of Demon’s Souls in 2009 From Software has risen to the top of the video game industry and, with rare exception, critical acclaim followed each subsequent title. It became hard not to bump into some variation of the assessment that the games were cruel yet beautiful, punishing but fair, disheartening yet enthralling.
The company had radically altered my conception of what an action RPG could be (i.e., purposefully opaque and impishly sadistic). But by the time I got around to playing the Japanese developer’s last game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, these adjectives had begun to ring hollow.
I found little ennobling about a struggle to overcome enemies that demands a sort of rote perfectionism. After dispatching one of the mini-bosses – a knight who recalled one of the enemies in the Dark Souls series – I walked away and never looked back.
So, it was with a bad taste in my mouth that I spent barely a couple of hours with the Elden Ring beta back in November before I bounced off, dismissing it as just another Souls game dressed up in new finery.
Over the past week my opinion shifted radically and I found myself funneling nearly every available moment into Elden Ring. Sure, the new From Software title still operates like a typical Souls game insofar as it thrusts you into a mysterious world filled with beguiling monstrosities to kill. But enough tweaks have been made to create an experience that is, dare I say it, somewhat comforting.
A scene from ‘Elden Ring’. PHOTO: BANDAI NAMCO
By “comforting” I mean that after putting upward of 700 hours into the Souls series, I’m intimately familiar with the general ebb and flow of the combat and I’m soothed by NPC’s elliptical conversations. Farming runes (acquired through kills) to level up my Vagabond (a starting class with high strength and dexterity attributes) is like falling back into an old practice that reliably generates a state of flow.
As for the tweaks, during my brief time with the beta I’d failed to note that Elden Ring pushes the idea of cooperative play more than any other game in the Souls catalogue. ‘Summoning pools’ – designated areas where it’s easy to find other players – generously dot the environment and can usually be found right in front of the lairs where bosses reside. In the original Demon’s Souls there was only the occasional area where you could drop a summons sign to invite other players to your world.
This, to my way of thinking at the time, made soliciting help feel almost like a cheat, as if I was availing myself of a concession on the part of the developers.
By contrast, Elden Ring encourages you to tackle the game’s stiffest challenges with a group.
It makes the game feel less like a lonely endeavour and more like a communal exercise and also takes a bit of the sting out of losing to a boss, making it feel less like a personal failing.
Another aspect of Elden Ring’ that I missed in the beta is its incorporation of a player-controlled horse, a first for a Souls game. In spatial terms, Elden Ring is more expansive than any of the previous titles and traveling about on a horse is a joy.
As a friend and fellow writer texted me, “This game is horrendously addictive – they’ve managed to combine the Dark Souls ‘I’m gonna kill this guy if it takes all day sentiment’ with the Grand Theft Auto/Red Dead Redemption just ride around and look at the pretty sights vibe.”
The added breadth of Elden Ring allows for more down time and intensifies the thrill of setting out into the unknown.
I can hear the murmurous, gently swelling music of Rotview Balcony, a place of crimson skies and arid landscape, playing from the other room where the game is idling as I type this sentence. Elden Ring’s score is a glorious counterpoint to the occasional jankiness of texture clipping and frame-rate fluctuations.
And while I suspect the latter part of Elden Ring may exasperate my patience – I hear that a gauntlet of bosses picks up where the notoriously difficult Dark Souls III: The Ringed City DLC left off – right now, I can’t wait to get back to it.
FUTABA, JAPAN (AP) – Yasushi Hosozawa returned on the first day possible after a small section of his hometown, Futaba, re-opened in January – 11 years after the nuclear meltdown at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi plant.
It has not been easy.
Futaba, which hosts part of the plant, saw the evacuation of all 7,000 residents because of radiation after the March 11, 2011, quake and subsequent tsunami that left more than 18,000 people dead or missing along Japan’s northeastern coast.
Only seven have permanently returned to live in the town.
“Futaba is my home… I’ve wanted to come back since the disaster happened. It was always in my mind,” Hosozawa, 77, said during an interview with the Associated Press at his house, which is built above a shed filled with handcrafted fishing equipment.
An abandoned ramen shop sits next door, and so many houses and buildings around him have been demolished, the neighbourhood looks barren.
A retired plumber, Hosozawa had to relocate three times over the past decade. Returning to Futaba was his dream, and he patiently waited while other towns re-opened earlier.
ABOVE & BELOW: Heavy-duty machines sit unmanned in the evening by a building that is getting torn down; and fast-food restaurant owner Atsuko Yamamoto responds to an interview with the Associated Press in front of her shop, Penguin. PHOTOS: AP
Yasushi Hosozawa shows off his fish trap to catch eels
To his disappointment, the water supply was not reconnected the day he returned. He had to fill plastic containers with water from a friend’s house in a nearby town.
The town has no clinics, convenience stores or other commercial services for daily necessities. He has to leave Futaba to get groceries or to see his doctor for his diabetes medicine.
On a typical day, he makes a breakfast of rice, miso soup and natto. In the late morning, he drives about 10 minutes to Namie, a town just north of Futaba, to buy a packed lunch and to shop.
He takes a walk in the afternoon, but “I don’t see a soul except for patrolling police”. He drops by the train station once in a while to chat with town officials. After some evening rest at home, he goes to bed early while listening to old-fashioned Japanese ‘enka’ songs.
He looks forward to the spring fishing season and likes to grow vegetables in his garden. But Hosozawa wonders if this is the best way to spend his final years.
“I won’t live much longer, and if I have three to four more years, I’d rather not be in a Futaba like this,” he said. “Coming back might have been a mistake.”
“Who would want to return to a town without a school or a doctor? I don’t think young people with children will want to come,” he said.
When massive amounts of radiation spewed from the plant, more than 160,000 residents evacuated from across Fukushima, including 33,000 who are still unable to return home.
Of the 12 nearby towns that are fully or partially designated as no-go zones, Futaba is the last one to allow some people to return to live. There are still no-go zones in seven towns where intensive decontamination is conducted only in areas set to re-open by 2023.
Many Futaba residents were forced to give up their land for the building of a storage area for radioactive waste, and Fukushima Daiichi’s uncertain outlook during its decades-long cleanup makes town planning difficult.
Futaba Project, which helps revitalise the town through tourism, new businesses and migration from outside Fukushima, sees potential for educational tourism.
“Places with scars of the disaster remain in Futaba… and visitors can see its reality and think about the future,” said Hidehiko Yamasaki, staffer at the non-profit Futaba Project.
Co-director of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Centre Hideyuki Ban said that those returning to the area should have health checks. He said the inhabitable radiation level is the same as for nuclear workers, and could cause increased cancer risks within five years.
In June, Futaba is set to officially re-open the 560-hectare area near the train station – about 10 per cent of the town – and an area that was once a commercial district where more than half the town’s residents once lived. Daytime visits have been allowed since 2020 ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, when train and bus services resumed and a prefecture-run disaster museum opened.
Futaba has invited 24 companies, many of which are involved in town and plant cleanup work, to start new businesses as part of an effort to revitalise local industry. A temporary town hall is set to open in August, and an 86-unit public housing complex is also being built.
The town’s goal is to have 2,000 residents within five years.
The latest surveys show that only 11.3 per cent of the 5,625 people still registered as Futaba residents want to return home to live there, with more than 60 per cent saying they will not.
But 66 per cent said they want to stay connected with the town.
Town officials set to return and live in Futaba ahead of the August town hall re-opening will have to figure out how to improve the environment so people want to return, Mayor Shiro Izawa said. “We can do it if we don’t give up.”
Atsuko Yamamoto, 50, runs a Penguin fast-food store at a food court in the Futaba business community centre, but she commutes from another Fukushima town.
“I’ve always thought I have to do something for (Futaba’s recovery), so I raised my hand” when she saw the offer of a space in the food court, which opened two years ago, the former resident said. “When I evacuated, I never imagined I could return to Futaba like this.”
Despite her deep attachment to her hometown, living here isn’t possible, she said. The only way to make her business work is to get her food supplies in Iwaki, a business hub for coastal Fukushima where she now lives, and then to commute about 60 kilometres to Futaba.
Her mother used to sell donuts and burgers from a stand near the train station, and it was a popular hangout for local students and a landmark remembered by Futaba people before the disaster.
“As Futaba rapidly transforms into an unfamiliar place, I hope this store helps former residents feel at home,” Yamamoto said.
Familiar buildings and houses are increasingly being torn down, and daytime visitors are predominantly new faces.
“In our view, the buildings that remind us of our hometown are disappearing, like my friends’ old houses, and it’s extremely sad,” she said, holding back her tears. She said she cannot help driving by where demolished houses, including her own, once were, as if to feel the pain and remember the past.
“It’s hard to explain,” Yamamoto said. “So I hope people will come back to visit and actually see this place.”
A worker at Futaba’s only hotel, which opened last May, Takumi Yamada is from nearby Namie town.
Yamada, 23, spent most of his teenage years outside of Namie after fleeing from his elementary school – while still wearing his indoor classroom shoes – to Saitama, near Tokyo, with his parents and two siblings.
After studying elsewhere in Fukushima and Tokyo, Yamada decided to return home to reconnect and learn about an area he hardly remembered.
Yamada said he was thrilled when he was working on the hotel’s reception desk and overheard former residents talking about the whereabouts of mutual friends.
“I think it’s great if this hotel becomes a meeting place for former residents,” Yamada said. “If there are people wondering whether to return, I think it’s best to see the situation for themselves.”
BEIRUT (AP) – Lebanese authorities on Thursday arrested the brother of the country’s embattled central bank governor over suspicion of money laundering and illicit enrichment, the state-run news agency reported.
According to the report by the National News Agency, Ghada Aoun, an investigative judge at Mount Lebanon district court, questioned Raja Salameh for several hours before placing him under arrest. The suit against Salameh was filed by a group of lawyers who accuse him of corruption.
The move comes two months after the same judge imposed a travel ban and froze some assets of the central bank governor, Riad Salameh, 71, who is accused of corruption and dereliction of duties during Lebanon’s unprecedented economic meltdown.
The central bank governor is also being investigated in several European nations, including Switzerland and France, for potential money laundering and embezzlement.
Riad Salameh had steered Lebanese finances for nearly three decades, through post-war recovery and bouts of unrest. Once praised as the guardian of Lebanon’s financial stability, he has drawn increasing scrutiny since the small country’s economic meltdown began in late 2019.
Local media have reported in recent months that the governor, his brother and an aide transferred money abroad despite capital controls imposed at home, a charge the governor has denied.
The judge did not respond to calls by The Associated Press seeking comment. A local station, Al-Jadeed TV, has quoted Aoun as saying that Riad Salameh had used his brother to buy real-estate in France worth nearly USD12 million.
There have been also reports that a brokerage firm, Forry Associates Ltd, owned by Raja Salameh, was hired to handle government bonds sales by the central bank in which the firm received USD330 million in commissions. The governor said last November that “not a single penny of public money” was used to pay for Forry Associates Ltd.
Also on Thursday, Judge Aoun froze the assets of local lender Creditbank, her latest such move against local banks. On Monday, she froze the assets of five of Lebanon’s largest banks and those of their board of directors as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard.
Lebanese banks have imposed informal capital controls since the economic crisis began.
Since then, people do not have full access to their savings and those who withdraw cash from US dollar accounts get an exchange rate far lower than that on the black market.
SAO PAULO (AFP) – Their mascot is named “Little Defeat”. Their fans “protest” when they win. But after a notorious losing streak that earned them the nickname “the world’s worst football team”, Brazilian minnows Ibis are ready for victory.
Based in the city of Paulista in northeastern Brazil, Ibis Sport Club rose to infamy in the 1980s for going three years, 11 months and 26 days without winning a match.
But the regional club, who play in the Pernambuco state championship, have responded to decades of derision with good-natured humour, turning their mocking nickname into a badge of pride – and what is turning out to be a powerful brand.
With their penchant for self-deprecating tweets and Instagram posts that go viral, Ibis have drawn worldwide attention, including from a Swedish firm which signed the most lucrative sponsorship deal in the club’s 84-year history last June.
Now, flush with cash, the eternal losers are starting to do the unthinkable: win.
“Let’s leave our history as ‘the world’s worst team’ to the 1980s, when Ibis really were the worst in the world. We’re not anymore – though we use it for marketing, so people know us,” said club president and passionate fan Ozir Ramos Junior.
Brazil’s Ibis players before their football match against Sport Recife. PHOTO: AFP
Losers or not, Ibis have shown a knack for building their brand in the social media age.
When Lionel Messi left Barcelona last August, Ibis offered to sign the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner – on condition he not score “too many goals” or win a championship.
In the event, the Argentine superstar went to Paris Saint-Germain – whom Ibis now compare themselves to, given that neither team have had any luck winning the Champions League.
“We’re known all over the planet as the worst in the world. But let’s not mix that up with our professional side. We’ve got highly competent people,” Ramos told AFP.
The sponsorship deal with Betsson has allowed Ibis to upgrade their sporting infrastructure and pay actual salaries to their footballers, who formerly played out of “love for the jersey”, Ramos said.
Last season, the club won promotion from the Pernambuco second division to the state’s top-flight league for the first time in 21 years.
The championship is the gateway to Serie D, the bottom rung of Brazil’s national league system – though Ibis, returning to form, have struggled for results, and risk being
relegated again.
It is only a temporary setback, said coach Paulo Jesse.
“Today, we only work with winners. We’re going to ditch our reputation as the worst in the world,” said the coach, a school security guard in his day job.
Ibis have certainly come a long way since their worst ignominy, when they went from July 20, 1980 to June 17, 1984 without winning a match – racking up 48 losses and six draws, with 25 goals for and 225 against.
The losing streak was so bad sports magazine Placar wrote a profile of the club, declaring them “the worst team in Brazil” – a nickname that soon became more famous than the club’s official one, the Black Birds.
Ibis claim they even hold a Guinness record for the world’s worst losing streak – though there is no register of that.
Israel Leal, author of a book on the team, said Ibis have universal appeal.
“Ibis is resistence. It’s like any one of us who’s going through a bad time and then starts fighting to win,” he said.
“For many years the club did nothing but lose, and now they’re winning.”
Owner Ramos said Ibis have a way of conquering people’s hearts.
Among fans who support Pernambuco’s most popular sides, Nautico and Sport Recife, “Ibis are everyone’s second-favorite team,” he said.
Even the club’s best-loved legends tend to be everyman stars, such as Mauro Shampoo, a barber with a massive mane of hair who played as a midfielder for Ibis in the late 1980s.
He claims to have scored one goal, in an 8-1 loss to Ferroviario do Recife.
But there is no record of it.
The club president at the time said it was actually an own goal.
The White House said on Thursday it is discussing new dates for the United States (US) – ASEAN Summit after it had been postponed because not all leaders could attend later this month.
The White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said they are working through the schedules of a number of ASEAN leaders. “That’s always a challenge and a factor,” she said.
The White House announced last month that US President Joe Biden would play host to a special summit with ASEAN on March 28 and 29.
Recently, the press secretary said in a statement the special summit will be an opportunity to demonstrate the US’ commitment to ASEAN and to mark 45 years of US-ASEAN relations. It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner and to strengthen an empowered and unified ASEAN to address the challenges of their time, she said in the statement.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House. AP
Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn recently said the meeting had been postponed because some ASEAN leaders could not attend on the proposed dates.
WARSAW (AFP) – Stuck to the door of one Warsaw high school is the sign “Laskavo prosimo do shkoli“, or “Welcome to school“ in Ukrainian, along with the flags of Poland and Ukraine.
Chattering in Russian and Ukrainian, teenagers who have just fled their wartorn homeland use magnetic key cards to enter and are welcomed again with a large yellow-blue flag and the slogan “Slava Ukraini“ or “Glory to Ukraine“.
It was their first day of school in Poland, where the 13 – to 15-year-olds have sought shelter since Russia invaded their country.
Divided into two groups of 20, they were greeted by their new teacher, who shuttles from one classroom to the other throughout the lesson.
From the Ukrainian city of Lviv, a refugee just like them, Mariana Druchek, laid out the plan for the day and passes out a maths test.
“Uh oh,“ came the response. “It’s on things we covered three years ago, in grade eight – I forgot it all,“ said 16-year-old Viktoria, to which the others chime in with “same“.
But they relaxed soon enough. By break time, they were all smiles, saying the atmosphere was “really good“ and “positive“ and “the class and school in general are all right“.
ABOVE & BELOW: Students are seen passing by a sign reading in Ukrainian ‘Welcome to school’ at the entrance of the Limanowski High School in Warsaw; and Ukrainian teacher Mariana Druchek teaches a group of Ukrainian students in a class newly created for them. PHOTOS: AFP
It is as if their mad dash out of Kyiv with barely any luggage – to the backdrop of bombs and blasts – was already fading somewhat into the distance. But the sense of danger is still there.
“We’re afraid the Russians will even make their way over here, because everything is possible,“ Viktoria told AFP.
Limanowski High School has been able to accommodate the new students and hire new teachers thanks to funding from the mayor’s office.
On day one, Renata Kozlowska, a city official for the school’s neighbourhood of Zoliborz, came to welcome the teenagers.
She told them that “all of Poland is with you“ and stressed that they have the right to “an education and peace“.
The teenagers – who come from various cities, including Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Lutsk – will follow a pared-down version of Poland’s curriculum, including English, Polish, history, maths, physics and gym.
The classes will be taught by Ukrainian teachers who themselves had fled the war, with a bilingual educator at the helm of each group.
“What’s most important is to offer them some semblance of normalcy and quiet,“ the school’s principal Andrzej Wyrozembski told AFP.
Druchek, who crossed into Poland with her three children just after the invasion, agreed.
“It’s not a matter of maintaining their knowledge levels, but to make sure they have psychological support and friends, that they know that everyone wants to help,“ she said.
A Polish student Janusz said he is all for the initiative, calling it “cool“ to have welcomed the Ukrainians into their school. “It means they can keep going to school and won’t be thinking non-stop about what’s going on in Ukraine,“ he added.
While the new students will be attending separate classes from their Polish counterparts, the school is keen on helping them integrate.
Each Ukrainian will be partnered up with a Pole their age to join for after-school activities and the like.
Limanowski is the first school in town to have launched such a programme, but others are due to follow soon.
Wyrozembski stressed that it was his teachers who took the lead on the initiative once refugees began flooding Poland.
But he too had his reasons to get involved: when Poland was attacked in September 1939, his father fled Warsaw for Lviv, which was a Polish city at the time.
Since the invasion began, nearly 54,000 Ukrainian children have been enrolled in Polish schools, Education Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek said.
For Wyrozembski, the most important thing now would be to set up special schools for Ukrainian students aged 16 and 17, who would normally be preparing for a final exam before college.
Were they to switch to the Polish curriculum now and prepare for the equivalent testing here, it would “put them back three or four years“, he said.
In our news item New Mercedes-Benz C-Class, E-Class unveiled published on Page 8 on March 18, the second paragraph should read as “modern and sportier interpretation of the flagship S-Class”, and not as stated. The error is regretted.
