Great success - Global showcase wraps up as Expo 2025 Osaka hands baton to Saudi Arabia for Expo 2030 Riyadh

Great success - Global showcase wraps up as Expo 2025 Osaka hands baton to Saudi Arabia for Expo 2030 Riyadh

"With flags waving and dancers performing, Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai wrapped up six months of global exchange on Monday, drawing over 28 million visitors before Japan passed the World Expo flag to Saudi Arabia. Footage shows a parade of flags and dance performances, concluding the 184-day event. "I am very pleased that this Expo, held under the theme 'Designing a Future Society where Life Shines Brightly,' was held with enthusiasm and cooperation. The event was a great success and went off without a hitch," Crown Prince Akishino said, addressing the event. PM Shigeru Ishiba presented a Certificate of Appreciation to the Expo's mascot, Myaku Myaku, for its 'unique and endearing personality' that increased the popularity of the event. As a symbolic gesture, the flag of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the intergovernmental organisation that regulates World Expos, was handed over to the Saudi Minister of State and CEO of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC), Ibrahim bin Mohammed Al Sultan, by BIE Secretary General Dimitri S. Kerkentzes. Expo 2025 Osaka began on April 13, with 158 countries and seven international organisations participating in the event. Expo 2030 Riyadh will run from October 1, 2030, to March 31, 2031, and is expected to welcome more than 42 million visitors from 197 countries and 29 organisations. The event will explore forward-looking solutions for a more sustainable and inclusive future."

TV tonight: Rylan Clark goes witch-hunting in Elizabethan Essex

TV tonight: Rylan Clark goes witch-hunting in Elizabethan Essex

Prof Alice Roberts joins Rylan to investigate witch trials in Chelmsford. Plus: an exposé of the international dog-fighting trade. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, Sky History Rylan Clark returns to his old Essex stomping ground of Chelmsford – which he calls “witchcraft ground zero” – for this three-part series in which he revisits old local witch trials. First up, he takes us back to the Elizabethan era, when a poor family of three women faced the death penalty. What was going on at the time to make this happen? Prof Alice Roberts helps Rylan investigate. Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

'Hand It Back!': Roger Stone Calls On Nobel Peace Prize Winner To Surrender Award To Trump

'Hand It Back!': Roger Stone Calls On Nobel Peace Prize Winner To Surrender Award To Trump

Roger Stone , a longtime ally of Donald Trump , on Monday made his case for why Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado should give up her recently-awarded Nobel Peace Prize to the president. Stone told the right-wing Real America’s Voice network that he isn’t “happy” that the Nobel Peace Prize committee picked Machado to receive the coveted award. In picking Machado, the body cited her promoting democratic rights for Venezuelans and her efforts combating the country’s authoritarian government. “The right thing to do would be for her to ask — or maybe have Marco Rubio ask her — if President Trump can give her the award and then she should hand it back to the president,” Stone said. “He deserves this award even though I thought those elitist globalist freaks at the Nobel Peace Prize committee would likely not give it to him.” Stone, who was convicted of seven felonies in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and later sentenced to 40 months in prison, suggested Barack Obama shouldn’t have received the Nobel Peace Prize and added that Machado should consider “bestowing” the award to the president. FILE — Roger Stone, a longtime Donald Trump ally, speaks during a podcast interview at America Fest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona on December 21, 2024. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images) Machado’s win last Friday hasn’t quieted Trump’s calls to be picked for the coveted award, with the president entertaining whether the committee could have made an “exception” and considered his perceived accomplishments in 2025. The president and his allies have used the recent U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal to further advance his case to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Following the committee’s announcement, Machado took to social media where she dedicated the award to the “suffering people of Venezuela” and to Trump for his “decisive support for our cause.”