Naomi Osaka: Tennis star pulls out of French Open after fine for skipping news conferences

Osaka cited mental health reasons, saying she has suffered from long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018

Tennis star Naomi Osaka has pulled out of the French Open after being threatened with expulsion if she continued a media boycott.

The world number two was told by organizers that she would be thrown out if she kept avoiding journalists, after being fined $15,000 (£10,500) for skipping two news conferences following her first-round victory on Sunday.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam singles champion, has now withdrawn – adding that she would “take some time away from the court” due to mental health concerns.

In a statement posted on Twitter, she said she was “already feeling vulnerable and anxious” ahead of the tournament and was withdrawing “so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis”.

Her decision not to speak to the media had become the biggest talking point of the competition after the grand slams released a joint statement threatening to disqualify her and ban her from future tournaments.

The Japanese player said she had suffered from long bouts of depression since her first Grand Slam win at the US Open in 2018, and also struggled with anxiety.

“Anyone that knows me knows I’m introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that I’m often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety,” she said.

“Though the tennis press has always been kind to me (and I wanna apologies especially to all the cool journalists who I may have hurt), I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the world’s media.”

Osaka posted on Twitter just days ago to say she would not be speaking to the press during the French Open, saying she was “not going to subject myself to people that doubt me”.

But following the strong reaction from tournament organizers, she admitted in her latest post her “timing was not ideal” and the “message could have been clearer”.

She said she had not “imagined” or “intended” to pull out of the tournament initially and had written privately to the organizers at the time to apologies.

The 23-year-old signaled she wanted aspects of the competition to change, calling the rules “quite outdated in parts”.

“I’m gonna take some time away from the court now, but when the time is right I really want to work with the Tour to discuss ways we can make things better for the players, press and fans,” she said.

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About 200’ children abducted after school ambushed by gunmen on motorbikes

Militant groups kidnapping for ransom have carried out a series of armed raids on schools in northern Nigeria in recent months.

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Armed men on motorcycles have kidnapped a large number of children following the ambush of a school in Nigeria.

The pupils were at the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Rafi, in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger, when they were abducted by the men, who were firing “indiscriminately”, said state police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun.

He said the abduction was carried out by “armed bandits on board motorcycles in their numbers” and while they were still trying to ascertain exact numbers, they believe around 200 children are missing.

All “tactical teams” have been mobilised to rescue the victims and the police will “ensure the children are rescued unhurt”, he said.

Armed groups carrying out kidnappings for ransom have been behind a series of raids on schools and universities in northern Nigeria in recent months, abducting more than 700 young people since December.

One of the most notable, was the mass abduction in April 2014 by jihadist group Boko Haram of 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok in Borno state.

More than a hundred of the girls are still missing.

Image:Some of the girls from Jangebe after their release

The worst incident this year occurred at the Government Girls Secondary School Jangebe in February, when 279 girls were abducted and later released.

On Saturday, 14 students were freed after being abducted last month from a university in neighbouring
Kaduna state.

In 2019, a British aid worker, Faye Mooney, was killed by kidnappers in the country.

Teachers have been forced to flee from state to state for protection, and many children have had to abandon their education amid frequent violent attacks in their communities.

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India must emulate China’s population control policies

India is far ahead in number of residents per square kilometer

With a dropping per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), struggling to contain the coronavirus, and a vast proportion of the population living under $1 a day, it may be time for India to institute policies to control its out-of-control population growth.

India has done exceptionally well in information Technology and has consequently made tremendous progress in growing its economy in this information age.

But an explosion in population especially among the poor may be dragging down India, which seems bent on catching China to become the world’s most populous nation.

The reality though, is that the new residents need a place to live. India in worst in the world by far among notable nations when it comes to available space per human.

While the average number of residents per square kilometer of the world is 16, India is racing past all other nations with 423 residents per square kilometer.

Nigeria is at 228 residents per square kilometer and China, which has had a long standing policy on controlling births per family, at 151 residents per square kilometer.

At some point the United Nations may need to set policy recommendations for nations that surpass an established benchmark. The UN could set that number at, say, 140 residents per square kilometer at which point a country must automatically start to institute population control mechanisms.

DNT News

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Covid: WHO renames UK and other variants with Greek letters

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a new naming system for variants of Covid-19.

From now on the WHO will use Greek letters to refer to variants first detected in countries like the UK, South Africa and India.

The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South African Beta, and the Indian as Delta.

The WHO said this was to simplify discussions but also to help remove some stigma from the names.

Earlier this month the Indian government criticised the naming of variant B.1.617.2 – first detected in the country last October – as the “Indian variant”, though the WHO had never officially labelled it as such.

“No country should be stigmatised for detecting and reporting variants,” the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, tweeted. She also called for “robust surveillance” of variants, and for the sharing of scientific data to help stop the spread.

Letters will refer to both variants of concern, and variants of interest. A full list of names has been published on the WHO website.

These Greek letters will not replace existing scientific names. If more than 24 variants are officially identified, the system runs out of Greek letters, and a new naming programme will be announced, Ms Van Kerkhove told STAT News in an interview.

“We’re not saying replace B.1.1.7, but really just to try to help some of the dialogue with the average person,” she told the US-based website. “So that in public discourse, we could discuss some of these variants in more easy-to-use language.”

On Monday, a scientist advising the UK government said the country was in the early stages of a third wave of coronavirus infections, in part driven by the Delta, or Indian variant.

It is thought to spread more quickly than the Alpha (UK; Kent) variant, which was responsible for the surge in cases in the UK over the winter.

Vietnam, meanwhile, has detected what appears to be a combination of those two variants. On Saturday, the country’s health minister said it could spread quickly through the air and described it as “very dangerous”.

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