Latest news with #Land
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Noto Peninsula Quake-Damaged Tunnel in Ishikawa Pref. Reopens After 18 Months; Residents Upbeat About Shortened Travel Time
WAJIMA, Ishikawa —A vital quake-damaged road including a tunnel reopened on Thursday after being closed for 18 months following the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture. Nakaya Tunnel measures 1.3-kilometers and is on National Highway Route 249 in the prefecture. The tunnel sustained damage, including the collapse of its concrete inner walls, during the earthquake. Just before the repairs were completed, subsequent heavy rains caused the surrounding slopes to collapse on Sept. 21, once again rendering the tunnel impassable. Residents, who have been eagerly awaiting its reopening, expressed hope that it would boost recovery efforts. The tunnel was part of a 5.5-kilometer section that was restored by the Hokuriku Regional Development Bureau of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry. The opening of this vital artery — the sole main road connecting the Monzen district of Wajima City to the city center — will shorten travel time by up to 20 minutes compared to the detour route. 'The roads are still damaged, but it will be easier to get to shopping and hospitals,' said a 78-year-old man from the city.
GMA Network
6 days ago
- GMA Network
LTFRB issues show cause order vs inDrive over driver's alleged knife threat on passengers
A show cause order was issued to ride-hailing company inDrive after one of its driver allegedly threatened to stab passengers, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said Thursday. In a statement, LTFRB chairperson Atty. Teofilo Guadiz III said the show cause order is urging inDrive to explain why its accreditation should not be suspended or cancelled for the alleged violation. The transport network company has been ordered to file a written answer within 10 days from the receipt of the show cause order. According to the LTFRB, the respondent will also have to attend the hearing of the case on July 31. If inDrive fails to comply, the LTFRB said it means the firm has waived its part to be heard and a P5,000 penalty will be imposed against the company. InDrive was summoned for 'Operating as PUV without Proper Authority from the Board/Failure to Provide Safe Adequate Comfortable and Dependable Public Land Transportation Service,' the LTFRB said. Guadiz said the LTFRB is set to study possible imposition of more stringent requirements and qualifications for drivers of transport network companies following the 'life-threatening' incident. 'We issued the show-cause order to TNC InDrive and we may require more stringent requirement qualification for drivers of TNC,' Guadiz said. 'We are initiating this action in order to avoid the duplication of such life-threatening incidents. Incidents like brandishing a deadly weapon to your passengers is something that should not be happening and should not be experienced by any passenger riding the public transportation,' he added. Recently, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) announced the 90-day suspension of the driver's license of a transportation network vehicle service (TNVS) driver who allegedly attempted to stab passengers. GMA News Online has sought comment from inDrive but the company has yet to provide a statement as of the posting of this story InDrive country government relations manager John Louie Balagot earlier said the company has been trying to contact the driver. 'Yun ang nakakalungkot kasi (It's saddening because) we have been trying to contact the driver since we learned about the incident kaso hindi siya sumasagot (but he is not replying),' said John Louie Balagot, InDrive country government relations manager. InDrive has banned the said driver since it was clear that he refuses to cooperate with the investigation. 'Vinerify muna namin yung ride. Tiningnan namin kung nagkaroon ng booking sa platform namin sa mga oras na iyon using the name of the passenger and the driver and the plate number tapos nakita namin na totoo naman ang nasabi ng pasahero na hindi siya na-drop off sa tamang lokasyon,' Balagot said. (Upon checking if such a booking was made, we verified that the driver did not drop the passengers off at the right location.) — Joviland Rita/RF, GMA Integrated News
USA Today
6 days ago
- General
- USA Today
Hawaii is notoriously expensive: How one Native Hawaiian family fought to keep their land
Sara Kehaulani Goo's family has owned land in Hana, Maui, for nearly 200 years. It was a gift from a Hawaiian king in 1848, but several years ago, they almost lost it all. For generations, the Goos' land remained wild and untouched, yet historically significant. Hidden beneath the land's jungle overgrowth was the Pi'ilanihale Heiau, the largest heiau (temple) in Polynesia, spanning roughly two football fields. In 2019, while working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., Goo received an email from her father saying the property taxes on the 10 undeveloped acres had skyrocketed over 566% from $300 to $2,000 in a year due to the government's satellite imaging revealing the land not being used for agriculture, a type of zoning with lower tax amounts. Although her grandparents had created a trust and set aside funds specifically to keep the land in the family, it would only cover a decade. Thus began a four-year-long journey for her family – spread across the United States and multiple generations – to come together to find a way to keep their ancestral lands, chronicled by Goo in her newly released memoir "Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawaii." Listen up, tourists: Hawaii locals share what they wish visitors would stop doing According to the County Department of Finance, aerial imagery taken every three years is used by Maui County to inspect properties for compliance with land zoning and reassessment of property taxes to fair market value. Some local families have said tax hikes within the past decade have made their long-time properties nearly unaffordable. In Hawaiian, the word kuleana broadly translates to "responsibility" and "privilege," encompassing the idea that everyone has a role within the larger community. For Goo, it meant not only keeping the land in her family as a promise to her grandparents but also shedding light on the current displacement of Native Hawaiians who struggle to afford living in the notoriously expensive island chain – despite this being their homeland. Meanwhile, the islands grapple with the development of more luxury condos and continued land grabs by the ultra-wealthy, with 37 billionaires owning 11% of Hawaii's private land, compared to 0.003% by locals, according to Forbes. Housing is a complicated issue in Hawaii. Any real estate in the islands' finite amount of land can feel precious to the average local family as they contend with an influx of out-of-state buyers who purchase second homes or rental properties. "My family's story was the story of land and what had happened to a lot of Native Hawaiians, and I would be kind of telling their story through our story, and that would be perhaps a story that would resonate with the bigger audience, and that was my goal," Goo told USA TODAY. The price of paradise Through the lens of her personal experience, Goo traces how the introduction of private land ownership and colonization by Europeans changed the course of history for Hawaiians. "My goal was to really tell a new, truer, more authentic story about Hawaii, because I felt that all the stories that I saw were written by Hollywood or they were written for tourists, and then neither of those quite felt accurate," she said. Goo followed the paper trail starting from when King Kamehameha III gifted the original 990 acres to her royal ancestors, the Kahanus, up to when her father's generation is forced to navigate the modern legal system. On this journey, they face multiple rejections for reducing the taxes by what Goo called the "faceless bureaucrat." This type of story, of local families trying to afford Hawaii or Native Hawaiians being displaced, is a familiar one. While most view Hawaii as paradise, for many locals, living in the islands is a much more difficult reality. In Honolulu and Maui, the median sales price for a regular single-family home topped over $1 million, according to the 2023 Hawaii Housing Factbook by the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawaii. Less than one-third of local households can afford just an average house, with multiple generations often living under one roof. As a result, locals are pushed out of the islands. In 2020, for the first time ever, more Native Hawaiians were found by the U.S. Census to be living outside of Hawaii. A 2019 report by Kamehameha Schools found the high cost of living to be why 61% of Native Hawaiians have said they've considered moving from Hawaii. Goo, who is of the Native Hawaiian diaspora, having grown up in California, also explores what it means to connect with her Hawaiian identity in the book. Hawaii's future Over the decades, Goo's ancestral lands reduced from 990 to just 10 acres as members sold off parcels to sugar plantations or as they moved from Hana. "It's kind of a miracle that this little piece of land has been in our family, managed to survive all these years," she said. The land where the heiau sits is now stewarded by the National Tropical Botanical Garden's Kahanu Garden, with the heiau now restored following pressure from the family. For many locals, the road ahead feels uncertain as Hawaii's cost of living only continues to rise, but Goo sees some glimmers of hope. "If more Native Hawaiians are behind that kind of government, that have those values and understand the value of Hawaiian land and Hawaiian hands, that does give me some measure of comfort," she said. In 2021, Maui County passed the landmark Aina Kupuna law, introduced by Native Hawaiian Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, which gave tax relief to certain lineal descendants who were passed down ancestral Maui land at least three generations ago. Still, the fight is far from over, with the next generation likely set to face another "version of modern-day control of land," Goo said. "Unfortunately, that I will have to deal with, or my children, or their children will have to deal with," she said. "That's why it's important for us to keep our promise and keep the kuleana, what our commitment is and understand the context and the history, because we have to be ready."
Yomiuri Shimbun
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
1st Newly Built Asuka Cruise Ship in 34 Years Unveiled as More Companies Invest in Building Cruise Ships
The Asuka III, NYK Line's first new passenger ship in 34 years, is set to go into service on July 20, becoming part of a two-ship fleet for the company alongside the active Asuka II. NYK Line unveiled the interior of the Asuka III to the press on July 11. The ship weighs 52,265 gross tons, 230 meters long and can accommodate 740 passengers. It boasts an outdoor pool, a casino and six restaurants, and all 381 staterooms include balconies providing ocean views. As part of decarbonization efforts, the ship's fuel system allows for the use of liquefied natural gas, which emits fewer greenhouse gases, in addition to conventional heavy and light oils. On its maiden voyage, the ship will embark on a seven-day tour, visiting Hakodate and Otaru in Hokkaido. The travel fare, for two people sharing a room, ranges from ¥984,000 to ¥4,786,000 per person. 'We aspire to be the flagship of Japan's cruise industry,' Captain Hisashi Kogue said during the preview event on July 11. NYK Line's primary businesses is cargo logistics, such as transporting automobiles and raw fuel. However, the company's outlook is uncertain due to disruptions from U.S. tariff measures and concerns about economic slowdown. To diversify its revenue sources, the company aims to strengthen its cruise ship business. According to the Cruise Lines International Association, the number of global cruise passengers reached a record high of 34.6 million in 2024, a 9% increase from the previous year. It predicts this number will approach 40 million by 2027. The Japanese market is relatively small, with only 224,000 passengers in 2024. However, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has set a goal of reaching 1 million passengers by 2030. As cruise ship businesses are expected to experience increased demand both domestically and internationally, companies are focusing their efforts on this sector. In March, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. announced the purchase of a cruise ship from a U.S. passenger ship company, with plans to commence operations in the second half of 2026. The company also plans to invest about ¥100 billion to build two cruise ships, with the first slated for completion around 2027. Oriental Land Co. aims to commence cruise ship operations by the end of fiscal 2028. The company's long-term management strategy, announced in April, also revealed a plan to consider launching a second ship. 'Unlike theme parks, cruises have no land constraints,' said President Wataru Takahashi. 'We want to leverage our strength, which is the power of Disney, to provide enjoyment to our customers,' he added, indicating his intention to establish the cruise ship business as a growth pillar.
Straits Times
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
‘My appetite for despair is gigantic': Ellison Tan on directorial debut Scenes From The Climate Era
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – Australian playwright David Finnigan's vignette-driven Scenes From The Climate Era is pitched as a dark comedy, but reading the script, Singapore actor Ellison Tan did not laugh once. The 35-year-old confesses a niche sense of humour – 'Very few things make me laugh' – but Tan, with a matter-of-factness about her, also has no qualms stating that she found some of the scenes unrelatable. She says before rehearsals at the Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay: 'I felt quite distant and couldn't relate. Some of them are geographically really far from where we are now, so I felt like I wanted it to reflect a more regional warmth.' The former co-artistic director of puppetry company The Finger Players is making her directorial debut from July 18 to 20, as part of the Esplanade's Studios season centred on the theme of Land. After receiving a phone call from an Esplanade programmer, who asked if she would take on Finnigan's work, she began a process of negotiation with the playwright to re-order scenes and insert new ones – a correspondence that astonishingly took place mostly over email. A frog scene has been retained – featured prominently on the banner art – as well as debates over the ethics of child rearing, and the impudent statement that 'No one's ever built a wall in the ocean to trap a glacier before'. Otherwise, Tan has orders to stay tight-lipped about her and Finnigan's new inventions. She reveals only that one of them is based on her experience of a focus group discussion in the United States, now re-contextualised to Singapore. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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The result is about 20 scenes over a run time of 70 minutes – this cap on the play's length was one of Finnigan's few stipulations. 'If we talk about this for too long a time, we are really overstaying our welcome. When you drone on about it, it feels like we are moralising – and we don't have the right to do that,' Tan says. Tan, who spoke in Malay in Teater Ekamatra's recent Artificial Intelligence play National Memory, has an ear for how one's mother tongue might break down the artifice of theatre. Though Scenes From The Climate Era is performed entirely in English, she still made it a point to incorporate elements of multilinguality in her rehearsals. A snapshot of how she runs the room – 'always communicative, open and most importantly, kind' – is instructive. 'There was one scene about banks where I got the cast to do it in different permutations, and each time, they would go at it with a new prompt. 'Say it in your mother tongue' or 'Say it as though you are teaching it to school children' to get at the heart of it,' she says. The approach stems from a strong commitment to representation, which Tan repeats several times is crucial to her practice. The multi-ethnic eight-member cast allows for portrayals of how the climate crisis affects those of different races and genders. One of the actors, Claire Teo, who is visually impaired, has also worked to ensure all contextual clues for the scene changes are embedded in the dialogue and soundscapes, part of the reason that keeping the play under 70 minutes was initially a 'tall order'. Tan says of what she has come to realise is a guiding principle: 'It's really important for me that people in the room are representative of what this country looks like, so I wanted to make that happen on my own terms.' In all this, Finnigan was a relatively detached figure, checking in only with the rare phone call when he needed more information. Tan persuaded him to do a self-introduction and answer some questions via a Zoom call, which she recorded and played for the cast while workshopping the play. Their response, among no doubt more serious takeaways: 'They said he was handsome.' Tan, who chooses her words meticulously, speaks more easily about the concerted effort the team has made to reduce waste in their staging. The entire set was repurposed and props were excavated from the Esplanade's basement 'cage', where items from previous plays are stored. She is most enthusiastic about the set's central piece – a giant table on which all eight actors will have to stand. 'It was built for the Singtel Waterfront Theatre opening and we found it on top of a cargo lift, unloved and abandoned. We had to fork lift the whole table down,' she says. 'We assigned people according to the weights of the actors to test if it would hold, and it was such a huge affair that so many staging guys came down because it was just so fun to jump on it.' But do not ask her if the play holds within it hope for those pessimistic about climate inaction. Her paradoxical logic holds clues to her stoicism. She believes herself climate conscious in her daily life and watches everything by David Attenborough. Yet she says: 'I have an appetite for despair so gigantic that it doesn't really affect me.' Book It/Scenes From The Climate Era Where: Esplanade Theatre Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive When: July 18 and 19, 8pm; July 20, 3pm Admission: From $32 Info:
