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Straits Times
2 days ago
- General
- Straits Times
Paralympics-LA28 unveils venue plan for largest ever Paralympics
FILE PHOTO: Reynold Hoover, Chief Executive Officer of LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, speaks in front of the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File photo The planned Paralympic athletics venue for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games is seen in a digital artist's rendering released June 3, 2025. LA28 Paralympics/Handout via REUTERS. The planned Paralympic venue in Long Beach for blind football, Paralympic swimming and Paralympic climbing of the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games is seen in a digital artist's rendering released June 3, 2025. LA28 Paralympics/Handout via REUTERS. The planned Paralympic boccia venue of the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games is seen in a digital artist's rendering released June 3, 2025. LA28 Paralympics/Handout via REUTERS. The planned wheelchair tennis venue for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games is seen in a digital artist's rendering released June 3, 2025. LA28 Paralympics/Handout via REUTERS. The planned wheelchair basketball venue for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games is seen in a digital artist's rendering released June 3, 2025. LA28 Paralympics/Handout via REUTERS. LOS ANGELES - Events for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games will be held in downtown LA, Exposition Park, Venice Beach, Long Beach, Carson and Arcadia under the venue plan released by Games organizers LA28 on Tuesday. Like the LA Olympics, the Paralympics will seek to take advantage of the city's vast network of existing sports venues when it hosts the event for the first time. Downtown LA will be a major hub of activity with wheelchair fencing, para judo, para taekwondo, boccia and para table tennis all held at the Convention Center. "By hosting multiple competitions side by side, the events will encourage constant movement, shared fan engagement and a festival-like environment that highlights the diversity of athletic performance," LA28 said in a release. Wheelchair basketball will be held at Arena, home of the NBA's LA Lakers, with the U.S. men's team looking to capture a fourth consecutive gold medal. Goalball, a sport designed exclusively for people with visual impairments that requires total silence from the crowd, will take place at the nearby Peacock Theater in an acoustically optimised setting. LA Memorial Coliseum will host para athletics and the Paralympics closing ceremony, while the opening ceremony will be held at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL's Rams and Chargers. Galen Center will host para badminton and wheelchair rugby, Carson will stage para archery, wheelchair tennis and para cycling, while Arcadia's Santa Anita Park will be the site of para equestrian. On the west side of the city, Venice Beach will host para triathlon and mark the starting point of the para athletics marathon, while Long Beach will host seven events including para swimming, blind football and para climbing's debut. The most gender-balanced Paralympics yet will award the most medals in its history and feature 4,480 athletes across 23 sports. With every competition taking place within a 35-mile radius, the venue plan seeks to minimize travel times for athletes staying in the Paralympic Village. "The Paralympic Games showcases the highest level of athleticism, skill and endurance and it is important for LA28 to deliver a plan that not only elevates Paralympic sport but brings it to the next level," said LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover. LA Mayor Karen Bass said the Games would provide an opportunity for LA to improve inclusive accessibility citywide. "The legacy of these Games will be imprinted on our city forever – proliferating beyond the boundaries of these venues to better all of Los Angeles," she said. The Paralympics will be held from August 15-27 in 2028. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
3 days ago
- General
- Straits Times
Paralympics-LA28 unveils Paralympics venue plan
FILE PHOTO: Reynold Hoover, Chief Executive Officer of LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, speaks in front of the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File photo LOS ANGELES - Events for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games will be held in downtown LA, Exposition Park, Venice Beach, Long Beach, Carson and Arcadia under the venue plan released by Games organizers LA28 on Tuesday. Like the LA Olympics, the Paralympics will seek to take advantage of the city's vast network of existing sports venues when it hosts the event for the first time. Downtown LA will be a major hub of activity with wheelchair fencing, para judo, para taekwondo, boccia and para table tennis all held at the Convention Center. "By hosting multiple competitions side by side, the events will encourage constant movement, shared fan engagement and a festival-like environment that highlights the diversity of athletic performance," LA28 said in a release. Wheelchair basketball will be held at Arena, home of the NBA's LA Lakers, with the U.S. men's team looking to capture a fourth consecutive gold medal. Goalball, a sport designed exclusively for people with visual impairments that requires total silence from the crowd, will take place at the nearby Peacock Theater in an acoustically optimised setting. LA Memorial Coliseum will host para athletics and the Paralympics closing ceremony, while the opening ceremony will be held at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL's Rams and Chargers. Galen Center will host para badminton and wheelchair rugby, Carson will stage para archery, wheelchair tennis and para cycling, while Arcadia's Santa Anita Park will be the site of para equestrian. On the west side of the city, Venice Beach will host para triathlon and mark the starting point of the para athletics marathon, while Long Beach will host seven events including para swimming, blind football and para climbing's debut. With every competition venue within a 35-mile radius, the venue plan seeks to minimize travel times for athletes staying in the Paralympic Village, LA28 said. "As a result, for the first time since Rio 2016, Paralympians across every sport will have the opportunity to be housed together at the Olympic and Paralympic Village, which will be based on UCLA's campus," LA28 said, referring to the University of California, Los Angeles. The Paralympics will be held from August 15-27 in 2028. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Broadcom ships latest networking chip to speed AI
FILE PHOTO: The Broadcom company logo is shown outside one of their office complexes in Irvine, California, U.S., March 4, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Blake//File Photo SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Broadcom has begun to ship its latest networking chip that aims to speed AI, the company said on Tuesday. The chip, called the Tomahawk 6, boasts double the performance compared with the prior version and other traffic control features that make the networking chip significantly more efficient, Ram Velaga, a Broadcom senior vice president, told Reuters in a Monday interview. The speed boost means that fewer networking switches are needed to perform the same task, Velaga said. Broadcom's networking chips have gained increased importance because of AI. When constructing the necessarydata centers for AI applications, infrastructure builders must string together hundreds or thousands of chips. Building large-scale clusters of networked chips requires specialized networking gear and chips, of which the Tomahawk series of processors is one such component. With the Tomahawk 6, Broadcom's engineers have boosted its speed and capabilities to the point where it can be used to construct the larger data centers that are necessary for AI, which can be over 100,000 graphics processors (GPUs) strung together, Velaga said. "In a couple of years, you will start to see a million GPUs housed inside a physical building," he said. Broadcom's networking chips use the Ethernet networking protocol, which has been anetworking standard for decades. Nvidia produces hardware that uses a rival tech called InfiniBand and several products based on Ethernet. "All of these networks can be very simply done on Ethernet, you don't need esoteric technologies," Velaga said. The Tomahawk 6 is the first product in that line that will use several chips combined into a single package, a tech known as chiplets that is widely adopted by other chip designers such as Advanced Micro Devices. Adding chiplets roughly doubled the amount of silicon area used in the design, Velaga said. Broadcom is producing the Tomahawk switch on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's three nanometer process. (Reporting by Max A. Cherney; Editing by Leslie Adler)
The Star
3 days ago
- Automotive
- The Star
Olympics-Honda partners with LA28 as Olympic sponsorship deals shift into gear
American Honda President & CEO Kazuhiro Takizawa announces Honda will become a founding partner and official automotive partner of Los Angeles's 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games at Honda's U.S. headquarters in Torrance, California, U.S., June 2, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Honda was named as the automotive partner of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Team USA on Monday in the latest domestic sponsorship deal for the sporting extravaganza. The Japanese automaker, which established its first U.S. operations in Los Angeles in June 1959, will provide a vehicle fleet for the LA Games and also serve as the partner for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina. LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said Honda was a natural fit given the company's deep roots in the Los Angeles region. "They will show up to support athletes in their journeys to train for and compete in the Olympics," Wasserman said. "And they will use us as an opportunity to showcase the best of their vehicles and their technology." With the deal, the LA Games has now eclipsed $1.5 billion in sponsorship revenue amid a flurry of dealmaking in the first half of the year. Officials at LA28, the private, non-profit company organising the Games, told Reuters they were confident they will reach or exceed their overall target of $2.5 billion in sponsorship revenue by the time the Olympic flame reaches Southern California. "Our hope is that we would get between $1.8 billion and $2 billion this year and I'm optimistic that we'll hit those numbers," said John Slusher, CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties. "Anything can happen, but sitting here today, I feel very optimistic that we'll reach or exceed our $2.5 billion sponsorship number by the time we hit the Games." The Paris Games last year had domestic sponsorship revenues of over $1.2 billion while the Tokyo 2020 Games, hosted in 2021 due to the pandemic, broke all records for domestic sponsorship deals with more than $3 billion of revenues. PARIS TAILWINDS LA28 has announced half a dozen deals so far this year following the Paris Games, which were widely viewed as a success by athletes, fans, broadcasters and sponsors. Last month, LA28 named Archer Aviation as its air-taxi provider and appointed data cloud analytics company Snowflake as its official data collaboration provider. Slusher said as many as nine more sponsorship deals could be announced before year's end. "It was going pretty slow last year but coming out of the Paris Games and starting in November and December, things really started cranking at an incredibly high rate," he said. "NBC did such an amazing job of promoting and showing off the Paris Games here in the U.S. and Team USA did such a great job performing at a high level. It gave us a huge tailwind." LA28's roughly $7 billion budget will be paid for with money from the International Olympic Committee and IOC sponsors as well as domestic partnerships like the one with Honda, ticket sales, licensing, merchandise sales and other revenues. That money will cover a wide variety of expenses related to setting up and staging the Games including renting venues, Games operations and the opening and closing ceremonies. TAXPAYER CONCERNS The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics turned a profit and became a model for future Games but other host cities, including Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, blew well past their budgets. The city of Los Angeles is currently grappling with a potential budget shortfall for this fiscal year and beginning the difficult and costly process of rebuilding from January's devastating wildfires. LA and California taxpayers could be on the hook for a portion of the Games budget if there are large cost overruns but Slusher, formerly a long-time Nike executive, said he was focused on making sure that does not happen. "It was stressed before I started the job that we want to have an amazing Games, turn a profit, and obviously under no circumstances are we going to be in a situation where the taxpayers foot the bill," he said. "That was made clear to me before I signed on and every day I wake up making sure I'm focused on that. That being said, I feel very optimistic about hitting our goals if not exceeding them from a revenue standpoint. "We'll fulfill Casey's commitment of having an amazing games and doing so in a way that leaves money for the city of Los Angeles as opposed to leaving a burden on the taxpayers." The Games will take place from July 14-30, 2028, and the Paralympic Games from August 15-27, 2028. (Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Japan Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Japan Today
U.S. pushes countries for best offers by Wednesday as tariff deadline looms
FILE PHOTO: Cranes at the Port of Los Angeles are empty of cargo ships as shown with a drone at in San Pedro California, U.S., May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo By Jarrett Renshaw The Trump administration wants countries to provide their best offer on trade negotiations by Wednesday as officials seek to accelerate talks with multiple partners ahead of a self-imposed deadline in just five weeks, according to a draft letter to negotiating partners seen by Reuters. The draft, from the office of the United States Trade Representative, provides a window into how President Donald Trump plans to bring to a close unwieldy negotiations with dozens of countries that kicked off on April 9 when he paused his "Liberation Day" tariffs for 90 days until July 8 after stock, bond and currency markets revolted over the sweeping nature of the levies. The document suggests an urgency within the administration to complete deals against its own tight deadline. While officials such as White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett have repeatedly promised that several agreements were nearing completion, so far only one agreement has been reached with a major U.S. trading partner: Britain. Even that limited pact was more akin to a framework for ongoing talks than a final deal. According to the draft document, the U.S. is asking countries to list their best proposals in a number of key areas, including tariff and quota offers for purchase of U.S. industrial and agricultural products and plans to remedy any non-tariff barriers. Other requested items include any commitments on digital trade and economic security, along with country-specific commitments, according to the letter. The U.S. will evaluate the responses within days and offer "a possible landing zone" that could include a reciprocal tariff rate, according to the letter. It was unclear to which specific countries the letter would be sent, but it was directed at those where negotiations were active and included meetings and exchanges of documents. Active negotiations have been under way with the European Union, Japan, Vietnam and India, among others. A USTR official said trade negotiations were ongoing. 'Productive negotiations with many key trading partners continue at a rapid pace. It is in all parties' interest to take stock of progress and assess any next steps.' Trump's ambitious - and often frenetic - tariff policy represents a major part of his "America First" economic agenda as he seeks to reshape U.S. trade relationships, reduce trade deficits and protect American industries. Republican lawmakers are also banking on tariffs to add to federal revenue and offset the cost of the tax cut legislation now working its way through Congress. The twists and turns in Trump's tariff policies have taken investors on a rollercoaster ride. In May, U.S. stocks held their biggest rally of any month since November 2023, but that was after global indexes had cratered under the barrage of Trump's tariff announcements through February, March and early April. Stocks were little changed on Monday afternoon after Trump announced a surprise doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Friday at an event in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, the legality of the approach used for imposing the most sweeping of his tariffs has been cast into doubt. Last Wednesday, the Court of International Trade ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority with tariffs devised under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, including the "Liberation Day" levies and earlier ones imposed on goods from Canada, Mexico and China related to Trump's accusations that the three countries have facilitated the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. Less than 24 hours later, an appeals court temporarily paused that decision. The tariffs at the center of the legal dispute are expected to remain in effect for now while the case plays out. The draft letter to trading partners warns them not to believe the tariffs will be sidelined if the court rules against Trump's use of the IEEPA. "I should also note that regardless of ongoing litigation concerning the President's reciprocal tariff action in U.S. courts, the President intends to continue this tariff program pursuant to other robust legal authorities if necessary, so it is important that we continue our discussions on these matters," the draft says. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
