Kazuki Higa made history as the first golfer from Japan to win the Asian Tour order of merit after finishing seventh at the season-ending Saudi Open.
Higa carded a four-under-par 68 in Saturday’s final round at Dirab Golf and Country Club, near Riyadh, to finish on 16-under, seven behind the winner Bjorn Hellgren of Sweden.
It was enough to see Higa top the standings ahead of Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent.
“I am so, so happy. This is a great honour,” said the 30-year-old Higa.
“I just love playing golf. That’s what it’s about. I can’t wait to get home to see my family.”
Higa also earned an exemption into the British Open for his achievement.
The ultra-consistent Higa started the year with three top 10s in the Philippines, India and New Zealand.
But it was back-to-back wins in September at the Shinhan Donghae Open in South Korea and the Yeangder TPC in Taiwan that shot him up the standings.
A tie for second at the International Series Philippines in October propelled him to the top of the order of merit and he never looked back.
“I have worked very hard for this,” Higa said. “I felt that last year changed things, all the hard work started to pay off and it’s amazing to see it all pay off this week.” (JapanToday)
Soccer fans have accused FIFA of a “monumental betrayal” after latest prices for World Cup tickets began to circulate on Thursday.
The governing body allocates 8% of tickets to national associations for games involving their team to sell to the most loyal fans.
And a list published by the German soccer federation revealed prices ranged from $180-$700 for varying group stage games. The lowest price for the final was $4,185 and the highest was $8,680.
Those group-stage prices are very different from FIFA’s claims of $60 tickets being available, while the target from United States soccer officials when bidding for the tournament seven years ago was to offer hundreds of thousands of $21 seats across the opening phase of games.
Fan organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) described the current prices as “extortionate.”
“This is a monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup, ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle it is,” it said in a statement.
The English Football Association shared pricing information with the England Supporters Travel Club (ESTC) on Thursday evening, which showed that if a fan bought a ticket for every game through to the final it would cost just over $7,000.
FIFA said in September that tickets released through its website would initially range from $60 for group-stage matches to $6,730 for the final. But those prices are subject to change as it adopts dynamic pricing for the first time at the World Cup.
FIFA tickets are available in four categories, with the best seats in Category 1.
In the price list published by the German federation, there were only three categories.
The lowest priced ticket was $180 for Germany’s opening group game against Curacao in Houston. The lowest price for the semifinal was $920 rising to $1,125.
The FSE called on FIFA to immediately halt ticket sales via national associations “until a solution that respects the tradition, universality, and cultural significance of the World Cup is found.”
The Associated Press approached FIFA for comment.
FIFA launched its third phase of widespread ticket sales Thursday, with fans now able to apply for specific matches for the first time through its “Random Selection Draw.”
Following last week’s draw for the 2026 tournament, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, an updated schedule has been published.
That means fans know when and where the likes of Lionel Messi and Argentina will play. Previous ticket ballots were blind as the qualification period had not even been completed and the draw was yet to take place.
Now participating nations have been placed in groups, with their paths through the tournament determined. For instance, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could go on to meet in the quarterfinals in Kansas City if both Argentina and Portugal top their respective groups.
Not that fans are guaranteed to get tickets to the games they apply for.
The draw opened Dec 11 at 11 a.m. ET (1600 GMT) and closes Jan 13, 2026.
FIFA says ticket applications can be made at any point during this window and the timing of entry will not impact the chances of success. Fans can apply via FIFA’s website for a maximum of four tickets per household per match and a maximum of 40 tickets throughout the tournament.
Fans will need a FIFA ID to apply for tickets and can pick which matches and which pricing category they want to apply for.
Successful applicants will be notified by email in February and charged automatically.
The last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994 prices ranged from $25 to $475. In Qatar in 2022 prices ranged from around $70 to $1,600 when ticket details were announced.
Tickets for the final at MetLife Stadium on July 19 are already going for in excess of $11,000 on secondary resale sites.
For this tournament FIFA has also set up its own resale platform where it charges a 15% fee based on the total resale price.
FIFA said that closer to the tournament any remaining tickets will go on general sale on a first-come, first-served basis.
It did not reveal a time frame for the release of those remaining tickets. (JapanToday)
A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University on Saturday during final exams on the Ivy League campus, authorities said, and police were searching for the suspect.
University President Christina Paxson said she was told that 10 people who were shot were students. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting, but it was not clear if that victim was a student, she said.
Officers scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighborhood filled with historic and stately brick homes, searching academic buildings, backyards and porches late into the night after the shooting erupted in the afternoon.
The suspect was a man in dark clothing who was last seen leaving the engineering building where the attack happened, said Timothy O’Hara, deputy chief of Providence police.
Security footage showed the suspect walking away from the building, but his face was not visible. Some witnesses reported that the man, who could be in his 30s, may have been wearing a camouflage mask, O’Hara said.
Investigators were not yet sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom where he opened fire. Outer doors of the building were unlocked, but rooms being used for final exams required badge access, Providence’s mayor said.
Authorities believe the shooter used a handgun, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The unthinkable has happened,” said Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, who vowed that all resources were being deployed to catch the suspect.
Mayor Brett Smiley said a shelter-in-place remained in effect and encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside or not return home until it is lifted. Streets that normally bustle with activity on weekends were eerily quiet.
“The Brown community’s heart is breaking, and Providence’s heart is breaking along with it,” Smiley said.
Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the building’s lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops coming from the east side. Once she realized they were gunshots, she darted for the door and ran to a nearby building where she sheltered for several hours.
Nine people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where one was in critical condition, said Kelly Brennan, a spokesperson for the hospital. Six required intensive care but were not getting worse, and two were stable, she said.
University officials initially told students and staff that a suspect was in custody, but later said that was not the case. The mayor said a person preliminarily thought to be involved was detained but was later determined to have no involvement.
Nearly five hours after the shooting, officers in tactical gear led students out of some campus buildings and into a fitness center.
The shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices.
Engineering design exams were underway there when the shooting occurred. (JapanToday)
Three skiers from Russia and six from Belarus — including former Olympic and world champions — were approved Wednesday to compete in qualifying events for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games in February.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation said it cleared the applications of the nine to get neutral athlete status and return to competitions for the first time since the full military invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago. FIS did not state if it rejected some applications, or how many.
Athletes and their entourages must not have publicly supported the war and not have ties to military or state security agencies.
Freestyle skier Hanna Huskova took gold in women’s aerials for Belarus at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and silver four years later in Beijing.
Anastasia Tatalina was a Big Air world champion for Russia in 2021, and was fourth in freeski slopestyle at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Russian cross-country skiers Savelii Korostelev and Dariya Nepryaeva also got neutral status ahead of World Cup races this weekend at Davos, Switzerland.
The Russian ski federation and athletes won a ruling last week at the Court of Arbitration for Sport forcing FIS to start processing applications for neutral status.
Russian athletes and team officials could face challenges getting visas to enter some countries that host qualifying events on the World Cup circuits in Alpine, cross-country and freestyle skiing, and snowboarding. (JapanToday)
Lionel Messi’s much-hyped tour of India got off to a rocky start Saturday with angry fans throwing bottles and attempting to vandalize a stadium after many of them failed to get more than just a glimpse of their hero.
The Times of India reported that many ticket-holders said that they failed to see Messi at all — either in person or on the stadium’s big screens — despite waiting for hours.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee apologized to the Argentine soccer star for the “mismanagement” of the event.
“I am deeply disturbed and shocked by the mismanagement witnessed today at Salt Lake Stadium,” Banerjee wrote on social media, where she also apologized to fans who had expected more after paying for tickets.
Banerjee said a committee would be constituted to “conduct a detailed enquiry into the incident, fix responsibility, and recommend measures to prevent such occurrences in the future.”
Messi’s three-day “GOAT India Tour” was to bring the World Cup winner from Kolkata to Hyderabad and then Mumbai before concluding in New Delhi on Monday. He was joined by longtime teammates Luis Suárez and Rodrigo De Paul.
Earlier Saturday, Messi remotely “unveiled” a 21-meter statue of himself in Kolkata. (JapanToday)
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Using U.S. forces to seize an oil tanker is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.”
Trump said “other things are happening,” but did not offer additional details, saying he would speak more about it later. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that the seizure was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. Locked out of global oil markets by U.S. sanctions, the state-owned oil company sells most of its output at a steep discount to refiners in China.
The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries, as sanctions have scared away more established traders. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.
Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”
Maduro, flanked by senior officials, said only the ruling party can “guarantee peace, stability, and the harmonious development of Venezuela, South America and the Caribbean.”
Maduro previously has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
During past negotiations, among the concessions the U.S. has made to Maduro was approval for oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. The corporation’s activities in the South American country resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduro’s government.
The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details.
The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.
Some legal experts and Democrats say that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.
Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders Tuesday he was still weighing whether to release it. Hegseth provided a classified briefing for congressional leaders alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday who owned the tanker or what national flag it was sailing under. The Coast Guard referred a request for comment to the White House. (JapanToday)
Erling Haaland scored his 34th goal for club and country this season to give Manchester City a 2-1 win at Real Madrid on Wednesday as Arsenal maintained their perfect group stage record with a 3-0 victory at Club Brugge .
It was a second successive home defeat for Real following their 2-0 reverse against Celta Vigo at the weekend and heaped more pressure on coach Xabi Alonso, whose side have won just two of their last eight in all competitions.
For Haaland, though, this was a 21st goal in 21 City games this season and a 51st in 50 Champions League starts, while Nico O’Reilly scored his first goal in the competition.
Rodrygo gave Real, who were missing Kylian Mbappe, the lead just before the half-hour mark with a crisp shot across Gianluigi Donnarumma into the far corner.
But academy product O’Reilly equalised just seven minutes later, reacting quickest to prod home the loose ball from inside the six-yard box after Thibaut Courtois had saved Josko Gvardiol’s header.
And Haaland was able to fire City in front from the penalty spot on 43 minutes after VAR intervened to punish Antonio Rudiger for wrestling the Norwegian forward to the ground to prevent him reaching a cross.
It could have been worse for Real but Courtois redeemed himself somewhat for flapping at Gvardiol’s header with a crucial double save to deny Haaland and Rayan Cherki in quick succession as the half drew to a close.
It was a breathless end-to-end second half and Jude Bellingham could have done better than chip over the bar with only Donnarumma to beat, while Courtois made a fingertip save to deny Jeremy Doku.
Vinicius Jr. had a late chance to equalise but skied his volley after Donnarumma had come for and missed an inswinging corner.
Substitute Endrick also clipped the top of the bar with a header as Real pushed for a late equaliser.
Noni Madueke’s double helped Arsenal win a sixth straight Champions League match this season and close in on the last 16.
The Premier League leaders already have more points (18) than was needed last season to secure a top eight spot and direct qualification for the last 16, and they have two matches still to come.
Madueke’s two goals could not have been more different.
The first was a wonder goal in which he beat two players and thrashed in a long-range strike.
For the second he was teed up by Martin Zubimendi for a simple finish.
Brugge had put the Gunners under fierce first-half pressure but they crumbled after the second goal as Gabriel Martinelli added to their misery, bending the ball around the goalkeeper from outside the box.
Elsewhere, reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain were held to a 0-0 draw at Athletic Bilbao but stayed third, behind only Arsenal and Bayern Munich, with City fourth.
Weston McKennie and Jonathan David scored the goals as Juventus overcame Pafos 2-0, while Bayer Leverkusen and Newcastle shared a 2-2 draw, as did Borussia Dortmund and Bodo/Glimt.
Goals from Richard Rios and Leandro Barreiro gave Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 2-0 win over Antonio Conte’s Napoli in a battle of the former Chelsea bosses.
Oscar Gloukh scored a brace as Ajax hit three late goals to claim a 4-2 win at Qarabag to finally open their account in the competition this season.
Victory took them off the bottom of the table and kept alive their slim hopes of making the play-offs, while Villarreal slumped to last position after a 3-2 home defeat to FC Copenhagen. (JapanToday)
As Australia began enforcing a world-first social media ban for children under 16 years old this week, Denmark is planning to follow its lead and severely restrict social media access for young people.
The Danish government announced last month that it had secured an agreement by three governing coalition and two opposition parties in parliament to ban access to social media for anyone under the age of 15. Such a measure would be the most sweeping step yet by a European Union nation to limit use of social media among teens and children.
The Danish government’s plans could become law as soon as mid-2026. The proposed measure would give some parents the right to let their children access social media from age 13, local media reported, but the ministry has not yet fully shared the plans.
Many social media platforms already ban children younger than 13 from signing up, and a EU law requires Big Tech to put measures in place to protect young people from online risks and inappropriate content. But officials and experts say such restrictions don’t always work.
Danish authorities have said that despite the restrictions, around 98% of Danish children under age 13 have profiles on at least one social media platform, and almost half of those under 10 years old do.
The minister for digital affairs, Caroline Stage, who announced the proposed ban last month, said there is still a consultation process for the measure and several readings in parliament before it becomes law, perhaps by “mid to end of next year.”
“In far too many years, we have given the social media platforms free play in the playing rooms of our children. There’s been no limits,” Stage said in an interview with The Associated Press last month.
“When we go into the city at night, there are bouncers who are checking the age of young people to make sure that no one underage gets into a party that they’re not supposed to be in,” she added. “In the digital world, we don’t have any bouncers, and we definitely need that.”
Under the new Australian law, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove accounts of Australian children younger than 16.
Some students say they are worried that similar strict laws in Denmark would mean they will lose touch with their virtual communities.
“I myself have some friends that I only know from online, and if I wasn’t fifteen yet, I wouldn’t be able to talk with those friends,” 15-year-old student Ronja Zander, who uses Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, told the AP.
Copenhagen high school student Chloé Courage Fjelstrup-Matthisen, 14, said she is aware of the negative impact social media can have, from cyberbullying to seeing graphic content. She said she saw video of a man being shot several months ago.
“The video was on social media everywhere and I just went to school and then I saw it,” she said.
Line Pedersen, a mother from Nykøbing in Denmark, said she believed the plans were a good idea.
“I think that we didn’t really realize what we were doing when we gave our children the telephone and social media from when they were eight, 10 years old,” she said. “I don’t quite think that the young people know what’s normal, what’s not normal.”
Danish officials are yet to share how exactly the proposed ban would be enforced and which social media platforms would be affected.
However, a new “digital evidence” app, announced by the Digital Affairs Ministry last month and expected to launch next spring, will likely form the backbone of the Danish plans. The app will display an age certificate to ensure users comply with social media age limits, the ministry said.
“One thing is what they’re saying and another thing is what they’re doing or not doing,” Stage said, referring to social media platforms. “And that’s why we have to do something politically.”
Some experts say restrictions, such as the ban planned by Denmark, don’t always work and they may also infringe on the rights of children and teenagers.
“To me, the greatest challenge is actually the democratic rights of these children. I think it’s sad that it’s not taken more into consideration,” said Anne Mette Thorhauge, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen.
“Social media, to many children, is what broadcast media was to my generation,” she added. “It was a way of connecting to society.”
Currently, the EU’s Digital Services Act, which took effect two years ago, requires social media platforms to ensure there are measures including parental controls and age verification tools before young users can access the apps.
EU officials have acknowledged that enforcing the regulations aiming at protecting children online has proven challenging because it requires cooperation between member states and many resources. (ABC)
Cremonese striker Jamie Vardy has been named as the Serie A player of the month for November, becoming the first English player to win the award.
The former Leicester City captain played three matches in the Italian top flight last month, scoring one goal against Juventus.
Fellow nominees for the award, which combines fan votes with statistical data, included AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan, Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez, Napoli winger David Neres, Genoa’s Leo Ostigard and Nicolo Zaniolo of Udinese.
“Vardy is truly a player from another era,” Serie A chief executive Luigi de Siervo said.
“His arrival at Cremonese was greeted with great enthusiasm by all Serie A fans, and Vardy is repaying them with top-level performances, innate leadership and important goals, the result of the competitive spirit and shooting skills that have always distinguished him.”
In total, Vardy has scored four goals in 10 appearances for promoted Cremonese, who are ninth in Serie A.
He netted nine times in 35 Premier League games last season for Leicester as the Foxes were relegated to the Championship.
The Serie A player of the month award was introduced in 2019, with the winner decided using a rating system that uses data tracking software.
“This makes it possible to analyse crucial aspects such as movement without the ball and thus optimal movements, game choices, and the contribution to the technical and physical efficiency of the team,” a Serie A statement explained.
Other Englishmen to have played in the league since the award was introduced include AC Milan duo Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, former Manchester United captain Ashley Young and Tammy Abraham. (BBC)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday acknowledged some young people were still on social media a day after a world-first ban on under-16s went live, saying the rollout was always going to be bumpy but would ultimately save lives.
A day after the law took effect, Australian social media feeds were flooded with comments from people claiming to be under 16, including one on the prime minister’s TikTok account saying “I’m still here, wait until I can vote”.
Under the law, 10 of the biggest platforms including TikTok, Meta’s Instagram and Alphabet’s YouTube must bar underage users or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million). The government has said previously that it would take some time for the platforms to set up processes to do this.
“Of course it isn’t smooth,” Albanese told Melbourne radio station FOX. “You can’t in one day switch off over a million accounts across the board. But it is happening.”
On Nova Radio in Sydney, Albanese added: “If it was easy, someone else would have done it.”
Governments around the world have said they would monitor the Australian rollout as they weigh whether to do something similar. U.S. Republican senator Josh Hawley endorsed the ban as it took effect, Nine newspapers reported.
The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF warned in a statement the ban might encourage children to visit less regulated parts of the internet and could not work alone.
“Laws introducing age restrictions are not an alternative to companies improving platform design and content moderation,” the statement said.
Albanese has pitched the ban as an intervention to protect young people from mental health risks associated with social media, including bullying, body image problems and addictive algorithms.
The measure would “save lives and it will change lives for this and future generations”, he told Nova.
Australian searches for virtual private networks (VPNs), which can mask an internet user’s location, surged to the highest in about 10 years in the week before the ban took effect, according to publicly available Google data.
Free VPN provider hide.me told Reuters it experienced a 65% spike in visits from Australia in the days before the ban kicked in, although that had not translated to a rising number of downloads.
All 10 platforms named by the ban opposed it before saying they would comply. As the ban took effect, some platforms not covered by the ban rose to the top of app download charts, prompting the Australian government to say the platform list was “dynamic”.
One app, Lemon8, which is owned by TikTok parent Bytedance, introduced an age minimum of 16. Photo-sharing app Yope told Reuters it had experienced “very fast growth” to about 100,000 Australian users. About half its users were over 16.
The company told Reuters it had told the Australian internet regulator overseeing the rollout that it considered itself a private messaging service, not social media. (JapanToday)
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