
Expo 2025 in Japan: 4 things to know
Osaka (AFP) A multi-eyed mascot, a vast wooden Grand Ring, 160 countries and regions strutting their stuff, and robots and sushi galore: Expo 2025 began on Sunday in Osaka, Japan.World Expo is held every five years in different global locations. Here are four things to know about this event, which runs until mid-October.
Grand Ring Encircling dozens of national pavilions is the Grand Ring -- recognised by Guinness World Records as the planet's largest wooden architectural structure.Architect Sou Fujimoto says his edifice, which cost 34.4 billion yen ($230 million) and has a circumference of two kilometres (1.2 miles), is a symbol of unity.
Latticed beams hold up a sloping roof, 20 metres (65 feet) tall at its highest point, which doubles as a "skywalk".Fujimoto told AFP that he chose wood as a sustainable material.But Japanese media say just 12.5% of the temporary structure will be reused -- down from the original plan of 25%.
'Mysterious' mascot Myaku-Myaku, Expo 2025's mascot, is red and blue with five googly eyes dotted around its smiling mouth -- and one more eye on its bobbly red tail.It is "a mysterious creature born from the fusion of cells and water", according to event organisers."Basking in the sunlight is the source of its energy" and sometimes the shape-shifting Myaku-Myaku "forgets its original form", they say.Despite puzzled reactions when it was unveiled, the mascot has since become popular among social media users in Japan, and has even inspired fan art.
Slow sales This is Osaka's second World Expo after the 1970 edition that was attended by 64 million people, a record until Shanghai in 2010.At Expo 1970, the first film in IMAX format was shown and visitors admired rocks brought back from the Moon.But this time ticket sales have been slow. Organisers want to sell 23 million tickets overall, and as of last week, 8.7 million had been sold. To encourage visitors, same-day admission will now be possible.
Meteorites and Marley Japan's pavilion has a meteorite from Mars discovered in Antarctica by Japanese researchers -- the first time it will be on display to the public.Hungry visitors can stop by Japan's longest sushi conveyor belt before checking out cutting-edge robots, drone shows and a beating "heart" grown from stem cells.The US pavilion, themed "America the Beautiful", has an LED-screen simulator of a NASA rocket launch.
Elsewhere visitors can help polish five heart-shaped "Love and Peace" rocks, while the Jamaica pavilion features life-size Bob Marley and Usain Bolt statues and a bobsleigh.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


What's On
4 hours ago
- What's On
10 of the most unique restaurants in Dubai
Design has to work first. Form follows function, sure – but the best spaces are built to spark a mood, a memory, an emotion. Studies show that well-designed environments can boost dopamine and lower stress levels. Which is probably why some restaurants feel different the second you step in. Every element plays a part, nothing is random and everything is connected. That's where storytelling lives – in the details. Here are 10 of the most unique restaurants in Dubai where the design speaks first. Click through the gallery 3 of 12 Image: Okku website/Instagram Image: Salmon Guru website Kira A stunning Japanese-Mediterranean fine-diner with serene elegance and gold accents. The space is highlighted by gold sculptural details and a striking chandelier that serves as the centerpiece of the space. Clean lines, shrine-like seating, a sakura-lit walkway and Burj Al Arab views make the vibe calm yet upscale. The open robata kitchen adds energy by night, while neighbouring LITT spins that to nightlife. Location: KIRA, Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab Hotel, Jumeirah Street Times: Sun–Wed 12pm–1am | Thu–Sat 12pm–2am Contact: (0)4 328 1665 | @kirarestaurant Sexy Fish Dubai's Sexy Fish is an underwater-inspired art gallery thanks to Martin Brudnizki Design Studio and Damien Hirst centrepieces – think octopus sculptures, fish‑lamp ceilings, glowing mosaic floors, coral walls and Murano‑glass pillars. The vibe is high‑glam Japanese seafood with a late‑night lounge atmosphere. Location: Level 11, Innovation One, DIFC, Dubai Times: Mon–Sat 12pm–1am | Sunday 6pm–2am Contact: (0) 4 381 9000 | @sexyfishdxb Amelia Steampunk meets Art Deco high above Downtown Dubai, in a moody lounge that nods to Amelia Earhart's airborne spirit. Expect a dramatic, aviation‑inspired bar topped with a vintage propeller, high ceilings, gear‑driven depths and textured leather booths. Upstairs mezzanine dining evokes a submarine‑like vibe under custom arch ceilings and emerald accents. It's immersive storytelling through design. Location: Amelia Restaurant & Lounge, Address Sky View, Downtown Dubai Times: Daily 7pm–3pm Contact: (0) 4 328 2805 | @ Ossiano Underwater elegance in Atlantis The Palm's aquarium-adjacent dining room. Floor-to-ceiling fish tanks create a deep-sea ambience. Dark tones, soft lighting and ocean views give it a surreal, immersive vibe – like dining inside a luxurious aquatic world. Location: The Palm, Atlantis The Palm Times: Daily 6pm–12am Contact: (0)4 426 0770 | @ossianodubai Duomo Palatial Italian under a 15 m vaulted ceiling at The Dubai Edition. With yellow Chesterfields, faux cathedral façade, digital ceiling projections and intimate banquettes, it channels Milan's Duomo with Dubai's skyline. Location: Duomo, The Dubai Edition, Downtown Dubai Times: Daily 7am–11am, 12:30pm–1am Contact: (0)4 602 3399 | @duomodubai Okku A refined address for Japanese cuisine on Palm Jumeirah, blending classic sushi, sashimi, and Wagyu kushiyaki with theatrical flair. The design nods to Japan – think lantern-lit corridors, stone walls, yakisugi wood panels, 3D-printed Samurai statues, LED jellyfish art, a sleek sushi bar and lively lounge. Location: Okku, Marriott Resort, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Times: Tue, Wed–Fri 7pm–3am | Sat 1pm–6pm, 8pm–3am | Sun–Mon Closed Contact: (0)4 666 1566 | @okkudxb Zenon Located in the Kempinski Central Avenue at Address Dubai Mall, Zenon is a multi-sensory Mediterranean‑Asian fusion restaurant powered by AI. Enter beneath golden anodised aluminium chain ceilings that curve across the space, shifting in the lighting as digital art screens around you react to live Dubai-based data. The holographic host, immersive LED panels, live DJs and high‑tech AV create a futuristic yet elegant setting that balances mythology-inspired sculpture with soaring tech‑driven ambience. The feel is cinematic, curated, and entirely in dialogue with flavour, form and story. Location: Zenon, Kempinski Central Avenue (Ground Level), Address Dubai Mall, Downtown Dubai Times: Daily 12pm–03am Contact: (0)4 837 7222 | @zenondubai 101 For an atmospheric dinner with a view, 101 is a clean, coastal space built over the water at One&Only The Palm. White tones, pale wood, and low-slung furniture set a calm tone for long terrace lunches, drinks at sundown, and low-lit dinners framed by the skyline. For something more intimate, book the private dining room enclosed within a curved, coral-inspired cocoon. Designed for up to 12 guests, it features customisable lighting and LED floors that ripple like water underfoot. Location: One&Only The Palm, West Crescent, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Times: Daily from 12.30pm–1am Contact: (0)50 332 6832 | @101_dxb Salmon Guru Neon lightning bolts, comic-style signs on walls, and a vibrant, colourful ceiling make this Business Bay bar feel like a pop-art dream. It's playful, bold and energetic – and totally Instagrammable. Location: Salmon Guru, The Opus by Omniyat – 803 Al A'amal St – Business Bay – Dubai Times: Mon–Fri 12:30pm–2am | Sat–Sun 5pm–2am Contact: (0)52 814 9537 | @salmongurudubai Aelia Aelia is a modern Mediterranean restaurant on the 63rd floor of One Za'abeel, offering stunning views of Dubai's skyline. The interior combines clean lines with warm textures – textured stone walls, natural wood, and plush velvet seating in earthy tones. Large windows flood the space with light by day and frame the city lights at night. Subtle Mediterranean touches like artisan tiles and sculptural lighting add character, while mood lighting shifts to suit every moment. Location: Aelia, One Za'abeel Tower, Business Bay, Dubai Times: Daily 7am–10pm Contact: 04 666 1617 | @aeliadubai

The National
9 hours ago
- The National
Rare total solar eclipse to plunge Middle East into darkness in 2027
A rare and dramatic moment of darkness will take place in the afternoon over parts of the Middle East on August 2, 2027, as a total solar eclipse sweeps across three continents. Parts of Saudi Arabia and Yemen will plunge into night-like conditions for six minutes, an experience that will not happen again for another 100 years. The total eclipse, one of the longest of the century, will also pass over southern Europe and North Africa, with millions of people to witness the celestial wonder. 'This alignment will bring more than six minutes of total darkness in some areas, particularly in Luxor, Egypt, where totality will last up to six minutes and 23 seconds, making it the longest eclipse visible from land this century,' said Khadijah Ahmed, operations manager at the Dubai Astronomy Group. The event in Luxor will make it the longest land-based total eclipse since 1991 and until the year 2114, according to Nasa. Cities like Jeddah will also be under the path of totality, and will witness the Moon fully block the Sun in midafternoon, turning skies dark, revealing the solar corona, or the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere. 'In the UAE, along with countries like Oman, Jordan, Iraq and parts of India, a partial eclipse will be visible,' said Ms Ahmed. 'In Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the Moon will cover around 55 per cent of the Sun, creating a mesmerising crescent-shaped Sun at the peak of the eclipse.' A rare event for the region Solar eclipses take place when there is perfect alignment between the Earth, Moon and Sun, a coincidence does not repeat in the same spot for hundreds of years. Its path of totality also stretches across some of the most densely populated areas in the world, including southern Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The totality will take place in the midafternoon for many regions, which means there will be chances of clear skies and good visibility. The last time a total solar eclipse was visible in parts of the Middle East was in 1999. Safety first It is unsafe to look at the Sun during an eclipse. Special glasses are recommended for those observing the event. Ms Ahmed said that even a brief glance can cause permanent eye damage. 'Always use ISO 12312-2 certified solar viewing glasses … regular sunglasses, no matter how dark, are not safe,' she said. 'If using binoculars, cameras or telescopes, ensure they are fitted with solar filters over the front lens. Using optical equipment without proper filters can concentrate sunlight and cause instant eye damage.' A moment for science A solar eclipse also gives researchers an opportunity to study the Sun in more detail. When the Moon fully blocks the Sun, it reveals the faint outer atmosphere known as the corona, which is difficult to observe because of the Sun's intense glare. Researchers use this brief window to study solar activity, including magnetic fields, solar wind and coronal mass ejections, which can disrupt satellites and communication systems on Earth. Last month, the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission helped create an artificial solar eclipse, when two satellites flew in perfect formation to mimic the effect of the Moon blocking the Sun. This allowed scientists to observe the Sun's corona for several hours instead of just a few minutes. When is the next solar eclipse? A total solar eclipse will not appear in the region until 2081. A partial solar eclipse will take place in the UAE on June 1, 2030. A total lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into Earth's shadow, will be visible in the UAE on September 7, 2025. The eclipse will begin at 7.28pm UAE time, with totality to start at 9.30pm before it reaches its peak at 10.11pm.


Al Etihad
20 hours ago
- Al Etihad
AI helps Latin scholars decipher ancient Roman texts
24 July 2025 00:05 PARIS (AFP)Around 1,500 Latin inscriptions are discovered every year, offering an invaluable view into the daily life of ancient Romans, and posing a daunting challenge for the historians tasked with interpreting a new artificial intelligence tool, partly developed by Google researchers, can now help Latin scholars piece together these puzzles from the past, according to a study published on in Latin were commonplace across the Roman world, from laying out the decrees of emperors to graffiti on the city streets. One mosaic outside a home in the ancient city of Pompeii even warns: "Beware of the dog".These inscriptions are "so precious to historians because they offer first-hand evidence of ancient thought, language, society and history", said study co-author Yannis Assael, a researcher at Google's AI lab DeepMind."What makes them unique is that they are written by the ancient people themselves across all social classes on any subject. It's not just history written by the elite," Assael, who co-designed the AI model, told a press these texts have often been damaged over the millennia."We usually don't know where and when they were written," Assael the researchers created a generative neural network, which is an AI tool that can be trained to identify complex relationships between types of named their model Aeneas, after the Trojan was trained on data about the dates, locations and meanings of Latin transcriptions from an empire that spanned five million square kilometres over two Sommerschield, an epigrapher at the University of Nottingham who co-designed the AI model, said that "studying history through inscriptions is like solving a gigantic jigsaw puzzle"."You can't solve the puzzle with a single isolated piece, even though you know information like its colour or its shape," she explained."To solve the puzzle, you need to use that information to find the pieces that connect to it." Tested on Augustus This can be a huge job. Latin scholars have to compare inscriptions against "potentially hundreds of parallels", a task which "demands extraordinary erudition" and "laborious manual searches" through massive library and museum collections, the study in the journal Nature researchers trained their model on 176,861 inscriptions -- worth up to 16 million characters -- five percent of which contained can now estimate the location of an inscription among the 62 Roman provinces, offer a decade when it was produced and even guess what missing sections might have contained, they test their model, the team asked Aeneas to analyse a famous inscription called "Res Gestae Divi Augusti", in which Rome's first emperor Augustus detailed his still rages between historians about when exactly the text was the text is riddled with exaggerations, irrelevant dates and erroneous geographical references, the researchers said that Aeneas was able to use subtle clues such as archaic spelling to land on two possible dates -- the two being debated between than 20 historians who tried out the model found it provided a useful starting point in 90 percent of cases, according to best results came when historians used the AI model together with their skills as researchers, rather than relying solely on one or the other, the study said."Since their breakthrough, generative neural networks have seemed at odds with educational goals, with fears that relying on AI hinders critical thinking rather than enhances knowledge," said study co-author Robbe Wulgaert, a Belgian AI researcher. "By developing Aeneas, we demonstrate how this technology can meaningfully support the humanities by addressing concrete challenges historians face."