Latest news with #Spotlight
Japan Today
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Japan's newspaper crisis: Losing readers, relevance and the next generation
By Jeff W. Richards Circulation is dropping. Trust is fading. And Japan's major newspapers are struggling to connect with younger readers who now get their headlines from platforms like Line, YouTube and even TikTok. In this edition of Japan Today Spotlight, we look at how Japan's once-powerful dailies — including the Yomiuri, Asahi and Mainichi — are facing a slow decline. From outdated digital strategies to an aging subscriber base, the print giants are falling behind in a media world that now runs on swipes and scrolls. We also revisit past Spotlight episodes that exposed deeper problems in the industry, including the Fuji TV–Masahiro Nakai scandal and how major outlets ignored Shiori Ito's story until it gained global attention. What do you think — is there still a place for Japan's legacy media, or has the news already moved on? Chapters: 0:00 Topic overview 0:49 The fall 3:16 Old habits, aging audience 5:34 The trust gap 6:58 So, what now? 7:58 Outro Japan Today sources: See the Japan Today Spotlight series: Join the conversation! Japan's newspapers are losing readers fast — but the appetite for information hasn't disappeared. Where are you getting your headlines in 2025? Let us know in the comments. Don't forget to like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss an update on Japan's biggest news stories on our YouTube channel: If you found this episode thought-provoking, check out our other deep dives into Japan's media landscape and our past coverage of: Follow us for more updates: The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of GPlusMedia, Inc. © Japan Today
Sky News AU
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
Star Channel Nine reporter Laura Turner jumps ship to Seven, as musical chairs continues at Aussie broadcasters
Channel Nine has suffered a major blow as experienced reporter Laura Turner jumps ship to the Seven Network. Turner, a Quill-award recipient and former United States correspondent, is making to the move to the Seven newsroom in Melbourne after a lengthy career at Nine. Fellow Nine staffer, Sydney-based producer-reporter Phoebe Worthley, has also been wooed over by Seven to join the team. An internal email to staff on Monday, seen by revealed Turner and Worthley are two of six new faces set to join 7News Melbourne in the near future. The email, sent by Seven's Melbourne Director of News Chris Salter, described Turner as a "natural leader" in the media industry whose experience will be an "enormous asset" to the team. Among other appointments to the newsroom include 7News Brisbane reporter Jordan Quinn and 7News Toowoomba journalist Sheri Smith, according to the email. Earlier this year, 7News Melbourne confirmed it had relocated its operations from its headquarters-of-23-years in Docklands to the Melbourne Quarter Tower on Collins Street. Turner began her career as WIN reporter in Ballarat, and spent a year abroad working for a local New Zealand network. The journalist kickstarted her successful stint at 9News Melbourne as a reporter in 2009 before jetting off to Nine's Los Angeles office in 2015 to serve as the network's US correspondent. The development comes after Seven recently lost star reporters Amelia Brace and Denham Hitchcock to Channel Ten after the duo were head-hunted to host its new show, 10 News+. The move for Hitchcock came just months after he announced his return to Channel Seven's Spotlight program after stepping away in January 2023 to spend more time sailing with his family. Channel Ten's new 10 News+ program - which it has described as a "premium, in-depth news, current affairs and insights" show - has replaced The Project after its recent axing. The Project aired for the last time on June 27 after almost 16 years and more than 4,500 episodes amid slumping ratings. Ten's latest venture made its debut on Monday night, with 10 News+ airing after the broadcaster's local 5pm bulletins.
Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Questions over tripling of Gauteng Health's security budget
In just two years, the Gauteng health department's spending on security has more than tripled. Spotlight tries to get to the bottom of the ballooning bills and what it means for governance in the department. The Gauteng Department of Health's projected R2.54-billion spend on security contracts for 2025/2026 has received the thumbs up, fuelling suspicion in various quarters. It comes as the department claims to lack the funds to fill vacancies, pay all suppliers on time or continue fulfilling doctors' overtime contracts. The R2.54-billion is more than three times the R838-million the department spent two years earlier in 2023/2024. This was revealed at the end of May in response to questions raised in the Gauteng Legislature by the Democratic Alliance (DA), the official opposition in the province. In 2024/2025, the department's security spending was just above R1.76-billion. Jack Bloom, DA shadow MEC for health in Gauteng, calls the proposed expenditure 'unjustified', given that the department is failing to meet its health service delivery targets. According to him, security companies charge R77-million per year for guarding services at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, and more than R72-million annually at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital. At Tara Hospital, the new security contract costs R14-million a year – a sharp increase from the previous year's R4.2-million contract, which had provided 21 guards for the facility. Bloom says that, according to the department's own assessment, only five additional guards were needed at Tara Hospital, increasing the total to 26. However, the current contract pays for 46 guards. 'This means they are paying about R5-million a year for 20 guards they do not need,' Bloom says. 'They could better use this money to fill the vacancies for 13 professional nurses, as Tara Hospital cannot use 50 of its 137 beds because of staff shortages. It is a clear example of excessive security costs squeezing out service delivery,' he says. 'The numbers simply don't add up,' Bloom says. He points out that the written responses provided in the Gauteng Legislature – signed off by MEC for Health and Wellness, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko – cite an internal security assessment and compliance with Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) salary increases for guards as reasons for the higher costs. However, the internal assessment has not been shared with either Bloom or Spotlight, despite requests from both. The PSIRA-approved annual increase is 7.38%. In contrast, the department's security spending rose by more than 100% from 2023/2024 to 2024/2025, and is projected to increase by another 40% from 2024/2025 to 2025/2026. According to a statement released by the Gauteng health department in April 2024, it had 113 security companies under contract at the time, providing a total of 6,000 guards across 37 hospitals and 370 clinics and institutions in the province. 'Very fishy' Bloom says security guarding contracts have been 'very fishy for at least the past 10 years'. He claims: 'There are certain security companies that keep popping up. These companies will get two-year contracts, then have their contracts extended for something like 10 years. Then we have these new contracts, which have soared in costs. The auditor general has said that there is irregular expenditure. Security contracts have always been suspect and have always been corruption territory.' In March this year, the DA lodged a complaint with the Public Protector over a R49-million guarding contract for five clinics in Tshwane and the MEC's offices. The contract was awarded to a company called Triotic Protection Services. The DA alleges that the company was founded by City of Tshwane's deputy executive mayor, Eugene Modise, who also previously served as its director. When the company was awarded the contract, it was allegedly in the crosshairs of the South African Revenue Service because it owed R59-million in tax over five years. This has raised concerns about the company's tax compliance status and its eligibility to tender for the contract. Spotlight approached Modise for comment through Samkelo Mgobozi, spokesperson for the office of the executive mayor, but had not received a response by the time of publication. Other security companies that have contracts with the department have also made headlines for allegedly flouting labour laws. These include not paying guards for months and withholding employees' pension and provident fund contributions. It leaves questions about due diligence and the proper vetting of companies. A review under way? In the weeks since Bloom's questions were answered in the legislature, he says Nkomo-Ralehoko conceded to a review of the security spend at the province's hospitals. However, the Gauteng health department has not announced anything formally and no further details have been provided. The department has also neither responded to Spotlight's questions nor provided supporting documentation of its assessment criteria for the security contracts, the tender requirements, tender processes and how it measures value for money and the impact of increased guarding in improving safety and security for patients, staff and visitors to its hospitals. It has also not made available a list of the companies with successful contracts and what their services entail. As Spotlight previously reported in some depth (see here and here), there are serious security problems at many health facilities in Gauteng. It ranges from cable theft disrupting hospital operations to assaults on healthcare workers. The department has also been criticised from some quarters for its plans to train healthcare workers to better handle violent situations. That steps need to be taken to better secure the province's health facilities is not controversial. But previous reporting has also shown a pattern of questionable contract management, with, for example, contracts being extended on a month-to-month basis for years after the original tenders had technically expired. It appears that the widespread use of these month-to-month security contracts came to an end when the department finally awarded a series of new security tenders in 2024, but it also seems likely that these new contracts are driving the department's ballooning security spending. 'Has to be justified' The department's massively increased security spend must be fully explained and is essential for transparency, several experts told Spotlight. 'This kind of escalation in cost has to be justified, especially when the department has no money,' says Professor Alex van den Heever, chair of social security systems administration and management studies at the University of Witwatersrand. He says the specifics of the tender process and the contracts awarded need to be publicly available to be openly scrutinised. The processes must meet Treasury's procurement guidelines and must follow the Public Finance Management Act, which regulates financial management within the national and provincial governments. Where there is wilful non-compliance, Van den Heever says criminal charges should be laid. 'This is a department that has routinely had around R3-billion a year in irregular expenditure. It means procurement procedures have been bypassed. This is not an isolated incident; it's systematic,' he adds. The latest Auditor-General report into the Gauteng health department was released in September last year for the 2023/24 financial year. It showed that of its R60-billion budget, the department underspent by R1.1-billion, including R590-million on the National Tertiary Service Grant that was meant to help fund specialist services. The report highlighted R2.7-billion in irregular expenditure, which is R400-million more than the previous year, and R17-million in fruitless and wasteful spending – an increase of R2-million from the year before. Equally damning, the report highlighted the lack of credible information provided. 'This is likely to result in substantial harm to the operations of the department as incorrect data is used for planning and budgeting and the effectiveness of oversight and monitoring are reduced as a result of unreliable reported performance information on the provision of primary healthcare services,' wrote the Auditor-General. Van den Heever says leadership and management within the health department need to be seriously questioned. Questions should be asked of why 'bad apples' are not being removed, why there are no consequences for conflicts of interests and collusions, and why webs of enablers within the department are not exposed for insulating wrongdoers, he says. Van den Heever says that over nine years of monitoring, the Gauteng Health Department's irregular and wasteful spending ranged between 3.6% and 6.6% of its total budget. In contrast, during the same period, the Western Cape's irregular spending ranged from 0% to just 0.1%. Lack of transparency The Gauteng health department's spike in security spending demands deeper investigation, says advocate Stephanie Fick. She is executive director for accountability and public governance at the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse and serves on the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum. This forum was launched in 2019 as an initiative to combat corruption within the healthcare system. It falls under the Special Investigating Unit and brings together a range of stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, government departments, regulators and the private sector. Fick says the health department's failure to provide easy access to information on tenders, contracts and contracted companies undermines transparency and accountability. She encourages more people to come forward with insider information. 'We want to see the details right down to line items and who signed off on things. We encourage people to use our protected whistle-blower platforms to share information,' Fick says. 'For civil society, there is a growing role to mount strategic challenges to things like this kind of excessive and irregular expenditure; to demand transparency and to expose people who are responsible. 'This must be done so ordinary people can better understand what's been happening with their tax money and so they choose more carefully when they go to the ballot box, starting with next year's municipal elections,' she says.
Sunday World
5 days ago
- Politics
- Sunday World
Drug dealing to not stop even if the UVF officially disbands
The terror group has been locked in discussions with British secuirty chiefs over an attempt to disband. UVF Shankill roads 1st Battalion commander Harry Stockman, is set to replace his long time mentor John 'Bunter' Graham as the UVF Chief of Staff The UVF's transition will not see them dismantle criminal structures including drug dealing, the Sunday World has learned. The terror group has been locked in discussions, via a number of interlocutors, with British government security chiefs for some years in an attempt to secure conditions to enable them to disband. The discussions, first revealed by the Sunday World, were set up with the aim of taking down paramilitary structures. The talks have been overseen by paramilitary umbrella group the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) and it is understood a group of UVF veterans have made clear their desire to break away from the organisation. The idea was initially resisted by government negotiators, who were pushing for all members to disassociate themselves from criminal activity. This week the LCC told BBC's Spotlight programme that an announcement can be expected in the autumn which will see paramilitary structures being dismantled. John 'Bunter' Graham. The arrest and conviction of Winston 'Winkie' Irvine on gunrunning charges is being seen as a sign British security services are running out of patience. Irvine, who has been praised by LCC head David Campbell for his peace-building work, is languishing in a cell at Maghaberry, having been caught with a cache of guns and ammo in the boot of his car. It is widely believed his security service handlers dropped him. His incarceration has prompted considerable unrest in UVF ranks, with many questions as what Irvine was doing remain unanswered despite the leadership expelling him earlier this month. The Irvine episode is thought to have injected some urgency into the process. Veteran Chief of Staff John 'Bunter' Graham is understood to be on the brink of standing down. The knives are out for his second in command 'Harmless' Harry Stockmen, who was a staunch ally of Irvine. Given Graham's age and ailing health, it would seem an opportune time for him to call time on his more than four-decade career as a terror chief. It is understood he has agreed to formally dismantle the leadership structure of the organisation and it is likely the UVF as it is currently known will become some kind of veterans' organisation or possibly a Somme commemoration group. UVF Shankill roads 1st Battalion commander Harry Stockman, is set to replace his long time mentor John 'Bunter' Graham as the UVF Chief of Staff News in 90 Seconds - June 28th Graham can point to a clampdown on drug dealers operating under the UVF flag, which has seen a number of senior figure being punished and expelled. But loyalist sources have described the proposed transition as 'window dressing'. 'We'll see how many of the districts are willing to follow suit and stand down — if it does happen, it will be symbolic,' said the source. 'The message is if you're a drug dealer you can't be in the UVF. Well, that hasn't exactly stopped the drugs or the involvement of UVF in drugs.' The Shankill leadership is concerned about the potential impact on public funding for community posts in loyalist areas. Irvine held a number of taxpayer-funded jobs in the years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and, with his high-level contacts in successive British and Irish governments, he was key to keeping the flow of public funds. Any decision to transition will be to protect that cash. This week former Alliance Party chief Lord Alderdice, who was a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), said talks about loyalist transition should stop. Lord Alderdice spent seven years on the IMC, which was given access to secret intelligence to report on paramilitary activities, before it was wound up in 2011. He said the transition process is 'not working'. 'A halt should be called, and you can't call a halt now sooner than today. 'There comes a point when you have to say 'no, this hasn't been delivered'. 'It's not going to be delivered. And, actually, by continuing we are making it worse.' Lord Alderdice told the programme he did not believe the loyalist paramilitaries were making a genuine effort to transition away from criminality. 'What I've seen is more talking about transition, and transformation, and no doubt with an invoice ... for how much money is needed to be made available from public services in order to pay off these people.' Irvine's conviction refocused attention on funding for community projects linked to loyalist paramilitaries. No explanation was given in court as to why Irvine and his co-accused had the guns. Following the arrest, police discovered UVF paraphernalia in Irvine's home and that of his co-accused Robin Workman. However, in sentencing, Judge Gordon Kerr KC concluded the movement of weapons had not been directly connected to terrorism. Workman (54), of Shore Road in Larne, was sentenced to five years — the minimum custodial sentence, which the PPS said it would not be appealing. Irvine was handed a much lesser 30-month sentence, which is now the subject of an appeal from the Public Prosecution Service. The guns were found by covert police six weeks after a hoax bomb, which targeted a peace event in Belfast attended by then Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney in March 2022. It is thought that was the moment Irvine's handlers turned on him. However, his arrest sent shockwaves through the British and Irish governments because of how they often rely on community workers to engage with loyalist communities. Following his arrest, Irvine was suspended from his role at the north Belfast community group Intercomm Ireland, in line with its internal disciplinary procedures. He left the organisation several months later. Intercomm said it was 'difficult to convey the impact' the case had on its team who were 'shocked, disappointed and felt let down' by Irvine's actions. A statement added that 'significant reorganisation [was] required to continue to deliver on our commitments to projects and fulfil obligations to funders and to the community'. But Irvine continued to work on funded projects in unionist and loyalist areas while on bail for the weapons charges.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Capcom to Reveal More Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata in Showcase Next Week
Capcom has announced a Spotlight digital event set for next week, when it will show more of Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Street Fighter 6. The Capcom Spotlight livestream is set for 3pm PT / 11pm UK time on Thursday, June 26, and will last 40 minutes. Capcom said to expect the 'latest news' on the company's upcoming games, as well as interviews with the developers. Specifically, Monster Hunter Wilds fans will get details on Title Update 2, which is set to release at the end of the month. Capcom announced Resident Evil Requiem during Summer Game Fest earlier this month with an eye-catching trailer. IGN went hands-on with Resident Evil Requiem, which lets you play in either first- or third-person. There's a new protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, although fans think we'll also get to play as Leon Kennedy. Pragmata, meanwhile, reemerged at Sony's State of Play showcase with a new release date, a trailer, and information on what the game actually Fighter 6 also turned up at SGF to reveal its Year 3 roster of playable DLC characters: Sagat is out this summer, C. Viper this fall, Alex early spring 2026, and finally, Ingrid late spring 2026. The trailer released as part of the announcement included a brief look at Sagat gameplay, so perhaps we'll see more in the spotlight. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ or confidentially at wyp100@
