South Korea’s Casey Phair becomes youngest player in World Cup history
'Oppenheimer' draws debate over the absence of Japanese bombing victims in the film
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South Korea’s Casey Phair becomes youngest player in World Cup history — Phair had been training with the Players Development Academy when she was called to play by both the U.S. and South Korean national teams
Casey Phair, a 16-year-old from New Jersey, has made history as the youngest player in FIFA Women’s World Cup history.
Phair, an American-born teenager from Warren Township, also became the youngest and the first mixed-race player of any gender to represent South Korea at the World Cup when she was tapped to play in the last 12 minutes of Monday night’s match between South Korea and Colombia.
The New Jersey teen previously represented the country at the youth level in the qualifiers for the 2024 U-17 Women’s Asian Cup.
Lauren Molinaro, Phair’s soccer coach at the Pingry School in Somerset County, where Phair is a sophomore, expressed her excitement from back home. “I was really excited to see her and you could tell right away just the way she moves her body,” Molinaro said. “The way she sees things on the field. I think from the get-go I was like this kid’s the real deal.”
'Oppenheimer' draws debate over the absence of Japanese bombing victims in the film — Viewers are divided over whether the film should have shown Japanese victims of the weapon created by physicist Robert Oppenheimer. Experts say it's complicated.
The blockbuster film “Oppenheimer,” which revolves around physicist Robert Oppenheimer and his development of the atomic bomb, has prompted discussion over the way the movie did not directly portray Japanese victims of the weapon.
Viewers are divided, with many criticizing the lack of Japanese representation as the erasure of the hundreds of thousands of victims of Oppenheimer's creation. Others, including director Christopher Nolan, argued that the film zeroes in on the scientist’s experience and perspective alone — one that is distinct and separate from the victims’.
Experts say that the issue of representation is more nuanced. They emphasized that while no one film has the responsibility to illustrate Japanese victims’ perspective, “Oppenheimer” does little to challenge the long history of glorifying the work of white men, and risks perpetuating the persistent, often reductive, portrayals of Japanese victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
70 years later, Koreans are still working to formally end the Korean War — In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, hundreds of advocates are mobilizing in Washington to push for an official effective end of the conflict.
Hannah Lee, a college student who’s attending a gathering Thursday in Washington, D.C., to call for a real end to the Korean War, says she remembers the first time the conflict was mentioned at her public school in Tacoma, Washington.
“In sixth grade, my teacher told me that the Korean War was over. But I knew from my parents that the war had never officially ended,” the activist and rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania said.
In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, hundreds of advocates are gathering in the nation’s capital to take part in a mobilization to formally end the conflict. The multiday event is supported by a range of U.S.-based peace organizations and will include a congressional news conference with co-sponsors of H.R. 1369, a House bill calling for serious diplomatic efforts toward a permanent peace agreement in Korea.
The Korean War, sometimes called “The Forgotten War” in the United States, was only a small footnote in Lee’s history books at school. “I realized later that the war played a huge part in the United States’ extensive military involvement abroad,” Lee said. “It’s important that younger activists like me increase public awareness on how devastating the lasting effects of the war have been across generations.”
⚽️ World Cup Spotlight
Japan — Japan continued its tradition of cleaning up after themselves at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Philippines — The Philippines Women’s national football team made their long-awaited FIFA Women’s World Cup debut with a 0-2 defeat against the world No. 20-ranked Switzerland team.
🏆 Breaking Records
Rubik’s cubes — Li Zhihao, 22, recently broke a world record by solving three Rubik’s Cubes while juggling them in just three minutes and 16 seconds.
Rap — Filipino American rapper Ez Mil has signed a record deal with Eminem’s Shady Records, Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and major label Interscope Records. Ez Mil, whose real name is Ezekiel Miller, is now in the exclusive company of only one other rapper, 50 Cent, to be directly signed to all three labels. This achievement marks the first time an Asian artist has been signed under the rap legends’ labels.
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✍️, Lea @ Crushing the Myth