TOKYO: Japanese schoolchildren will help determine the mascot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics on Thursday unveiled three sets of designs for the games’ mascots. The 6.5 million schoolchildren will review the shortlisted designs with their classes casting a single vote in favor of one of the three sets.
The three finalists were selected from among 2,042 entries submitted by the public, with the winner to be announced on Feb. 28.
The first set is a pair of humanoid characters clad in the ‘ichimatsu” checkered pattern of the Games’ official logo.
The second set features a “maneki neko” (good-luck cat) and a fox commonly seen at Shinto shrines. The third set features a fox and a dog with gold ribbons on their backs.
The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled for July 24 to Aug. 9, 2020.
Mascot designs for 2020 Tokyo Olympics shortlisted
Mascot designs for 2020 Tokyo Olympics shortlisted
Guardiola delivers speech in support of Palestinian children
- Star Manchester City manager wore keffiyeh at charity concert in Barcelona
- They have been ‘abandoned’ because ‘those in power are cowards’
LONDON: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola delivered a speech in support of Palestinian children at a charity concert in Barcelona, calling for greater action to protect them.
The star manager, 55, wore a keffiyeh and spoke passionately about his pain at seeing the suffering of Palestinian children, Sky News reported.
“Good evening, salam alaikum, how wonderful,” he told the crowd. “When I see a child in these past two years with these images on social media, on television, recording himself pleading ‘where is my mother?’ among the rubble and he still doesn’t know it.
“And I always think, ‘What must they be thinking?’ And I think we’ve left them alone, abandoned.” He added: “I always imagine them saying, ‘Where are you? Come help us.’”
Guardiola said “even now, we haven’t done it,” because perhaps “those in power are cowards,” adding: “They basically send innocent young people to kill innocent people.”
He demanded a “step forward” as part of what he described as a “statement for Palestine and … a statement for humanity.”
