Daily Archives: March 8, 2022

CS:GO esports series BLAST Premier and Australianvideo games venue Fortress have joined forces to host Oceanias first-ever regional BLAST Premier qualifier in 2022.

Both entities will hold the Fortress OCE Masters LAN finals at the Alienware Arena in Melbourne. The event will see the regions top four teams compete for a spot in the 2022 BLAST Premier Fall Showdown.

RELATED: Fortress Melbourne partners with Alienware ahead of venue launch

Official dates for the Fortress OCE Masters A BLAST Regional Qualifier event, as well as tournament details regarding its structure prior to the LAN finals, have not been confirmed.

Regarding the partnership, Fortress COO Mads Brown stated: Were very excited to be partnering with BLAST, one of the worlds premier esports companies who are known for their groundbreaking events and best-in-class production.

2022 will be a massive year for esports in Australia as we present the Fortress OCE Masters, bringing a Blast Premier Qualifier to Oceania and giving gamers in the region the chance to qualify to play on the global BLAST stage. Were looking forward to flexing our state-of-the-art production capabilities with our live grand finals.

After launching in March 2020, Fortress quickly had to close its operations a few days later due to the COVID-19 pandemic measures. Following the early setback, Fortress started to build its community through weekly events, as well as online and in-venue tournaments.

Earlier this year, Fortress announced a new venue located in Sydney, similar to the one based in Melbourne. It is set to open its doors to the public next summer.

Alexander Lewin, BLAST Premiers VP of Distribution, also commented: We are delighted to be teaming up with Fortress. As Australias home of games, with an exciting portfolio of activities and ventures, Fortress is the perfect partner to bring BLAST Premier to our fans down under and to a wider Australian audience.

We are very much looking forward to seeing BLASTs Australian qualifiers being played out of their state-of-the-art venue.

RELATED: BLAST Premier bans Russian-based teams from events

Recently BLAST has been on somewhat of a renewal spree, signing new deals with companies such as Betway, Shikenso Analytics, GRID Esports, Coinbase and CS.MONEY.

Esports Insider says: With the help of BLAST, Fortress looks to finally showcase its potential. Having an OCE qualifier is undoubtedly positive for CS:GO fans and professional players. Moreover, the partnership can help the region become a bigger landmark in the esports world.

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BLAST Premier partners with Fortress for first-ever Oceania qualifier in 2022 - Esports Insider

The bust Head of a Woman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 07, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In November, New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it received a gift of $125 million from longtime trustees Oscar L. Tang and Agnes HsuTang, the largest single donation in the institutions history. Now a few months later, Max Hollein, the director of the Met appointed in 2018, has begun to outline the immediate plans for the 150-year-old museum, which has already kicked off an extensive renovation process that includes a new contemporary and modern art wing and an updated wing for the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas designed by architect Kulapat Yantrasast. The influx of new money and structural overhauls come as the Met has pledged to removethe now-infamous Sackler family name from seven exhibition spaces and return ill-gotten artifacts to their countries of origin, changes that indicate the institution is working to symbolically shed its skin.

Reassessing its history and its relationship with the materials that comprise the Mets vast collection is an ongoing project for the institution. Efforts have only kicked into high gear, though, since the upswing from the Mets recent low period: In 2017, the museum was grappling with a $40 million deficit, implementing waves of layoffs and postponing plans for a new wing. The Mets previous director, Thomas P. Campbell, stepped down in June of that year.

Over the last couple of years, the Met has repatriated several objects after evidence emerged that they were originally acquired by collectors via illicit means. In October the Met announced it would return a 10th century Nepalese sculpture to its country of origin after researchers determined it had likely been originally stolen from Kathmandus Durbar Square 50 years ago. In June, the Met sent two Benin Bronzes and a brass plaque back to Nigeria.

In addition, Hollein said he wants to rethink the way the museums arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas are displayed. Their current home, the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, was originally built in 1982, and the new design will include an expansion of the space and the installation of a new glass wall to better illuminate the objects. Yantrasasts renderings of the new Rockefeller Wing also include off-white stone plinths, and the general intended effect feels much more like a pristine Chelsea gallery space than a grand hall in an entrenched museum.

I dont want to criticize other museums, but more often than not, the arts of Africa and Oceania are displayed in an environment that is dark, theatrical, dramatized, Hollein told the Wall Street Journal. Yantrasast, Hollein added, has designed a contemporary environment thats respectful of the materials.

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After Years of Stumbling, the Met Museum is Changing With the Times - Observer

When he joined the Royal Air Force at the height of World War II, Air Gunner Edward (Eddie) Leaf was given a life expectancy of about six weeks.

This week he celebrated his 100th birthday.

Leaf is now one of the very few remaining New Zealanders who served with and survived in the RAFs Bomber Command during the great conflict.

But while he managed to effectively evade the Messerschmitts bullets and ordnance of the German ground artillery during his 19 operations over Europe, he has been unable to avoid the machinations of the Covid pandemic.

READ MORE:* 95-year-old bomber command vet taken for flight in world's only MK1 Bomber* Southland family surprised by discovery of WWII crash site* Brothers discover the heroics of their WWII fighter pilot father in new book

Rather than partaking in a planned celebration at Hamilton Gardens attended by high-ranking Air Force officers, Leaf had to spend his big day at home at the Oceania Awatere Care Centre currently locked down in a bid to get an outbreak of Omicron firmly under control.

Nonetheless, the staff at the centre treated him to a memorable if much smaller scale function.

Leaf served as a rear gunner with the Royal Air Force, flying in a variety of bombers, including the Vickers Wellington, Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster.

Rear gunners were physically separated from the other six crew members. They were confined to their turret for the whole flight, which could be many hours, typically at night, in freezing temperatures.

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Eddie Leaf, pictured at his birthday celebration at Oceania Awatere Village.

Their main duty was to advise the pilot of enemy aircraft movements, to allow him to take evasive action and defend the aircraft against enemy fighters.

RAF Bomber Command aircrews suffered a horrendous casualty rate. Of a total of 125,000 aircrew, 57,205 lost their lives.

Crews came from across the globe from the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all corners of the Commonwealth, as well as from occupied nations such as Poland, France and Czechoslovakia. Most who flew were very young, the great majority still in their late teens.

About 6000 young New Zealanders served in RAF Bomber Command in WWII. Of these, around 2000 did not return almost one in three.

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Eddie Leaf's wartime bomber crew from 90 Squadron in the summer of 1943: From left are Roy "Mitch" Mitchell (mid-upper gunner), Harry Sharman (wireless operator), Eddie Leaf (rear gunner), Charles Corley (pilot), Bob Ludham (flight engineer), Arthur "Berry" Beresford (bomb aimer) and Cyril Paul (navigator). Leaf is the last of the crew still alive.

Leaf was born in Leeds in the United Kingdom but grew up in Detroit in the United States where his father was a toolmaker for Ford Motor Company during the Depression. In 1932 his family returned to England where he got a job as an apprentice fitter and turner at a printery in Dagenham before joining the RAF in 1941.

In an interview with Dave Homewood for the Wings Over New Zealand podcast series in 2019, Leaf said it was initially a choice between submarines and bombers for his military career. A role in the military police also beckoned for a while.

I put myself in [to be a] pilot, but as soon as I took the first exams it was good night nurse ... There were certain mathematics involved in passing for a pilot and it was all beyond me.

If you didnt have an education the airforce just wasnt interested.

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An RAF Lancaster bomber, used in World War II. Eddie Leaf spent a lot of flying time in the rear of the aircraft, doing his best to avoid being shot down.

So tailgunner it was. Leaf was very aware of the mortal danger he put himself in with every mission It was the first time in my life I felt frightened.

There were seven men assigned to crew bombers, and we became fast friends, very dependent on each other.

I was told by the doctors I had exceptional night vision. We were once attacked by a night-fighter, a Messerschmitt 110 ... I was the only one who saw it.

There was one instance when a Stirling bomber he was crewing was hit by flak and a hole the size of his fist was punched through the fuselage near the position Leaf had been sitting. Luckily at that moment he had been on his feet, firing the turret machine guns at the enemy.

I survived [the war]. Thats the main thing.

After the war ended, Leaf served as an instructor in India and Egypt, before emigrating to New Zealand in 1949 as a Ten Pound Pom.

He moved to Thames, where he worked for engineering firm A&G Price and met and later married Deborah, a nurse who still lives with him at Awatere.

He later joined the Gallagher Engineering team in Hamilton and eventually set up his own business installing and servicing water supplies to homes and schools throughout the Waikato.

Although his official function has been delayed until at least late April, staff at the retirement centre treated Leaf to a smaller birthday function he was nonetheless thrilled with.

I was not able to be able to be there in person with my dad on his big day, but I was able to Facetime him, Leafs daughter Christine Teesdale said.

He told me he felt like a movie star. Im really appreciative of what the staff at Awatere have done for him in these trying times.

Read more here:

The tailgunner's tale: Bomber crew veteran makes it to 100 - Stuff

Ecumenical service in French Polynesia for the people of Ukraine and Russia

An ecumenical service has been held in French Polynesia to pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia, in response to last month's invasion of Ukraine.

Ecumenical service in Tahiti to pray for peace Photo: supplied

The service for peace in the world was held in Papeete, attended by the territory's five main churches as well as members of the local Ukrainian community.

Addressing the meeting, President Edouard Fritch said Polynesians, as people of the Pacific, have an ardent desire for peace.

He said the tears of the Ukrainian people are heart-breaking and seeing women, children and old people cry out in pain shows the injustice.

In February, there was a small demonstration of Russian speakers in Tahiti against Russia's military attack.

Sports bodies have called for a boycott of Russia.

NASA has confirmed that the January 15th eruption of the underwater Hunga Tonga volcano spewed ash 58 kilometres high into the atmosphere.

The highest-recorded volcanic plume of gas, steam and ash reached the mesosphere - the third layer of Earth's atmosphere.

It was 1.5 times the height of the plume from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines.

Within two weeks, the main plume of volcanic material circled the globe, and volcanic aerosols are still making some sunsets in the southern hemisphere and tropics more colourful.

A former president of the Marshall Islands said the Pacific must be able to decide its future security on its terms.

Speaking at an online panel, Hilda Heine said "what is good for the region should be primarily determined by the Pacific people."

Dr Heine was joined by the former leaders of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Guam.

The leaders shared their views on a wide range of issues including the growing geostrategic interest in the Pacific.

Dr Heine said any policy or agreement that is drawn up without close consultation with the Pacific people is not appropriate.

"So, I think that's very important for us going forward. Ensuring whatever agreement that speaks to security for the region that has the interest of the Pacific people at heart," she said.

The Cook Islands have called on players based in New Zealand, Australia and England, in addition to talent from their own domestic league, for this month's Oceania Qualifiers in Qatar.

Coach Alan Taylor has included eight players in his group who play club football outside of the Cook Islands.

They include Benjamin Mata of Wellington Olympic, Tyrrell Barringer-Tahiri of AFC South London and Maro Bonsu-Maro of Manukau United.

The Cook Islands will play in the tournament's opening match against the Solomon Islands, before taking on Tahiti and Vanuatu in Group A.

Veteran internationals Kensi Tangis and Brian Kaltak headline the just-announced Vanuatu men's squad for this month's Oceania World Cup qualifiers in Qatar.

Auckland City FC defender Kaltak will captain the side in his third World Cup qualifying campaign, joining Australia-based players Jared Clark and Mitch Cooper, as the overseas representatives.

Tangis, who is one of the Vanuatu's highest-capped and scoring players, is one of five Galaxy FC players selected.

Vanuatu opens its campaign against Tahiti in Group A, before taking on the Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands.

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In brief: News from around the Pacific - RNZ

National football team takes part in first training session late in the night in Qatar

Digicel National football Coach Flemming Serritslev.

The Digicel National football team had their first training session late last night soon after landing in Qatar for the Oceania Qualifiers of the FIFA World Cup.

Coach Flemming Serritslev says they had a short session at the Qatar University Ground in Doha and he feels positive for the coming days.

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Captain, Roy Krishna is expected to join the team later this week after playing a match for ATK Mohun Bagan early tomorrow morning.

The team will face New Caledonia at 5am next Saturday in their first match.

Fijis second match is against New Zealand on March 22nd and they take on PNG on 25th March.

The semi-finals are on 27th March while the final will be played on 30th March.

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National football team takes part in first training session late in the night in Qatar - Fijivillage