‘A bird that flies never leaves a trace’: Why is Japan always so tidy at the World Cup?

 

Fans of Team Japan cheer in the stands during training for the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 8 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Alan Poizner/Imagn Images/Reuters

Nobody can predict how the 48 teams will do at the FIFA World Cup this summer, but if you wanted to gamble on Japan being the tidiest team, you’d surely clean up at the bookies. Thanks to a societal expectation of all Japanese people, you’d never know they were there.

Nozomi Morgan, founder and CEO of Michiki Morgan Worldwide and an intercultural leadership expert, vividly remembers moving from Seattle to Tokyo when she was eight years old, partly because the school experience was so different.

“One of the first things that really surprised me,” she told CNN Sports, “you take off your ‘outside shoes’ and change into ‘inside shoes,’ you want to keep the inside as clean as possible.”

But that was just the beginning, her parents had packed her off to school with a Zokin, which she would need every day. “Each child has their own rag, several pieces of recycled fabric, hand-sewn together, with their names on it,” she said. “I remember specifically the first assignment was to clean the classroom.”

All the chairs and desks would be moved to the front; the children would sweep it up and then they would clean the floor with their little rags: “It kind of felt like a little game that you play cleaning up, it wasn’t like a chore, it’s just something that we all did together.”

“I hated every minute of it,” Hirokazu Tsunoda told CNN. “I resented it, I used to think, ‘Why do we even have to do this? Japanese classrooms aren’t that dirty to begin with, and everyone uses the bins anyway.’”

You’d never know he used to feel this way. Since 2008, he’s been attending the Olympic Games and World Cups, always helping to clean up the mess left by the supporters in the arenas.

“It’s not a place where you can do whatever you like simply because you paid for a ticket,” he said. “For us, it’s a sacred space. If something is a passion you truly care about, you don’t want to leave the place that matters to you in a mess. So, you pick it up.”

Tsunoda says that it wasn’t until he was an adult, helping to clear up the litter at his daughter’s school that he truly appreciated the value or cleaning up, or not making a mess to begin with.

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A vengeful arsonist or a convenient scapegoat? What we’ve learned from testimony in the Palisades Fire trial

 

Water is dropped by helicopter on the advancing Palisades Fire in Los Angeles on January 7, 2025.

Etienne Laurent/File/AP

Los Angeles —  

After calling more than 30 witnesses over six days of testimony, federal prosecutors this week rested their case in the trial of the man accused of starting the deadly and historically destructive Palisades Fire that scorched swaths of Los Angeles in the early days of 2025.

Prosecutors worked to paint the defendant, Jonathan Rinderknecht, as someone who was angry at the world before he allegedly ignited a blaze that later erupted into the Palisades Fire, which claimed a dozen lives and thousands of homes and businesses.

Rinderknecht’s attorney has sought to undercut the government’s case, saying nobody saw his client light a fire. He has also emphasized the fact Rinderknecht called 911 multiple times when the initial blaze broke out.

Jonathan Rinderknecht sits with his defense attorney Steve Haney during his trial before US District Judge Anne Hwang in federal court in Los Angeles on June 10, 2026, in a courtroom sketch.

Mona Edwards/Reuters

After playing a recording of a 911 call during his opening statement, defense attorney Steve Haney told jurors, “The government says that’s the voice and actions of a man who started a fire … That’s the voice of a man who’s trying to stop a fire.”

Rinderknecht has been charged with one count of destruction of property by means of fire, one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and one count of timber set afire. If convicted, Rinderknecht faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 45 years in federal prison, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

Throughout the trial so far, Rinderknecht sat calmly at the defense table and, on most days, wore a black suit and tie. He often took notes, chatted with Haney, and sometimes smiled during the proceedings.

It is unclear whether he will take the stand in his own defense.

Here’s what we learned during the prosecution’s case in chief:

The alleged origin of the Palisades Fire

During opening statements, US Assistant Attorney Matt O’Brien told jurors they would hear from expert witnesses and investigators claiming Rinderknecht was the only person on a Palisades hillside clearing – known as the Hidden Buddha – in the late hours of New Year’s Eve 2024 and early hours of New Year’s Day 2025, when a fire broke out.

Prosecutors presented surveillance footage captured at nearby homes and by wildfire monitor cameras they said showed Rinderknecht’s rental car – he was working as an Uber driver that night – driving through the area before it parked near the Hidden Buddha location. Additionally, Rinderknecht told investigators he was alone when he hiked up to the Hidden Buddha clearing.

A helicopter flies as smoke billows from the Palisades Fire at the Mandeville Canyon, in Los Angeles on January 11, 2025.

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Then, in the early morning hours of January 1, 2025, a fire started in the area. Firefighters responded and suppressed the fire soon after.

“Investigators examined what caused the fire on January 1,” O’Brien told the jury during opening statements, and “it wasn’t an accident.”

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Wife of Spanish PM forbidden to leave country as corruption probes pile up

 

Begoña Gómez attends a hearing of the Commission of Inquiry on professorships and postgraduate programs of the Complutense University of Madrid on 13 November, 2024 in Madrid, Spain.

Eduardo Parra/Europa Press/Getty Images

“Mr. Money is a powerful gentleman,” said the 17th century Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo.

Spain is certainly no stranger to corruption, which has claimed plenty of political careers in recent decades.

The latest in deepening jeopardy is current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who’s led the country for nearly eight years and has become one of the few European leaders to persistently and openly criticize the Trump administration – over Gaza, the Iran war and tariffs.

During Sánchez’ time in office, Spain has become one of Europe’s most dynamic economies, despite the fragility of his ruling coalition, which includes Catalan and Basque separatist parties.

Sánchez and his left-wing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) came to power when a huge corruption scandal engulfed the center-right People’s Party in 2018, leading it to lose a no-confidence motion.

Similar storm-clouds are now gathering around Sánchez, a canny politician known for outwitting his opponents.

On Saturday, a Spanish judge ordered his wife Begoña Gómez to stand trial for corruption, demanded she surrender her passport and banned her from leaving the country. Gómez must also report to court twice a month.

The judge, Juan Carlos Peinado, had previously charged Gómez with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds, alleging she exploited her marriage to advance her career at a Madrid university.

The investigation began in 2024 after an anti-corruption group – Manos Limpias, which translates to “clean hands” –- with ties to the far-right filed a complaint against Gómez, alleging influence-peddling. At the time, Sánchez withdrew from public duties for nearly a week to question whether he should remain in office.

“Today is a dreadful day for those of us who believe in justice,” Justice Minister Félix Bolaños wrote on X in response to the judge’s ruling on Saturday, adding “truth will ultimately prevail.”

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