Lantern Festival coincides with Asian Winter Games, blending sports with culture

This year's Lantern Festival coincided with the 9th Asian Winter Games, which is underway in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, blending intangible cultural heritage with sporting endeavors and offering Games participants a unique experience of traditional Chinese culture.

At the renovated and upgraded Huaqi Hotel, which is serving as the Athletes' Village for the Games in host city Harbin, a Lantern Festival event was held for the athletes on Wednesday showcasing traditional cultural elements such as paper-cutting and shadow puppetry.

"I absolutely love the Chinese culture. I think it's just such a nice, different experience just to like see how Chinese culture as you've seen a lot of in the movies but I think it's not how it is. It's so so much more beautiful than how it's shown in the movies. So I absolutely loved it," said Danda Chandra Mouli, an Indian speed skater.

At the Athletes' Village in the Yabuli snow resort town, athletes painted on a cube of ice, made clay sculptures, engaged in lantern riddle guessing, and learned the northeastern folk dance know as Yangge and its signature handkerchief spin.

"My first time in China, so very nice, very nice people, very nice country. And I'm looking forward to coming to Harbin again," said Muthugla Madhura Shehan, a Sri Lankan cross-country skier.

At the Main Press Center and the Yabuli Media Center, China Global Television Network (CGTN) invited delegates, media representatives and athletes to celebrate the festival together. They experienced the joy of crafting lanterns, learning vibrant folk dances, solving riddles, and making tangyuan glutinous rice balls, a delectable treat essential to the Lantern Festival.

"Today is the Lantern Festival, so I heard with my friend, so I just came here to see how is the festival because first time I'm in China so I want to see the festival," said Muhammad Rafiq Bhatti, an official from the Olympic Council of Asia.

"Everybody is so nice and lovely and welcoming. I've had a really great time so far and this time I'm doing the snowboard commentary for big air, slopestyle and halfpipe and I've been getting involved with some of the activities. I've just learned how to write, and this means lucky and I've been really enjoying myself here," said Katie Ormerod, a television commentator from the UK.

Running from Feb 7-14, the Harbin Asian Winter Games has brought together more than 1,270 athletes from 34 countries and regions, making it the largest ever edition of the regional sports event in terms of overall participation.

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month. It marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations and is a time for families to come together, enjoying the beauty of lanterns and the joyous atmosphere.

Lantern Festival coincides with Asian Winter Games, blending sports with culture

Israel's influence on the Trump administration outsizes the already significant sway it held over previous presidencies, contributing to miscalculations that ultimately led to strikes on Iran and putting the temporary ceasefire at risk, said a U.S. expert.

After about 40 days of deadly clashes, the United States and Iran reached a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday, with Israel supporting the truce. However, the truce remains deeply fragile, especially as Israel continues to attack Lebanon, which Iran has called a violation of the ceasefire and threatened a strong response if it continues.

However, the power of the Israel lobby in the United States, especially over the Trump Administration, may weaken its ability to rein in Israeli military action, said Anton Fedyashin, an associate professor at American University.

"The Trump administration has no one but itself to blame. Although it is acting in a very important context, which is the general, enormous influence of the Israeli government over all American administrations, except that under Trump, this influence of course is greater than ever before. Israel has a very powerful lobby in the United States. This is absolutely no secret; not only articles, but very good books have been written about this," he said in an interview with China Global Television Network.

Fedyashin said this influence, combined with poor intelligence, contributed to what he described as a misjudgment that Iran's government would easily fall.

"The problem is that while previous presidents have managed to somehow resist that lobby, Donald Trump seems to have completely fallen for Benjamin Netanyahu's case to convince him that the attack on Iran will be lightning fast, will achieve results very quickly. And this becomes a very important question about the quality of Mossad information, because along with Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House meeting, which happened on February 11, at least according to New York Times, was the head of the Israeli Mossad, and both Netanyahu and the head of Mossad were convincing Trump that Iran's government is on its last legs, that all it needs is a slight push, and that was a catastrophic misjudgment," he said.

US influence over Israel limited as attacks on Lebanon threaten to shatter ceasefire: expert