On Saturday, 20-year- old Japanese singer, Mayu Tomita, was stabbed nearly twenty times. The attack occurred near western Tokyo, where the singer was scheduled to perform later that evening.

The attacker, 27-year- old Tomohiro Iwazaki, felt upset that the singer returned a gift he had sent to her. He said that he lost his temper because she was not answering his messages. Last month, the singer reported the attacker was obsessively posting comments about her on Twitter and other social media sites. The English-Japanese newspaper, The Japan Times, reported that Iwazaki had been persistent sending her messages over social media as well. Police arrested him shortly after the attack.

Last year, a Japanese man was sentenced to six years in jail for using a saw to attack the Japanese Pop group, AKB48. Three victims were severely injured. As of now, Tomita remains in critical condition. We hope she gets well soon, and has a safe recovery!

Yesterday, President Barack Obama took a detour on his Asia tour to have lunch with celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam. This September, their conversation will appear in an upcoming episode of the TV show, “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” on CNN.

According to the White House, Obama is touring Asia this week in an effort to increase U.S. diplomatic, economic, and security engagement with the countries and peoples of the region.” Obama arrived in Vietnam on Sunday, starting his tenth Asian
trip, since entering the White House. After this detour, Obama will head to southern Vietnam, before making his way to Japan. Later this week, he concludes his trip in Hiroshima, Japan. In 1945, the U.S. dropped the first of two atomic bombs during World War II. Obama will become the first U.S. president during his term to visit the site.

Bourdain tweeted about his experience eating with the president, and said “the cost of the meal was $6.00, and I picked up the check!”

This past Friday, the Phoenix Deaf Women Organization became the first deaf group to perform the national anthem at a WNBA- Phoenix Mercury game. The game was against the Seattle Storm. Our very own news anchor, Melissa Yingst Huber stood in front of many fans, and signed the anthem.

Along with Melissa, was Dyan Sue Kovacs, Jessica Madsen, and Belinda Carroll. Let’s take a look at what Melissa had to say about this marvelous event.

Hello! We are PDWO, which stands for the Phoenix Deaf Women Organization and we are here to sing the National Anthem. When we were initially were discussing this performance, like what we wanted to do, we decided it would be fun to perform together! We were able to view many of your National Anthem interpretations, and we like to think we picked up a little from everyone. It was also a group effort from the four of us here today. We all took turns translating the lyrics and working on the choreography. It was a really fun experience doing this with these women. They are my friends and also my fellow board members!

Anthem: “free, and the home of the brave” [applause]

This was my first experience signing on national level! We performed in front of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury team, and it was a blast! We got to meet many of the players, and the environment inside that arena was infectious and so much fun! We did it not only for the PDSD [Phoenix Day School for the Deaf] but also our organization, PDWO, our local interpreting agency, as well as many other local organizations!

We really didn't expect our performance to go viral, we were like, wait a minute, how many people watched this?! Oh my god! We were texting each other, we couldn't believe it!

Yes! Totally!

It was shocking and just incredible. I really can't explain how inspired and proud I am of all of us. We just did an interview for the news actually. I think maybe three hours after we performed, we had like 20,000 views, over 200 shares, and people were leaving so many wonderful comments, I was in awe. Just amazing.

It was also nice to know that both Deaf and hearing people were making note that it was in ASL. When ASL gets more and more recognition, it makes our world that much bigger so I'm thankful for that.

The group will perform the anthem again, at a major league baseball game with the Arizona Diamondbacks this August.