An employee conducting routine maintenance at a Tokyo theme park reportedly died after becoming trapped for an extended period inside the mechanism of an attraction ride.

The incident occurred at Tokyo Dome City Attractions on the «Flying Balloon» ride on Tuesday, the company said.

«During routine maintenance work on the ride, one of our employees became trapped within the ride’s gondola mechanism,» the company said. «Following rescue operations, the employee was transported to a hospital, where their death was subsequently confirmed.»

According to local media outlet NHK World Japan, the worker was identified by police as 24-year-old Kamimura Hina. It took roughly five hours for personnel to free her, but she was ultimately pronounced dead at a hospital.

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«Flying Balloon» is reportedly a 12-seat ride where passengers sit in a circle around a central pillar. The seats rotate and rise along the structure to a height of roughly 30 feet.

During the operator’s monthly inspection, the seats were elevated, allowing Kamimura and five colleagues to access and inspect the ride’s mechanisms, according to the outlet.

The victim is believed to have been working on a stepladder when the raised seats suddenly fell, trapping her against the central pillar.

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People walk past the Thunder Dolphin roller coaster ride, left, and the Big O Ferris wheel, right, at Tokyo Dome City Attractions entertainment complex in Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday, March 15, 2020. (Toru Hanai/Bloomberg)

«We offer our deepest prayers for the repose of the deceased employee’s soul, and we extend our profound condolences and apologies to their bereaved family,» the companay said. «We also wish to offer our sincere apologies once again to all customers and stakeholders who have been inconvenienced and caused anxiety as a result of this accident.

People walk past the Tokyo Dome City Attractions entertainment complex, in Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday, March 15, 2020. (Toru Hanai/Bloomberg)

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The corporation said it is conducting a full-scale investigation into the cause of the accident in coordination with relevant authorities, including police and the fire department.

Operations at all the attractions of the amusement park were immediately suspended until further notice, «as we dedicate our full efforts to thoroughly investigating the cause of this incident and implementing measures to prevent its recurrence,» they added.

Democrats scored a major victory Tuesday when Virginia voters narrowly passed a congressional redistricting referendum that could give the party a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House of Representatives majority in this year’s midterm elections, The Associated Press reported at 8:49 p.m. ET.

The ballot measure gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.

The referendum, which follows President Donald Trump’s push for rare but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states, would give the Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms as the party tries to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.

Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who in many ways became the face of her party’s push to pass the ballot initiative, said in a statement that «Virginia voters have spoken, and tonight they approved a temporary measure to push back against a President who claims he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress.» 

«Virginians watched other states go along with those demands without voter input — and we refused to let that stand. We responded the right way: at the ballot box,» the governor said.

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And Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin emphasized that «Virginians refused to let Trump play games with Americans’ right to fair representation.»

But Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that «Virginia Democrats can’t redraw reality. This close margin reinforces that Virginia is a purple state that shouldn’t be represented by a severe partisan gerrymander. That’s exactly why the courts, who have already ruled twice to block this egregious power grab, should uphold Virginia law.»

And Hudson predicted, «Even under this map, Republicans will hold our majority based on our record cleaning up Democrats’ mess and a historic war chest to litigate the Democrats’ failures.»

Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Jeff Ryer said in a statement, «I know we are disappointed by tonight’s result. Evidently, a sufficient number of Virginians trusted the blatantly dishonest language the Democrats placed on the ballot to make our Commonwealth the most severely gerrymandered state in the nation.»

The standalone spring referendum capped months of political crossfire and court battles, sky-high early voting turnout and tons of national attention and money poured into the ballot box showdown.

Even though a majority of voters gave the ballot initiative a thumbs-up, it still faces legal challenges.

The Supreme Court of Virginia allowed the referendum to move forward after a lower court struck it down. But legal challenges to the referendum, filed in part by the Republican National Committee, the NRCC and the state GOP, remain unresolved and are still before Virginia’s highest court.

Republicans had railed against the Democrat-backed referendum.

«It’s the most partisan map in America,» former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin told supporters at his final campaign stop in northern Virginia on the eve of the election.

Pointing to the Democrats pushing new maps, Youngkin charged, «What they are doing is immoral.»

Teaming up with Youngkin to crisscross the state in leading the GOP opposition to the ballot initiative was former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who told the crowd the Democrats’ map is one that «you draw when you’re drunk with power.»

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Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, right, and former state Attorney General Jason Miyares lead a chant of «no» as they lead Republican efforts to defeat a Democrat-backed congressional redistricting referendum April 20, 2026, in Leesburg, Va. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Speaking with Fox News Digital ahead of their final election eve rally, Miyares charged that «Democrats want to take away the voices of millions of Virginians and gerrymander the state.»

Youngkin, pointing to the duo’s relentless campaigning in recent weeks, said, «What we’re hearing over and over and over again is Virginians want fair maps. And what the yes vote represents are unfair maps.»

And the two Republicans reiterated their charge that the referendum was an «unconstitutional power grab» by Spanberger and the Democrats who control the state legislature.

As Youngkin and Miyares spoke in Leesburg, Trump took to the airwaves on a popular Virginia-based conservative talk show and later teamed up with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to urge voters to defeat the referendum.

Pointing to congressional Democrats, Trump warned that «if they get these additional seats, they’re going to be making changes at the federal level.»

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President Donald Trump headlined a tele town hall on the eve of Virginia’s congressional redistricting referendum urging voters to cast a ballot against the initiative. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Democrats countered that the redrawing of the maps was a necessary step to balance partisan gerrymandering already implemented by Republicans in other states at Trump’s urging.

«By voting yes, you have the chance to do something important — not just for the commonwealth, but for our entire country,» former President Barack Obama said in a video released Friday on the eve of the final day of early voting. «By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.

«By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we’re counting on you.»

The video by Obama was the former president’s latest effort for the referendum. He had previously appeared in ads released by Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-aligned group working to pass the ballot initiative.

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But Virginians for Fair Maps, the leading Republican-aligned group opposing redistricting, used past comments by Obama against political gerrymandering in its ads opposing the referendum.

«Because of things like political gerrymandering, our parties have moved further and further apart, and it’s harder and harder to find common ground,» the former president said in an old clip showcased in the spot.

Republicans pointed to comments from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, who acknowledged over the weekend in a «Fox News Sunday» interview that the new maps don’t represent Virginia’s partisan breakdown.

«Ninety percent of Virginians are not Democrats, that’s true,» Kaine said.

But Kaine added that «about 100% of Virginians want election results to be respected.»

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And Republicans took aim at Spanberger, who won November’s gubernatorial election by over 15 points as Democrats also captured the lieutenant governor and attorney general offices.

«Abigail Spanberger told everybody last summer that she had no interest in redistricting, and then the first bill she signs is a bill to enable the gerrymandering of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginians don’t like this and that’s why independents and a lot of Democrats are voting no too,» Youngkin told Fox News Digital.

Minutes later, Youngkin told the crowd that Spanberger is «trying to disenfranchise millions, millions of Virginians.»

Republicans trained their redistricting firepower on Spanberger since a poll two weeks ago by The Washington Post indicated that the new governor’s approval rating was barely above water, with the highest unfavorable rating for a new Virginia governor in two decades.

«She’s an unpopular governor with an unpopular agenda, and she lied to the voters,» Miyares charged.

Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, left, and former state Attorney General Jason Miyares, speak with Fox News Digital on the eve of Virginia’s congressional redistricting referendum in Leesburg, Va., April 20, 2026 (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

And Miyares and other top Republicans accused Spanberger of pulling a «bait and switch.»

Spanberger, in an ad in support of the referendum, said she was backing the measure because «it’s directly in response to what other states decide to do and a president who says he’s quote entitled to more Republican seats before this year’s midterms. Our approach is different. It’s temporary. It preserves Virginia’s fair redistricting process into the future.»

Supporters of redistricting dramatically outraised and outspent groups opposed to the referendum, with Virginians for Fair Elections outraising Virginians for Fair Maps by a roughly three-to-one margin. Much of the funding raised by both sides came from so-called «dark money» from nonprofit public policy groups known as 501(c)(4) organizations that are not required to disclose their donors.

Despite the Democrats’ funding advantage, recent polling suggested support for the ballot initiative was only slightly ahead of opposition amid a surge in early voting, which ended on Saturday.

«They have outspent us three to one. They’ve raised over $70 million. And yet this is a close vote,» Youngkin said.

Pointing to the ads in support of the referendum, Youngkin said Virginians «aren’t believing the mistruths. They aren’t believing the lies on TV. They’re actually doing the work themselves and understanding that a no vote is for fair maps and a yes vote is for the most gerrymandered maps in America.»

And Miyares emphasized that Democrats «outspent us, but we have the truth.»

Virginia is the latest battleground in the high-stakes fight between Trump and the GOP and Democrats over congressional redistricting.

Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, «Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.»

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.

Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night news conference at a California Democratic Party office in Sacramento Nov. 4, 2025. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)

California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.

In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention.

Florida is next up.

Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session that kicks off April 28.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., July 22, 2025. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service)

Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case that may lead to the overturning of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.

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If the ruling goes the way of the conservatives on the high court, it could lead to the redrawing of a slew of majority-minority districts across the county, which would greatly favor Republicans.

But it is very much up in the air when the court will rule and what it will actually decide.

La selección de Panamá disputará su partido de despedida ante República Dominicana el miércoles 3 de junio a las 19:45, en el Estadio Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez de la Ciudad de Panamá. El encuentro marcará el cierre de la preparación del equipo dirigido por Thomas Christiansen antes de viajar a la Copa Mundial de la FIFA 2026, según comunicó la Federación Panameña de Fútbol (FPF).

De acuerdo con la información proporcionada por la FPF, este compromiso representa el último examen para la llamada Marea Roja ante su afición local, previo a su debut mundialista frente a Ghana el 17 de junio en el Estadio de Toronto. La entidad destacó que “este partido marcará el cierre de la preparación en casa para el elenco comandado por el entrenador Thomas Christiansen y dará inicio a la cuenta regresiva previo a su debut en el próximo Mundial”.

El historial entre las selecciones absolutas de Panamá y República Dominicana registra seis enfrentamientos, con cinco victorias y once goles a favor del conjunto canalero, además de un empate. El equipo dominicano ha logrado tres goles en esos partidos.

Ambos equipos se midieron por última vez durante las eliminatorias al Mundial de Catar 2022, cuando Panamá se impuso 3-0 el 8 de junio de 2021 en el Estadio Rod Carew. En el más reciente ránking de la FIFA, República Dominicana ocupa el puesto 143, mientras que Panamá figura en la posición 33.

Antes de enfrentar a los dominicanos, la selección panameña tendrá un compromiso ante Brasil el 31 de mayo en el Estadio Maracaná de Río de Janeiro, donde el conjunto sudamericano se despedirá de su público, informó la agencia EFE.

El debut de Panamá en la Copa Mundial de la FIFA 2026 será el 17 de junio ante Ghana, en el primer partido correspondiente al Grupo L, a disputarse en la ciudad de Toronto. La participación en esta edición representa la segunda presencia mundialista de la selección centroamericana, tras su debut en Rusia 2018.

El último antecedente oficial entre ambas selecciones ocurrió el 8 de junio de 2021, durante las eliminatorias rumbo a Catar 2022, cuando Panamá se impuso 3-0 como local en el Estadio Rod Carew. Aquel triunfo consolidó la hegemonía de los canaleros en enfrentamientos directos y reforzó su posición regional. El historial se remonta al primer cruce registrado en los Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe de 1974, con victoria panameña 3-1. En 1987, ambas selecciones se midieron en dos amistosos en Santo Domingo, donde se registró un empate 1-1 y una victoria panameña 1-0.

La relación deportiva entre Panamá y República Dominicana ha trascendido el fútbol. El 4 de febrero de 2026 se celebró un amistoso entre ambos países en el marco de la Serie del Caribe, ampliando la competencia a otras disciplinas. La rivalidad en el fútbol, sin embargo, se ha caracterizado por la clara superioridad panameña, reflejada tanto en el marcador global como en la evolución de ambos equipos en el escalafón internacional.

El duelo del 3 de junio servirá de fogueo final para Panamá antes de su debut en el Mundial 2026, mientras que República Dominicana busca sumar experiencia ante un rival de mayor jerarquía. De acuerdo con las proyecciones del encuentro será una oportunidad para que el público local despida a su selección y para que el cuerpo técnico ultime detalles en la alineación y estrategia.

La expectativa se centra en la actuación de los dirigidos por el seleccionador panameño, quienes buscarán consolidar su preparación y responder a la confianza de una afición que ha acompañado el proceso de clasificación. El historial reciente y la diferencia en el ranking FIFA refuerzan el favoritismo local, aunque el partido representa una ocasión para observar posibles sorpresas y ajustes tácticos antes de la cita mundialista.