News Headlines - 02 January 2021

▽Fresh fears for Tokyo Olympics as host city sees surge in Covid-19 infections | The Guardian

When Japanese and International Olympic Committee officials finally accepted defeat in March and postponed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, there was general agreement that a one-year wait would give the world ample time to overcome the coronavirus pandemic... But in the nine months since the first postponement in the modern Games’ 124-year history, Olympic officials have found themselves wrongfooted by the virus at every turn. Far from the communal celebration of sport envisaged by Abe, the harsh realities of Covid-19 have forced them to lower their expectations.

▽Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, Leader Of Iran's Hard-Liners, Dies At 86

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, considered the spiritual leader of the most fundamentalist hard-line factions, has died in Tehran at the age of 86... A fierce opponent of reforms, Mesbah-Yazdi was also known as a supporter of ultraconservative former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad before having a falling out with him.

▽A family of 12 siblings now holds the Guinness World Record for highest combined age - CNN

A family of 12 siblings broke the Guinness World Record for highest total combined age, with the oldest at 97 and the youngest at 75.
The D'Cruz family has a combined age of 1,042 years and 315 days, and their record was confirmed on December 15, according to a news release from Guinness.

▽Appy couples: Those who meet on dating sites keener to settle down - study

Writing in the journal PLOS One, Dr Potarca analysed results from the nationally representative 2018 family and generations survey conducted by the Swiss federal statistical office that quizzed those aged 15 to 79 on a multitude of issues, including where couples met, and their intentions within that relationship.
Dr Potarca focused on a sample of 3,245 partnered individuals over the age of 18, and whose relationship was no more than 10 years old, finding that while the majority of individuals reported meeting their partner offline, 104 met their partner through dating apps, 264 met them via dating websites and 125 found their partner by means of other online services.
The proportion of people meeting their partner through dating apps rose dramatically over time.

▽Ericsson CEO Lobbied to Overturn Sweden’s Huawei Ban, DN Reports - Bloomberg

Ericsson’s Chief Executive Officer Borje Ekholm pressured a Swedish minister to reverse a ban on including Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. in the country’s 5G roll-out, Dagens Nyheter reported.
Ekholm lobbied Foreign Trade Minister Anna Hallberg in a series of phone messages to review an order by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) that operators remove the Chinese companies from existing infrastructure used for 5G frequencies by January 2025, the Swedish newspaper reported.