News Headlines - 21 January 2021
▽Mongolian prime minister resigns after protests over COVID-19 mother - CNA
Mongolia's Prime Minister announced on Thursday (Jan 21) he will immediately stand down, a day after thousands protested in the capital over what they said was the heavy-handed treatment of a coronavirus-infected mother and her newborn baby... There is now widespread anger after TV footage showed a woman who appeared to have recently given birth being moved to an infectious disease centre wearing only hospital pyjamas and plastic slippers, despite temperatures dipping to minus 25 degrees Celsius.
The video of the woman in an ambulance clutching her baby prompted fierce criticism, particularly as Mongolian tradition dictates new mothers should avoid the cold weather and cold food for the first month after birth.
▽Japan looks for a way out of Tokyo Olympics because of Covid | The Times
The Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus, and the focus is now on securing the Games for the city in the next available year, 2032.
According to a senior member of the ruling coalition, there is agreement that the Games, already postponed a year, are doomed. The aim now is to find a face-saving way of announcing the cancellation that leaves open the possibility of Tokyo playing host at a later date. “No one wants to be the first to say so but the consensus is that it’s too difficult,” the source said. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
▽Court rules in favor of Japan's ban on dual nationality
A Japanese court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit challenging the country's ban on its citizens from holding foreign nationality, in what is believed to be the first judicial decision on the matter.
In a lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court in 2018, eight men and women in their 30s to 80s who were born in Japan but now live in Europe claimed a legal requirement that Japanese who gain foreign nationality must give up their citizenship violates the Constitution.
▽Anti-fascist protesters vandalize buildings in Portland and Seattle | Reuters
Anti-government and anti-fascist protesters in Portland and Seattle vandalized a Democratic Party office and other buildings and scuffled with police on Wednesday, protesting against President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
People dressed in black and with their faces covered broke windows and the glass door at the Democratic Party of Oregon business office in Portland, spray-painting an anarchist symbol over the party sign, video posted on social media showed.
“We don’t want Biden. We want revenge for police murders, imperialist wars, and fascist massacres,” read a banner they marched under.
▽President Biden appears to remove Trump's Diet Coke button
President Biden appears to have gotten rid of the Diet Coke button his predecessor, President Donald Trump, used on the resolute desk in the Oval Office.
Political commentator Tom Newton Dunn on Thursday tweeted a photo of Biden behind the desk with stacks of executive orders - but the famous little red button Trump pushed to get his favorite soft drink appeared to be missing.
