News Headlines - 29 January 2021
As the Chinese New Year travel rush kicked off on Thursday (Jan 28), transport operators in China tightened measures to prevent the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and provide better service to passengers... On the first day of the Chinese Ne Year travel rush, the country was expected to handle 19.91 million passengers trips.
According to the ministry, about 1.15 billion passenger trips were expected to be made during the 40-day travel rush, a year-on-year decline of 20 per cent and more than 60 per cent lower than in 2019.
▽Japan taking cautious approach to COVID-19 vaccination rollout - The Mainichi
Painstaking preparation is in progress in Japan ahead of the planned rollout of coronavirus vaccinations by late February, with authorities holding a test run at a local gymnasium in Kawasaki where nurses simulated inoculations of volunteers.
The drill involving some 60 people, each wearing a bib bearing the name of the role they are playing such as "doctor" and "person to be vaccinated," was held Wednesday in the city with a population of 1.5 million adjoining Tokyo.
After five decades on the run, the 83-year-old leader of a radical and violent communist group has resurfaced to blast Japan’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic – and call for revolution.
Unfortunately for Takeo Shimizu, the elderly head of Chukaku-ha (Middle Core Faction), his defiant press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, at which he claimed the government’s response to the health crisis had made the nation ripe for a workers’ uprising, fell largely on deaf ears.
▽Climate change is a "global emergency" for two-thirds of people, UN poll finds - CNN
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which ran the poll with Oxford University, described it as the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted. Unusually, it captured the views of more than half a million people under the age of 18, a key but typically hard-to-reach constituency, the organization said.
The "Peoples' Climate Vote" was undertaken late last year in 50 high, middle and low income countries that together account for more than half of the world's population over the age of 14, according to the UNDP report.
Across those countries, 64% of people said climate change was an emergency, "presenting a clear and convincing call for decision-makers to step up on ambition," the report said.
▽Janet Yellen confirmed as first female treasury secretary in U.S. history
Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was confirmed as treasury secretary Monday, with the Senate voting 84-15 to make her the first woman to lead the department... Yellen had been expected to be confirmed easily after her nomination passed the Senate Banking Committee on a 26-0 vote Friday.
