News Headlines - 03 March 2021

▽Japanese Communications Officials Entertained by NTT: Report - JIJI PRESS

Japanese communications ministry officials were treated to expensive dinners last year by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. executives, including President and CEO Jun Sawada, a magazine report said Wednesday.
The ministry officials involved included Yasuhiko Taniwaki, vice minister for policy coordination, and former cabinet public relations secretary Makiko Yamada, according to the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine.

▽Japan extends state of emergency by two weeks in Tokyo area - Nikkei Asia

The Japanese government will extend the state of emergency in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, having determined that new COVID-19 infections have not fallen sufficiently to lift the advisory.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Wednesday the extension of the emergency declaration for around two weeks. It had been set to end March 7, but governors of the prefectures surrounding the capital have been anxious about lifting the emergency.

▽China’s Winter Olympics Adds to Pressure for Tokyo to Hold Games - Bloomberg

There are many reasons why Japan is determined to hold the already-delayed Tokyo Olympics this summer, but one that is seldom discussed publicly: China.
Beijing is set to host the Winter Games next year, and China has made it clear that it plans to push ahead, with the virus largely contained within its borders.That’s caught the attention of Japanese government officials, who have been citing China’s increased publicity for the Winter Olympics in their conversations with organizers of the Tokyo Games, according to a person involved in planning for the three-week sporting bonanza, due to start July 23. Organizers see that as a sign Japan wants to plow ahead with the Games despite the ongoing pandemic, said the person, asking not to be identified because these concerns aren’t being discussed publicly.

▽UN: 38 killed in ‘bloodiest day’ since coup hit Myanmar | Al Jazeera

At least 38 people were killed in anti-coup protests in Myanmar on Wednesday, the United Nations said, in the bloodiest crackdown yet on peaceful demonstrations against a military coup.
Security forces opened fire on people protesting against military rule across Myanmar, a day after neighbouring countries called for restraint and offered to help Myanmar resolve the crisis... Describing Wednesday’s death toll as “shocking”, Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN’s envoy on Myanmar, said in New York there were “now more than 50 people [dead] since the coup started and many are wounded”.

▽6 Dr. Seuss books won't be published for racist images

Six Dr. Seuss books - including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” - will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said Tuesday.
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told The Associated Press in a statement that coincided with the late author and illustrator’s birthday.