News Headlines - 07 March 2021

▽Scam netted jockeys, trainers millions in COVID-19 aid : The Asahi Shimbun

The world of horse racing is fighting to restore its reputation after more than 160 racehorse trainers, jockeys and others pocketed 190 million yen ($1,758,000) in relief assistance from the government by falsely claiming the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted their economic livelihoods... The JRA said that 165 of its members were paid a total of 189,839,222 yen in government relief after claiming financial hardship on grounds that rewards to them based on their horses' performance were dropped due to the pandemic.
In actual fact, the JRA was able to hold all its scheduled races last year and raked in 2.9 trillion yen in ticket sales, an increase of 103.5 percent from the year before.
Of the 165, only one recipient, who is taking leave from the association due to illness, was found to have qualified for government assistance. All of the others have either returned the money or are in the process of returning it, according to the JRA.

▽China's Xi calls for 'popularising' Mandarin in Inner Mongolia - CNA

Authorities in Inner Mongolia must "solve ethnic problems" and push the use of the Mandarin language, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, months after the region was rocked by protests over a new rule that would reduce the use of the local language.
The region in China's far north borders the independent nation of Mongolia, with which it shares ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties.

▽Tim Wu hired by Biden administration to take on Big Tech | Financial Times

Tim Wu, a prominent critic of Big Tech companies, is joining the White House as an adviser on competition policy, sending a clear message to Silicon Valley that Joe Biden hopes to tame America’s most valuable companies.
As the author of influential books on tech policy The Curse of Bigness, The Master Switch and The Attention Merchants, Wu is best known for coining the phrase “net neutrality” in 2002 to describe rules guaranteeing equal access to the internet.
He is also the author an oft-cited dictum that describes the trade-off users of search engines and social networks make with their personal data: “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.”

▽Girl, 16, dies after suspected knife attack in south Wales | The Independent

A 16-year-old girl has died in what is thought to be a knife attack in a village in south Wales.
Several people were wounded during the incident in Treorchy, in the Rhondda on Friday, prompting a mass emergency services operation to be launched.
South Wales police have now revealed that a teenager has died, and that two men have been arrested in connection with the attack.

▽Rare black fox spotted in London garden - BBC News

A rare black fox has been caught on camera prowling around a garden in west London... The animals are a type of North American red fox with a trait that makes their fur silvery-black. They make up about 0.1% of the UK fox population... The fur of the black fox is dark because of a rare genetic variation, but the campaign group Black Foxes UK say sightings have risen across several London boroughs since 2016.