News Headlines - 20 May 2021

▽House passes bill to create Jan. 6 commission amid strong GOP opposition

The House on Wednesday voted 252-175 to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but the bill faces a different landscape in the Senate, where it needs at least 10 Republicans and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell opposes it.
Republican opposition coalesced against the bipartisan legislation hours before the House vote, which passed largely along party lines. But 35 GOP House members voted in favor of the bill, showing that divisions remain within the party on issues related to former President Donald Trump.

▽The leading contenders for Iran’s presidency

As Iran prepares for a presidential election next month, two heavyweight conservative candidates have announced their candidacy, Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Larijani.
The current president, Hassan Rouhani, who is described as a moderate within the context of the Islamic Republic of Iran, will not be allowed to run for a third consecutive term... The Guardian Council’s approval, which will announce the approval list on May 27, is compulsory for the candidates to run for the presidency for the next four-year term.

▽India's holiest river Ganges is swollen with Covid victims - BBC News

Hundreds of corpses have been found floating in the river or buried in the sand of its banks. Those who live close to where they have washed up, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, fear they are Covid-19 victims.
India has been overwhelmed by a devastating second wave of the pandemic in recent weeks. It has recorded more than 25 million cases and 275,000 deaths, but experts say the real death toll is several times higher.
The bodies on the river banks, taken together with funeral pyres burning round-the-clock and cremation grounds running out of space, tell the story of a death toll unseen and unacknowledged in official data.

▽China looks to send 3,000-strong media contingent for Tokyo Games - The Japan News

Shen Haixiong, the head of CCTV and a deputy head of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, held talks online with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Tuesday, making clear that China will send more than 500 reporters to cover the upcoming Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The size of the media delegation, including assisting staff, is said to be about 3,000.
Shen also told Bach that the equipment for live transmission of the Games has already arrived in Tokyo.

▽Berserk creator, Kentaro Miura, has died aged 54 - CNET

Kentaro Miura, the world-famous creator of the manga Berserk, has passed away at the age of 54. According to a statement by the editorial department of Young Animal Comics, where Berserk is serialized in Japan, he died on May 6 as a result of acute aortic dissection... Berserk, Miura's most famous work, began serialization back in 1989. A dark fantasy manga set in a brutal medieval-inspired universe, Berserk had an impact that can be seen in multiple works of fiction. Video games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Final Fantasy, alongside manga and anime such as Demon Slayer, Castlevania and Vagabond, all bear the mark of Miura's influence.