News Headlines - 16 November 2020

▽Japan GDP surges annualized 21.4% but growth outlook remains weak - Nikkei Asia

Japan's economy rebounded in the July-September period following a deep slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic to mark its first expansion in four quarters, Cabinet Office data showed on Monday... The nation's gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, grew 5.0% in the third quarter from the preceding three-month period. It expanded at an annualized pace of 21.4%.

▽Japan to drop seal requirement in 99% of administrative procedures - Nikkei Asia

Administrative reform minister Taro Kono announced at a news conference on Friday that he would abolish nearly all requirements for people to use seals in getting administrative procedures approved.
Roughly 15,000 processes currently require hanko seals, such as applications to government agencies. The requirement will be dropped for all but 83 procedures that require seals registered with local authorities. Amendments to current laws will be submitted to the regular Diet session that starts next year... Of the 14,992 procedures that required seals, 5,198 had the requirement dropped or were in the process of doing so, and 9,711 were under review.
Now the use of unregistered seals will be eliminated, leaving 83 processes that require officially registered seals -- a drop in seal usage of more than 99%.

▽Bezos Climate Fund Discloses First Grants Totalling $791 Million - Bloomberg

Jeff Bezos has announced the first grant recipients from $10 billion pledged to combat climate change, earmarking $791 million for donations to environmental organizations.
The first 16 groups receiving donations from the Amazon.com Inc. founder’s Bezos Earth Fund include nonprofit stalwarts such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Fund. The announcement came Monday in an Instagram post, where Bezos also revealed the fund’s existence in February. At the time, he said it would begin issuing grants in the summer.

▽Pro-Western candidate wins Moldovan presidential election

Maia Sandu, a former World Bank economist who favors closer ties with the European Union, has won Moldova’s presidential runoff vote, decisively defeating the staunchly pro-Russian incumbent, according to preliminary results released Monday.
Sandu captured over 57% of the vote, leaving the incumbent, Igor Dodon, behind by over 15 points, according to preliminary data from the Central Election Commission, CEC, that said nearly 100% of the vote has been counted.
Sunday’s election was seen as a referendum on two divergent visions for the future of the small Eastern European nation sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania. Sandu and Dodon, who Russian President Vladimir Putin identified as his preferred candidate, have been rivals since he narrowly defeated her in the 2016 presidential race.

▽Moscow turns ice rink into hospital as Russia's COVID-19 cases hit record | Reuters

Russia reported a record 22,778 new daily coronavirus cases on Monday as the authorities in Moscow turned to a temporary hospital built inside an ice rink to handle the influx of COVID-19 patients... In Moscow, the Krylatskoe Ice Palace, known for hosting international speed skating competitions, is now on the frontline after being converted into a temporary hospital for COVID-19 patients. It opened last month.