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 Spaniards ordered to wear masks
Spain has made it compulsory for all citizens, including children
over six, to wear masks in public spaces as one of Europe's
strictest lockdowns gradually unwinds.
The Health Ministry order said the masks - whose efficiency in
curbing the coronavirus is hotly debated globally - would be needed
from Thursday for indoor public spaces and outdoors when impossible
to keep a two-metre distance.
Some are getting weary of the restrictions: up to a few hundred
demonstrators have been gathering every evening to bang pots and
pans and call for the government's resignation. Mainly in wealthy,
conservative neighbourhoods, the protesters have often ignored
social-distancing rules.
Cambridge University to hold lectures online
Britain's Cambridge University became one of the first in the world
on Wednesday to announce that all its lectures would be delivered
online over the next academic year.
The university, which shut its campuses to students in March after
the government introduced a strict lockdown to curb the spread of
COVID-19, said teaching would be delivered virtually until summer
2021, although it was possible some smaller teaching groups might be
able to occur in person.
Century-old tradition on track for change?
Advocates of shifting the start of the school year in Japan from
April to September are seizing the moment with school closures due
to the coronavirus to renew their call.
The proposal, which would finally bring Japan in line with many
Western countries after a century of starting in April when the
financial year also begins, has huge implications for corporate
recruitment, including making it easier for foreign students to come
to Japan and for Japanese to study abroad.
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"It's a golden opportunity," said Kunihiko Miyake, research director at the
Canon Institute for Global Studies, who said the change would reverberate
through society.
Arise, Sir Tom
Captain Tom Moore, who became a national hero in Britain after raising more than
33 million pounds ($40 million) for the National Health Service in the run-up to
his 100th birthday, is to be knighted.
Moore becomes "Sir Tom" after a special nomination from Prime Minister Boris
Johnson.
The World War Two veteran raised the record sum by painstakingly completing 100
laps of his garden with the aid of a walking frame, becoming a symbol of British
endurance in the face of the adversity of the coronavirus crisis.
Lighting Up The Skies
On a night not too far in the future but still being kept secret, skies across
Japan will light up with simultaneous fireworks displays from north to south in
a plan by fireworks makers to cheer a nation weary of battling the coronavirus.
Fireworks are a centuries-old tradition in Japan, where massive, colourful
displays are a symbol of summer and draw hordes of people, many wearing bright
summer kimono. They began as a way of warding off bad luck and epidemics.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh and Nick Tattersall, Editing by William Maclean)
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