Chicago Fights Over In-Person Learning

By BY AMELIA NIERENBERG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3eSqmRg

Lessons still to be learned about masks in schools | Letters

Asia can teach the UK much about keeping schools open during a pandemic, says Edward Vickers, while Jo Campion warns that deaf pupils are likely to fall behind because of the return of face masks in class

Comparing the experience of European education systems in handling the Covid-19 pandemic is doubtless instructive (Masks in schools: several EU countries already enforce them in primaries, 3 January). Your article presents the salutary examples of countries such as France, which imposed a mask mandate on all pupils over 11 last November, and Belgium, which since December has required all pupils over six to be masked.

However, as an educational comparativist usually based in Japan, I read reports like this while inwardly screaming: “What about east Asia?” There has been some lurid coverage in the UK press of China’s draconian lockdowns. But we see very little discussion of the very different cases of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, which have managed the pandemic far more effectively than their western counterparts, and with far less disruption to schooling.

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Kazakhstan unrest: Staff flee as protesters enter airport

Demonstrations sparked by rising fuel prices escalate, despite a state of emergency in some areas.

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Adrienne Adams, First Black Council Speaker, Says City Is at ‘Crossroads’

By BY JEFFERY C. MAYS from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3FYdNjf

‘We’re struggling’: Covid surge spoils summer for Australia’s hospitality and tourism businesses

Staff shortages and a drop in customers dampen peak season as Covid cases skyrocket and testing regimes struggle

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For Phil Johnson, the licensee of Aireys Pub, keeping the hotel open seven days a week at what should be peak season has instead become a “day-by-day proposition”.

During summer the hotel’s lawn, which boasts spectacular views of the sea and sunset, is usually packed with holidaymakers who have flocked to the Victorian surf coast town of Aireys Inlet to escape Melbourne’s heat.

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Philadelphia fire: Seven children among 13 dead in apartment blaze

Two others are injured after a blaze rips through a three-storey public housing block.

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Paraguayan soldier killed by deer at presidential palace

The soldier was killed after approaching the deer inside the presidential gardens in the capital.

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The U.S. government doubles its order for Pfizer’s Covid pills.

By BY REBECCA ROBBINS AND NOAH WEILAND from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3pU4oUD

Can the Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein deal protect Prince Andrew?

Lawyers make case for why the 2009 settlement might cover the royal and why it might not

• Virginia Giuffre’s legal deal with Jeffrey Epstein released

The merits of Virginia Giuffre’s sex assault lawsuit against Prince Andrew are still far from being tested in court. In New York on Tuesday, lawyers for the prince asked a judge, Lewis Kaplan, to stop the case ever getting there.

Commenting on the case, other New York lawyers were doubtful that Andrew’s legal team would be successful and questioned why the prince’s representatives had not settled out-of-court.

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France opens terror investigation after Dakar rally explosion

French racing driver Philippe Boutron was seriously injured in blast in Saudi city of Jeddah

French prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation after a car participating in the Dakar rally was hit by an explosion in Saudi Arabia last week that badly wounded its driver.

After the 30 December attack in the city of Jeddah, the driver, Philippe Boutron, underwent surgery in Saudi Arabia for serious leg injuries before returning to France.

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