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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW NOW

• COVID update: Israel will become the first country to offer a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with health workers and vulnerable populations eligible. Meanwhile, several European countries including Germany, Portugal and Finland are reinstating restrictions to curb the spread of the Omicron variant. Australian researchers are conducting a trial to try to turn heparin, a blood thinning drug, into a nasal spray that they hope could prevent transmission of the coronavirus. In the United States, President Joe Biden has announced that his administration will purchase 500 million rapid at-home COVID-19 tests that will be available for free starting in January.

• The UN proposes to pay nearly $ 6 million to the Taliban for security: According to a document reviewed by Reuters, the United Nations is offering to pay nearly $ 6 million to protect Taliban-led Interior Ministry personnel in Afghanistan. The funds would be used to pay Taliban fighters guarding UN facilities and provide them with a monthly food allowance.

• The Libyan parliament declares “impossible” to organize presidential elections: A parliamentary committee overseeing Libya’s long-awaited presidential election said it was “impossible” to hold it as planned on Friday without setting a new date. The delay after months of international negotiations is a blow to efforts to end 10 years of chaos in the country since the 2011 revolt against longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

• Harvard professor guilty of hiding links with China: Dr Charles Lieber, former chairman of Harvard’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, was convicted of lying about links to a China-led recruiting program, filing false tax returns and for failing to declare a Chinese bank account. Lieber was paid $ 50,000 per month and $ 1.5 million to establish a nanoscience research lab at a Chinese university.

• UN to cut food rations for Yemen due to lack of funding: The World Food Program says it will be “forced” to cut food rations for 8 million people in Yemen due to lack of donor funding, warning more people will starve in that country war-torn in the months to come.

• FDA approves first-ever injectable HIV prevention drug: The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved the first long-acting injectable drug for use as pre-exposure prevention against HIV. The new medicine called Apretude is an injectable given every two months as an alternative to HIV prevention pills.

• Deadly landslide in Myanmar, dozens of missing: At least one person has died and up to 100 are missing after an overflow of rubble caused a landslide at a jade mining site in northern Myanmar. Rescue operations are underway to save the victims, who are believed to be illegal jade miners.

• Perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo found in China: Scientists have announced the discovery in southern China of an unprecedented fossil of a baby dinosaur at least 66 million years old, curled up in its egg as if ready to hatch, further shedding light on the links between dinosaurs and the birds.

🗞️ HOME PAGE

Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung advises its readers to stay “aware and safe while on vacation” and provides “advice from virologists” as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread rapidly across Europe.

STORY OF THE DAY

Work → In Progress: the world of work in 2022

Will the Great Resignation lead to a Great Requalification? This edition of Work → In Progress takes a look at changing office etiquette, who gets hired, and the crystallizing trends that will define our near future.

?? Time limit: Portugal has made international waves by passing a revolutionary law that imposes fines on companies if they contact their employees outside of office hours. According to the Portuguese news channel TVI, unless it is a case of force majeure, it is an offense to contact an employee when he is not on duty or to discriminate against workers who protect their free time. punishable. In addition, companies must also provide training for any equipment or software used for telecommuting.

?? Beyond Paychecks: The pandemic has changed everyone’s priorities so much that companies are rethinking the way they pay their workers. Daily based in Chile America Economy reports that money is no longer the main motivator for many Latin Americans, who now appreciate having more personal time and other non-salary benefits. Some companies have offered to help pay for their employees ‘internet, others have funded their employees’ home offices, and a few have made sure to provide psychological support.

?? the Great Outside: “Working from home” was so 2020 – now it’s all about working from the garden. According to New York Times, many telecommuters who have tried kitchen tables, living room floors, and walk-in closets find garden sheds make great home offices. It creates a distance from distractions in the house while staying close enough to take care of family chores and provides a greener backdrop. Shoffice, a UK company specializing in office hangars, has seen a 70% increase in sales, and many similar countries, from France to Japan, are reporting similar spikes in interest.

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VERBATIM

I am, if you will, a grandfather in the service of institutions.

– Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi indicated this morning that he would be ready to assume the presidency of the Republic, the seven-year term of the current head of state Sergio Mattarella expiring in February. Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, was recruited earlier this year during a political crisis to take on the post of prime minister. “We have created the conditions for the work to continue, no matter who is there,” Draghi said at a traditional year-end press conference. “My personal destiny is irrelevant, I have no particular ambitions. I am, if you will, a grandfather in the service of institutions.”

LEXICON

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A new kind of crisps shortage has hit Japanese supply chains: McDonald’s is running out of fries (マ ッ ク フ ラ イ ポ テ ト, or “McDonald’s Potatoes”) in the country. The US firm said it was experiencing delays in shipping the potatoes used to make its famous fries and would only sell small portions for a week from Friday.

WHAT IS THE WORLD

French antique tale: a father’s Christmas gift from 1946 goes to the owner

Joseph Carayon was ten years old in 1946, living in the small southern French town of Abeilhan, when his father gave him a bicycle for Christmas. As a newly released prisoner of war, the father had tinkered with the bicycle from spare parts, which made it a particularly special Christmas present.

But when he came of age, Joseph started riding a moped and loaned the bike to a friend, and never saw him again. Until a second-hand dealer – a French antique dealer – gave the long lost vehicle back to Joseph a month ago.

A first second-hand dealer had found the bike in a second-hand market 30 kilometers away and had noticed a plaque which read “Joseph Carayon Abeilhan HLT”. He contacted a colleague of Abeilhan, a 35-year-old man named Thomas.

“I could have kept it in the junkyard,” said the junk dealer. “The bike was all rusty. Bikes like this cost a dime a dozen. But my keen eye was caught by this plate under the handlebars.

Thomas saw the name and knew exactly who had once owned the bike – and decided to make it his business vacation mission to deliver it to him.

Now 85, Joseph Carayon was already a local cycling icon in and around Abeilhan, as one of the oldest paperboys for the regional newspaper Free noon, who first reported the story.

Known as “Jojo,” he rides up to eight miles a day to break the news, half of which is on a much newer bike.

While his present from all those years ago is still in working order, he said he would save it for special occasions. “I had tears in my eyes,” Carayon said, reading the return of his bike in the very newspaper he distributes. Seventy-five years ago, it was that special delivery from her father, now from a young stranger… it’s the Christmas present that keeps on giving.

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