England schools in COVID hotspots to bring in face masks after government U-turn

It may have been intended as a short-term tool in Germany's fight against the pandemic's economic effects, but that's not how the government's massive wage-support program is panning out. Now recognizing that it will take at least a couple years to get the economy back to pre-pandemic levels, Angela Merkel's coalition government announced late Tuesday the extension of the current Kurzarbeit ('short time work') scheme until the end of 2021.