News Headlines - 08 December 2019
▽Protesters Mount Largest Rally in Six Months: Hong Kong Update - Bloomberg
Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through Hong Kong to mark Human Rights Day and press for greater democracy in the city in the biggest rally in about six months.
The rally and march from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to the Central was the first Civil Human Rights Front-organized event in four months to be given the go-ahead by the government. The front estimated that about 800,000 people took part, while police put the figure at 183,000.
▽At Japan’s Most Elite University, Just 1 in 5 Students Is a Woman - The New York Times
From a young age, Satomi Hayashi studied hard and excelled academically. It seemed only natural that she would follow in her father’s footsteps and attend the University of Tokyo, Japan’s most prestigious institution... When she arrived three years ago, fewer than one in five undergraduates at the university were women.
The dearth of women at Todai is a byproduct of deep-seated gender inequality in Japan, where women are still not expected to achieve as much as men and sometimes hold themselves back from educational opportunities.
▽Vienna opera house stages first opera by woman - BBC News
For the first time in its 150-year history, the Vienna State Opera is staging an opera by a woman.
Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth has written a new opera based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando which deals with themes of gender fluidity and duality... Orlando lives for centuries, beginning as a man in Elizabethan England and then changing into a woman.
Olga Neuwirth says androgyny and the rejection of gender stereotypes have inspired her ever since she first read Woolf's novel as a teenager.
Virgin Trains' last ever service from London to Manchester set off last night - but then failed to reach its destination due to a fault.
Customers on the train, which was the final Virgin would run on the West Coast Main Line, spoke of their journey stopping short at Stockport.
Virgin services on the line will now be taken over by Avanti West Coast, ending more than 20 years of Virgin services on the line.
▽Missing Polish goalkeeper: Appeal to trace Kamil Biecke from Luton, feared dead - BBC News
Police searching for an ex-professional goalkeeper who went missing a year ago have appealed to people who knew him from casinos or betting shops for help.
Kamil Biecke, 35, played for Polish side Baltyk Gdynia until 2013 before moving to the UK in 2016.
He was last seen on Maple Road in Luton in the early hours of 8 December 2018.
