france is to lift its night—time coronavirus curfew from sunday, allowing people to leave home at night without official justification for the first time since october. and from thursday they will no longer be obliged to wear a mask outside, except in queues. china has launched its first crew to its new space station — a landmark step in establishing beijing as a major space power. that was the moment of blastoff, just a couple of hours ago. it will be china's longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years. china's space ambitions have been fuelled in part by a us ban on its astronauts on the international space station.