Early Bird: Johnny Depp's new movie. Gaga sends a message of support to Japan. Biden bought another 100 million vaccines

Oral graduation exams in Czech and a foreign language will be voluntary this year

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For this year's graduates, school-leaving exams will be quite different from what we're used to. They will be able to decide whether or not they want to take the oral graduation exam in Czech. In addition, graduates working in hospitals or nursing homes won't have to take state didactic tests either. These will still be mandatory for the rest of the student, but there will be a time extension. All students will have to pass a school-leaving exam in two or three subjects.

Over the past week, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš came up with the idea of ​​a so-called official high school diploma for everyone. According to him, there could be three forms of graduation, namely a traditional, a lighter and an official one. However, the Minister of Education, Robert Plaga, didn't agree with his ideas and rejected the blanket official school-leaving exam.

According to Cermat, for the first time, 72,751 students applied for the spring graduation exam date.

The US doesn't have to worry about a shortage of vaccines

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Yesterday, US President Joe Biden ordered his administration to obtain another 100 million doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. With this step, the White House is trying to speed up vaccination and prevent the spread of the virus, which has claimed almost 530,000 victims in the United States.

"We need maximum flexibility. There's always a chance that we'll encounter unexpected challenges. A lot can happen, a lot can change, and we need to be prepared,"

said President Biden. He had previously announced that the United States would have enough vaccines by the end of May. They paid more than 22 billion crowns for the 100 doses from J&J. According to data from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 128 million vaccines were distributed across the US on Tuesday morning.

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Johnny Depp to appear in a new film as a detective

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A new trailer for the movie "City of Lies", in which Johnny Depp plays the main character, is finally out! In the crime drama, he will portray Russell Poole, a Los Angeles police detective who is investigating the 1997 murders of rappers Tupac and Biggie. He will be joined by journalist Jack Whitaker, who has been searching for the murderers for almost two decades.

"City of Lies" was filmed from December 2016 to May 2017 and had originally been called "LAbyrinth". The release had been scheduled for September 2018, but was then postponed indefinitely due to legal issues from Global Road Entertainment along with Depp. The premiere will take place on March 19.

Lady Gaga sends a message of support to Japan

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Singer Lady Gaga sent a message of support to Japan on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami, saying that the resilience of the people there is hope in the global fight against the pandemic.

"Seeing and hearing about the vast recovery of your beautiful cities, I have so much respect to the people of Japan for your strength, kindness, and love for each other,"

said the American singer and actress in a video she posted on Twitter. On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest in history, struck northeastern Japan, claiming nearly 20,000 lives. It destroyed multiple cities and caused the meltdown of nuclear reactors in Fukushima in what became the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

After the disaster, Lady Gaga contributed 33 million crowns from the sale of bracelets on her website. She ended her message with the words "I love you" in Japanese.

Australia has introduced the COVID-19 stimulus package

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The Australian government has introduced a package to support tourism in the amount of 30 billion crowns. The aim is to encourage local travel, while international routes remain closed due to the pandemic. Subsidies for passenger tickets, cheap loans for small travel companies and financial assistance for the two largest airlines in the country are designed to keep the critical sector at bay until foreign tourists return.

"This package will take more tourists to our hotels and cafes, taking tours and exploring our backyard. That means more jobs and investment for the tourism and aviation sectors as Australia heads towards winning our fight against COVID-19 and the restrictions that have hurt so many businesses,"

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the media in Sydney. Tourism is the main driver of the growth of the Australian economy, generating a gross domestic product of 1.5 trillion crowns in 2018/19. It employs about 5% of the country's workforce.

We wish you a pleasant morning, and we'll have more news for you tomorrow. As the Czech writer and actor Jan Werich said:

"Time has pockets full of surprises."