Milan Kundera's Czech citizenship restored

Milan Kundera's Czech citizenship has been restored. It had been withdrawn by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1979 after the publication of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, a novel that features Czechoslovak citizens opposing the government. Now, 40 years later, it has been handed back to the dissident novelist. The idea of returning his citizenship came from Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who met Kundera in Paris last year, where the novelist has been living in exile. Having meanwhile become a French national, he now holds dual citizenship.

Japan firm bans licking fingers to handle papers

A Japanese taxi company went viral for its rule banning employees from licking their fingers when handling papers. On Nov 22, Sanwa Kotsu in Yokohama, Japan, shared a photo of the memo on its official account on social media, informing employees about a new rule on forbidden behavior. It prohibits its office workers from licking their fingertips when leafing through papers, and also its drivers from licking their fingers before counting out the bills they give customers as change, on the grounds that it's gross to make someone else indirectly touch their spit.