Railway strikes in the UK have halted services throughout July and Augst 2022.
Sony, owners and creators of the gaming sensation PlayStation, have been hit with a lawsuit with a possible £5 billion pay out.
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The UK government has once again extended its trade sanctions with Russia.
The UK underwent a record-breaking heatwave in July with another hitting the country in August.
The UK has blocked a Chinese company from purchasing intellectual property from the University of Manchester using its powers under the National Security and Investment Act.
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Questions are being raised about the right of patients to claim for clinical negligence in relation to a healthcare worker’s ‘negligent’ actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NHS has introduced an ‘additional indemnity coverage’ scheme. This scheme is available for cases whereby healthcare professionals have carried out activities related to COVID-19. This is in accordance with clauses 10-12 Coronavirus Act 2020.
The Public Interest Disclosure (Protection) Bill is a new bill being proposed by the Scottish National Party’s Dr Philippa Whitford. The bill aims to provide protection for whistle-blowers, by establishing an independent body that would set, monitor and enforce standards on how whistle-blower cases are handled.
Within the emerging economies of the ASEAN (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam), the pandemic has shined a light on their investment potential. This has also highlighted investment areas that could both speed up the economic recovery in these countries and lay the foundation for extended growth.
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On Thursday 10 September, Michael Gove met with European Vice President, Maros Sefcovic.[1] This emergency meeting was scheduled after the UK has proposed controversial legislation to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement which was signed last year. The proposed Internal Market Bill, proposed on the 9 September, aims to ensure that goods continue to move easily between the UK’s four nations post-Brexit.
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Last year, the global conglomerate, LVMH announced that it would be going ahead with the acquisition of Tiffany, however, in September 2020, LVMH backtracked and decided against the 16.2-billion-dollar acquisition due to the ongoing trade war between their home state of France and the United States.
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The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela published its first report on 16 September 2020. In this, it recognised the numerous cases of extrajudicial executions, torture, excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions et al under the regime of Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela.
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On August 23rd, 2020, Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man was shot multiple times by Rusten Sheskey, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The shooting occurred two months after the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (2020), a civil rights bill aimed at combatting racial bias, police misconduct, and the use of excessive force.
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The Council of Europe has just issued the UK government with a Level 2 “media freedom alert”, for threatening press freedom after it blacklisted a group of investigative journalists and denied them access to information. It follows a similar warning issued in May this year and the exclusion of ‘The Independent’ from a technical briefing in February.
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Mr. John Christopher Depp, brought an action for libel over articles published by The Sun, branding Mr. Depp a “wife-beater” and making false allegations of verbal and physical abuse, contrary to the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. According to Depp’s barrister David Sherbourne, the article made “defamatory allegations of the utmost seriousness”.
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The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), also known as the furlough scheme launched in March had paid out £35 billion and has been used by 1.2 million employers enabling 9.6m jobs to be furloughed. The UK tax authority has claimed that UK may have paid out up to £3.5 billion in furlough money on fraudulent or mistaken claims.
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The government is planning on imposing targets for the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in response to the recent statistics showing years of decline in the number of rape cases reaching the English and Welsh courts. The targets are being enforced by the Prime Minister’s crime and justice task force in an attempt to force rape prosecutions to rise.
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On August 10, a US Superior Court judge forced Uber and Lyft, to reclassify their workers as employees. Ten days later, hours before the landmark ruling came into force, Uber and Lyft were granted a reprieve to delay the deadline until their appeal was heard. This compounds Uber’s transatlantic woes: the company is currently appealing a similar decision in the UK Supreme Court.
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Since its introduction, the Hate Crime Bill has split opinion. On the one hand, many believe it will positively enhance much needed protection for underrepresented or marginalised groups. On the other, many are concerned that the new Bill could have serious, albeit unintended, implications on the fundamental right of freedom of expression.
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Despite the UK entering the worst recession since records began, Rightmove has reported over £37 billion worth of property sales agreed in July, making it the most active month for home buying since they started tracking this data over ten years ago. The temporary stamp duty changes coupled with changing consumer preferences are just two of the factors that contributed to this occurring.
