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.
What Just Happened?
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.
What just happened?
The Law Society has again called for non-means tested legal aid to be made available to domestic abuse victims after government data revealed unprecedented high numbers of family court applications. Data from the Ministry of Justice last week showed an increase in the number of domestic violence remedy order applications between July and September this year.
What just happened?
There has been an ‘urgent notification’ issued to the justice secretary addressing major concerns of the quality of care and leadership at a privately run youth prison near Rugby.
This notification could be considered emergency action, and these notices are rare, but the so-called “bleak regime” has raised widespread concern.
What’s just happened?
Facebook is being sued in the US in a landmark lawsuit that could end up with the tech giant being stripped of its prized assets, Instagram and Facebook.[1] Regulators, who argue Facebook built its digital monopoly over the years by violating antitrust (competition) laws, are considering breaking up the company.
Though it was only 10 days ago that the first person in the United Kingdom had received the heavily anticipated Pfizer vaccine, said to be 90% effective against combating Covid-19, increasing whispers about a different variant or modified strain of Covid have been spreading through the South East of England, about as quickly as the new strain has too.
Recently, influential legal and commercial entities have joined the bid for the UK’s accession into the convention by writing to Charles Michel, president of the European Council. These include the law societies of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; City of London Corporation; British Retail Consortium; British Chamber of Commerce EU & Belgium; Which?; and the Chambers of Ireland.
The title, a famous Hollywood line from Top Gun, brings back wonderful high-speed memories of the Concorde. The legendary aircraft of old has been grounded and retired since 2003 after more than 30 years of record-breaking commercial flights. However, putting aside it’s breaking of the sound barrier, the Concorde’s wings were clipped for various reasons, and the major reasons being environmental.
What just happened?
On Wednesday 9th December, Labour's Dame Diana Johnson introduced a Ten-Minute Rule on the ‘Sexual Exploitation Bill’. If introduced it would make paying for sex a criminal offence and decriminalises selling sex. This would create offences of enabling or profiting from someone else's sexual exploitation, among other things.
What has just happened?
With the imminent arrival of the first vaccinations against COVID-19, the Labour Party has called for new laws to introduce criminal and financial penalties for social media companies that fail to crack down on misinformation surrounding coronavirus (specifically “dangerous anti-vaccine content” that appears on their networks.
In an investigation conducted by The Guardian, it was found that the UK government procured PPE kits from Chinese factories that employed North Korean women working under conditions of ‘modern slavery’. The government received huge backlash and criticism from Human Rights activists for their lack of due diligence in coming up with policies and steps that instead of discouraging and tackling the problem of modern slavery, aided and contributed to it.
What’s just happened?
While this year has undoubtedly been one for the history books, seeing a housing ‘boom’ is something many wouldn’t have predicted. However, it turns out that not only being cooped up with in-laws, parents, and partners has been a blessing for the stable family unit, it’s seemingly worked wonders for the property market too.
What has just happened?
Multiple individuals have reported receiving marketing emails from Klarna, a ‘buy now, pay later’ service, despite never having signed up.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) have announced that they will make enquiries into Klarna, as many people complained after receiving the email.
What has just happened?
The chair, co-secretary, and a number of other members in Bristol West Labour have been suspended from the party and threatened with an investigation after it passed a motion criticising the treatment of former leader Jeremy Corbyn as a “politically motivated attack against the left of the Labour Party by the leadership”.
Blockchain is essentially digital information stored in a public database. This technology is gaining popularity among the luxury retail sector. For example, in 2019 it was announced that LVMH would be launching the first global blockchain, using the Aura platform to allow consumers to trace the origin and authenticity of products.
Due to the unpredictability of COVID-19, aviation experts do not expect aviation traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. Nevertheless, when the aviation industry rebounds, it should work towards building a significantly more sustainable industry than the one we know today. This means putting the industry on a sounder financial footing and making flying less polluted.
The Holocaust is no secret to the world. Everyone, at some point, has read, heard, or watched examples the horrific treatment against the European Jewish community. To this day, there are survivors who are still recounting personal accounts of the horrific treatment they endured. The events that occurred have been labelled as ‘the worst crime in human history’, so why are they being replicated in 2020?
