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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Cambridge University has introduced a new foundation year scheme, designed to give disadvantaged young people a more realistic and obtainable avenue to the university. The scheme reduces the usual entry requirement of A*AA to BBB for students who had their education ‘disadvantaged or disrupted’ and are from lower-income households.
On the 15th of January 2021, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA)’s business interruption insurance test case, bringing clarity regarding whether insurers must pay claims on certain policies.[1] This case was brought about on behalf of 370,000 policyholders (particularly SMEs) due to the widespread store closures resulting from the pandemic. Business insurance providers such as Hiscox have rejected to pay out under various business interruption insurance policies.[2]
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Despite the desperate need for inclusion and striving towards a gender equal society, many female athletes are still subjected to intense ‘sex testing’ prior to competing. This violation of an individual’s rights has led to the mental and physical decline of female athletes as well as economic hardship.
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In the largest group action personal data claim in UK history, it has been announced that British Airways could face claims amounting to more than £800 million. British Airways initially stated that their online reservation systems had been accessed by an unauthorized third party on 7th September 2018, compromising the data of more than 420,000 customers. According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), British Airways was alerted to the breach by a third party and did not detect the breach themselves.
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It has been confirmed that on 21st January, Pregnant Then Screwed (PTS), an organisation that campaigns on issues that impact working mothers and offers support to those facing maternity-based discrimination, will be taking Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the High Court for discriminating against women in the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
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China, which was starting to be seen as a rising capitalist power and the land of opportunity by its people, is now uncompromisingly at war with this notion. With its ever-increasing trade sanctions and restrictions on mass media, it comes as a shock that China has agreed a trade deal with Europe.
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During 2020, the USA found itself in the middle of a tax war with France. This was in response to Macron placing a “3% levy on all revenue earnt from digital services used in France.” Branded as the dreaded ‘tech tax’, this naturally had a huge impact on tech giants such as Facebook Inc, Amazon Inc and, of course, Google.
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Spain's biggest economic hurdle has been youth unemployment, at around 40%, for many years. Now it has become one of the hardest COVID hit nations within Continental Europe. The nations’ central bank has predicted a 15.1% contraction in the economy if there is a 2nd wave of lockdown restrictions.
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In July 2020, a Bosnian volunteer handed over more than “1,600 pages of media reports and personal testimonies to Austria’s parliament, documenting the brutality of Croatia’s border police against irregular migrants”. The Border Violence Monitoring Network has observed an “increase in violence against refugees on the Croatian side since spring 2017”. Yet most, if not all, reports of violence by Croatian police continue to go unchecked.
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Despite Norway’s green credentials, its wealth has mostly been accumulated from huge oil exports.[LE1] Norway’s Nature and Youth group along with Greenpeace Norway are challenging what they describe as ‘double standards’, in a lawsuit disputing government issued oil licenses.
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On 11 December 2020, the UK Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling on the hugely anticipated Merricks v Mastercard case.[1] This has followed the £14bn collective action on behalf of 46.2 million consumers, brought against Mastercard concerning anti-competitive interchange fees.
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Throughout 2020, NHS workers worked tirelessly to save thousands of lives across the UK. While their efforts have been praised via social media channels and “clap for carers” last year, NHS workers are still being overlooked by the government after requests for a 15% pay rise have been ignored.
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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.
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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.
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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.
![Sex Testing and its economic impact [part 2]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e909fd4395f0523b82e9958/1612716074580-MKD79IORQLVUZ2K7F5C5/image-asset.jpeg)
![The termination of sex testing in sport [part I]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e909fd4395f0523b82e9958/1612005675996-VG0QH3P8GJ1TYNKTL2GY/image-asset.jpeg)
