Round-Up news – 17th May 2021 this week in Five Minutes
As Lockdown restrictions continue to be lifted, this week has seen the return of socialising indoors, hugging and pubs and restaurants to allow members of the public indoors.
Boris Johnston has admitted that the road map out of lockdown may still be a little unclear due to the Indian variant having some effect on certain parts of the UK but as more information comes through decisions can be made as to whether the original Road map needs to be altered. Early on in the week, the government had confirmed that 86 local councils in England had five or more cases of the India Variant, which is thought to be more transmissible. The R-rate of the virus is suspected to have raised slightly in certain parts of the countries with the rate to be suspected at between 0.9 and 1.1 in certain places.
On Monday there were 1,979 new cases and 5 new deaths Friday there were 2,829 new cases and 9 new deaths.
One of the most dramatic changes in coronavirus has come out of Bolton, and neighbouring Bury in Greater Manchester. In Bolton, cases had risen over 70% from the previous week, Nicola S0turgeon, First Minister for Scotland, stated that individual from areas such as Bolton where infection rates are rising will be banned from visiting Scotland and she had also given warnings to residents of Scotland to avoid visiting such areas.
In Business news retail appears to be bouncing back well in particular the clothing sectors of retails have seen a great level of high street sales, online sales have dipped but to no one’s real surprise after the sharp rise in 2020 and 2021. Overall retail sales are up over 9% based on pre-lockdown figures.
Tim Cook the boss of Apple took a grilling from a Judge with the Legal row regarding the App Store and Epic games’, Fortnite. Cook could not answer questions relating to the profitability of the App store, and the judge gave him a hard time about 39% of app developers apparent dissatisfaction with the operations of the store.
The main argument surrounding the case is regarding the 30% commission that Apple takes when an in-app purchase is made on iPhones and iPads through their platform and whether this is fair.
It will be a long time before a verdict is settled on by the judge.
Finally, the BBC has made an “unconditional apology” over the way it secured the interview with Dianna following a report concluded by Lord Dyson.
In the Report Lord Dyson concluded:
- Bashir had faked documents – bank statements designed to suggest Princess Diana was under surveillance – to win the trust of her brother Earl Spencer, and eventually gain access to the princess
- As media interest in the interview increased, the BBC covered up what it had learned about how Bashir secured the interview
- The 1996 internal probe, led by the then director of news Tony Hall – now Lord Hall, who later became the BBC director-general – into initial complaints had been “woefully ineffective”
- A note written by Diana said she had no regrets about the broadcast and Bashir did not show her the faked documents. It was taken by the BBC as evidence that the forgery had not influenced her decision to be interviewed – but the inquiry said the BBC should have considered the possibility that the documents were shown to Earl Spencer to influence his sister.
References
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/latest-covid-19-infection-rates-20653031
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57159286
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57136140
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/covid-reproductive-rate-r-number-coronavirus-london-england-yorkshire-variant-b936542.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57187731
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57199547
