Schools and construction paused as Indian capital mulls ‘pollution lockdown’ November 14, 2021 Schools in New Delhi have closed for a week, as authorities consider a “pollution lockdown” to protect residents of worsening smog. “Schools will be shut so that children don’t have to breathe polluted air,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal told reporters on Saturday. The minister added that that the capital’s construction activity would also be paused [...]
UK fraudsters extend their reach after taking advantage of two-thirds more victims during Covid February 24, 2022 The number of UK fraud cases worth more than £100,000 jumped by two-thirds (66 per cent) between 2020 and 2021, according to new figures from KPMG’s UK Fraud Barometer. The figures show fraudsters took a splatter-gun approach to financial crime last year, in defrauding a larger number of victims for smaller sums of money than [...]
King’s Cross hotspot for rental growth in city as student demand pushes prices higher December 13, 2021 Real estate experts have said it would take more than a minor setback with Covid variant Omicron to dent the sector’s recovery. The country would have to rewind to a situation like the start of the year, when the vaccine was in its early rollout and working from home was enforced for a long time, [...]
Covid: WHO ‘very worried’ about Europe surge November 20, 2021 The World Health Organization (WHO) has reportedly said it is concerned about the spread of Covid-19 in Europe, following the announcement of a full lockdown in Austria.
Editorial: This Tube strike is self-defeating in the extreme March 3, 2022 When Ukrainian citizens are sheltering in underground stations, it can at best seem glib, or heartless, to complain about our own trivial woes. A tube strike is a trivial woe; some will work from home when the RMT go on strike today, some will walk a little further than usual, some may even try getting [...]
Vaccine firms’ shares surge after Europe battered by rising Covid cases November 22, 2021 Pharmaceutical companies behind coronavirus vaccines saw shares lift on Monday, against a backdrop of rising infections in Europe. Moderna and Novavax shares were both up 8 per cent after countries on the continent have cracked down on soaring infections in recent days. BioNTech saw a jump of 10 per cent while Pfizer marked a 1 [...]
Irish govt throws weight behind home working June 28, 2021 Ireland must avoid a “drift back to the office” following the pandemic, according to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. His comments came as he launched #MakingRemoteWork, the Irish government’s new campaign for home working, in Dublin on Monday. Varadkar’s Department for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has encouraged employers in Ireland to examine their policies for remote [...]
Amazon and Google unveil plans to send workers back to the office April 1, 2021 Amazon and Google have both made changes to their work-from-home policies as they look to encourage workers back into the office. In a memo to employees, Amazon said it expected most of its corporate staff to be back in the office by early autumn. The company said it planned to return to an “office-centric culture [...]
Boris Johnson to press ahead with 19 July ‘Big Bang’ freedom day July 5, 2021 Boris Johnson will today announce an end to most coronavirus restrictions in England from 19 July, as the nation prepares to “live with coronavirus”. The Prime Minister will set out how the vaccine programme has allowed the government to move away from legal restrictions on everyday life to a more voluntary approach. New health secretary [...]
Plan B: Boris Johnson set to announce new Covid restrictions at 5.30pm today December 8, 2021 Boris Johnson is set to announce new Covid-19 restrictions imminently to deal with the growing cases of the more transmissible Omicron variant. Multiple media outlets are now reporting that Johnson is set to bring in the Plan B restrictions – mandatory face masks and vaccine passports, along with working from home orders – as early [...]