Weekly Rundown 25th Jan – 29th Jan

Urgent fostering for children has increased by a third – Barnardo’s have said that ‘Family breakdowns have increased due to lockdown pressures’
Another increased report of children in abusive homes – Referrals have increased by 30% about children living with domestic abuse during the pandemic, according to the NSPCC.
Major production by Netflix has begun filming in Belfast – The School for Good and Evil, directed by Paul Feig, is being filmed at Belfast Harbour Studios.
Flood damage keeping residents away from homes for a possibility of ‘months’ not weeks – Thursday saw around eighty people evacuated from their homes due to extreme flooding and now they have been urged not to return.

News feature for Facebook has launched in the UK – This is only the second market to get the feature, following the US.
Redundancies amongst young people have seen a big increase – Covid has pushed the jobless rate to 5% with people aged between 25 to 34 facing the highest risk of redundancy.
Cash van armed robbery sees five arrested by Police – A man with a crowbar assaulted a security officer during a robbery in Belfast city centre.
UK surpasses 100,000 deaths of Covid-19 – PM Boris Johnson says that he takes ‘full responsibility’ for the pandemic response of the UK government.
Preparations in place for Amazon to stop selling some products to NI – Effects will be seen on the 1st April as the “grace period” for GB-NI parcels expires.

Online support shown for Holocaust memorial day – People were urged to share their support by lighting a candle in their windows.
Factory evacuated after ammonia leak – Residents nearby were urged to stay inside and keep windows/doors closed whilst they contained the area.
Europe’s biggest agricultural show postponed for 2021 – The Royal Welsh Show normally brings in around 250,000 people annually but it has now been cancelled for 2021 due to coronavirus.
Limit on contactless payment could be raised to £100 – The financial regulator will consult “shortly” and debate on whether it is in the best interest to advance on the current rate.
AstraZeneca supply demands causing further friction for EU and UK – The EU is demanding a larger supply of doses from UK plants.

Fall in car production means it’s at the lowest level since 1984 – Output was around 30% last year due to the pandemic forcing closures of factories and a drop in consumer demand.
A cull of pheasants set as bird flu has now been confirmed – The infected area in North Wales has now been placed into a control zone.
New vaccine now begins manufacture – The vaccine, although still in it’s trial phase, has been reserved by the UK government. 60 million pre-orders have been confirmed.
Online education causing huge digital divide of pupils – Around a fifth of students don’t have access to a digital device, according to a survey of 167 schools and colleges.
Passenger flights from UAE banned from Scotland – To stop the spread of coronavirus, additional restrictions have been put into place for travellers from UAE, Rwanda and Burundi.

First ever mobile airport for flying cars and drones is due at the end of this year – This is a joint collaboration between Hyundai and Urban Air Port, said to be called ‘Air-one’.
Online resurface of Royal Family documentary – The film was shown and quickly locked away 50 years ago. However, it briefly re-appeared on YouTube this month.
Scotland coronavirus death-toll surpasses 6,000 milestone – 6,040 people in Scotland have now died as a result of the pandemic.
New single-dose vaccine is 66% effective – Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Janssen, a Belgian company is 66% effective. The UK has pre-ordered 30m doses.