Monday 25th January

- 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.
Tuesday 26th January

- 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.
Wednesday 27th January

- 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.
Thursday 28th January

- 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.
Friday 29th January

- 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.