Lockdown fines unfair?

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Review fines

All fines handed out for breaking lockdown rules should be reviewed, according to a committee of MPs. More than 93,000 fines of up to £10,000 have been handed out across England and Wales since the pandemic began. But the committee says the system is confusing and unfair, and that unclear rules mean many people could have been fined wrongly.

Mafia trial

Defendants in Italy’s largest mafia trial for decades will be questioned over charges of laundering billions of euros in the City of London. Members of ‘Ndrangheta allegedly set up UK companies to launder money. The criminal organisation is one of the richest and more feared in the world, with an estimated £44 billion annual turnover - more than Deutsche Bank and McDonalds combined.

Musk profits soar

Tesla sold 185,000 cars in the first 3 months of 2021, nearly twice as many as last year. It’s a new record for the electric car maker, and netted a £315 million profit for the quarter. The result entitles Elon Musk to options payouts worth £7.9 billion.

Bookworm boom

Sales of fiction books soared 16% in 2020 and audiobook sales climbed by nearly a third, as locked down readers turned to pages for pandemic escapism. It was a tricky time for authors though - shops were shut for large parts of the year, and school visits, literary festivals and promotional events were cancelled.