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The World This Week: Royal Trouble, AstraZeneca Questions And A Netflix Password Crackdown

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Will there ever not be an explosive week in news for 2021? At this point, it seems unlikely. This week, two British runaway royals opened up to Oprah in an interview that shook the world, a shocking homicide has reignited the Me Too Movement and the U.S just approved a massive COVID-19 aid plan.

Here are five notable stories from across the globe in Lovin Malta’s international news roundup in case you missed them. 

1. Meghan and Harry tell all in an explosive interview.

 

British divergent royals, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have sat down for an intimate interview with Oprah, telling all about the woes that drove them to flee across the Atlantic, far from Buckingham Palace.

According to US TV network CBS, nearly 50 million people tuned in to the interview on Tuesday.

Among several shocking claims, Meghan, the first mixed-race royal, told Oprah that Harry was approached by a senior royal with concerns on how “dark” their child Archie would be. She also said her pleas for help while she felt suicidal under a barrage of intrusive, sexist and racist spew by British tabloids, were ignored.

The Palace has finally broken its silence on the allegations that plunge it into internal crisis, saying it plans to deal with the issues privately.

2. Dubius questions have risen over the safety of British COVID-19 jab AstraZeneca.

Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Italy and Romania have postponed or limited the rollout of Astrazeneca vaccines after isolated reports of patients developing blood clots. However, major agencies like the World Health Authorities and European Medicines Agency said there was no reason to stop using it, with no link found between the vaccine and blood clots.

The EMA added that while it is investigating the claims, only 22 cases of blood clots were found out of the three million people who were vaccinated so far. Malta has secured more than one million doses of the jab and will not follow suit to suspend its rollout.

3. Horrifying UK murder case prompts an uproar for women’s safety

A horrifying case emerged in the UK as the body of a 33-year-old woman Sarah Everard was found in a woodland in Kent after she disappeared walking home in South London last week.

Maltese people residing in London took part in an online campaign to help locate her, including sharing CCTV footage of her last unknown location in an attempt to find her. A police officer has since been arrest on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering her.

The tragedy prompted women across the world, including Malta, to share their own experiences of assault, in that precautions can only protect victims so far.

Nearly a thousand people shared their own shocking stories of sexual harassment with Lovin Malta, with commuting being a hot spot for assaults. Unfortunately, the majority choose not the report to police.

4. You might need to say goodbye to sharing Netflix passwords,

 

Netflix is considering cracking down on users who share their passwords with others. This week, some users said they saw a screen saying, “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.”

Don’t fret just yet Malta users, a decision from Netflix is yet to be made on whether to roll it out through its entire network. Most streaming platforms allow users to create multiple profiles within one account, but terms and conditions specify that they’re meant to be used by people living in your household.

It’s not like Netflix is doing badly these days. It gained 37 million new subscribers in 2020, totalling up to over 200 million subscribers. Fuelled by a global lockdown, increased prices and hit shows like Tiger King and The Queen’s Gambit, Netflix reported over €2 billion in profit.

5. The U.S has just approved a gigantic COVID-19 relief bill of €1.6 trillion.

President Joe Biden has managed to clear a massive €1.6 trillion COVID-19 relief package through Congress, just the world remembers the one year anniversary of COVID-19 becoming a pandemic and despite no Republicans voting in favour of it.

Biden said that the package, called the “American Recovery Plan Act” with rebuild “the backbone of this country”, giving direct payments to most Americans, some $350 billion to state and local governments, $49 billion for expanded Covid-19 testing and research, as well as $14bn for vaccine distribution.

Is there an international news piece you think we’ve missed? Comment below 

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Sam is a journalist, artist and writer based in Malta. Send her pictures of hands or need-to-know stories on politics or art on [email protected].

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