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Business Matters: Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak fined over lockdown parties

São Tomé and Príncipe; on the sharp end of climate change

13/04/2022 GMT

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak fined over lockdown parties

BBC World Service - Business Matters, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak fined over lockdown parties

Boris Johnson has been fined by the police for attending a birthday party thrown for him during a Covid lockdown. The prime minister confirmed he had paid the fixed penalty notice for going to the hour-long gathering in the Cabinet Room on 19 June 2020. Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the PM's wife were also fined for the same event, and confirmed they had paid. All three apologised for attending, but neither Mr Johnson or Mr Sunak offered to resign. Opposition parties are calling for the Commons, which is currently on Easter recess, to be recalled.

Figures out on Tuesday showed Americans are being hit by higher prices of oil and many other products and services. Prices climbed at their highest rates since 1981, rising 8.5% over the year to the end of March. We hear from Steve H. Hanke, professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Also in the programme, we look at Tesla and one influence on the company that is only now beginning to be noticed is that of fanbots - automated posts on Twitter that seem to be designed to move the share price - especially at times when the stock is under pressure. David Kirsch, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, explained how they had come to his attention.

Plus - we travel to São Tomé and Príncipe, a country on the sharp end of climate change - the BBC's Tamasin Ford finds out how the island - the entirety of which is a massive volcano - is home to lush, tropical rainforest and some of the most important biodiversity in Africa; Príncipe is a UNESCO biosphere because of its unique environment. But despite being breathtakingly beautiful, it’s poor with the smallest economy on the continent and around 90% of its budget comes from foreign donors, topped up by tourism - we hear how the pandemic has affected this vital part of the economy. Perhaps the biggest threat to the nation though is rising sea levels; in São Tomé and Principé, 4% of the land mass has already been lost to the Atlantic Ocean with entire houses being washed away; Tamasin visits one in Principé. The country is already doing what it can - more than two thirds of the islands are protected national parks and by the end of this year the government hopes to have written into law the country’s first ever marine protected areas, but will it be enough?

PHOTO: Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak

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