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5 Things You Need To Know, Today, on Friday 17th March 2023
5. Britain said on it would ban TikTok on government phones with immediate effect, a move that follows other Western countries in barring the Chinese-owned video app over security concerns.
TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny due to fears that user data from the app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.
4. UK visitor attractions are suffering from "long Covid" due to fewer tourists travelling from abroad, an industry body has warned.
Millions returned to museums and galleries in 2022 as Covid restrictions ended, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) said but fewer international tourists meant visitor levels were still almost a quarter lower than before the pandemic.
3. Royal Mail is falling down on its letter delivery obligations, a group of MPs has said.
The firm has been prioritising parcel deliveries over letters, they said, and called on Ofcom to investigate.
2. More than 1,000 Passport Office workers will go on strike for five weeks over a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working across England, Scotland and Wales will take part in the action from 3 April to 5 May.
1. Doctors' leaders and ministers are being urged to start formal pay talks after a breakthrough on a deal with other NHS staff in England.
Unions for NHS staff, including nurses and ambulance workers, recommended, on Thursday, their members back a fresh offer of a 5% pay rise from April but the British Medical Association (BMA) and government are not yet in talks to resolve the doctors' dispute.