Three leading social media networks owned by Facebook were out of service for nearly six hours on Monday (4 October) due to a technical problem.

Elsewhere, there are warnings of higher air fares post-Covid and the airline industry commits to a “tough” long-term emissions target. While parts of London were hit by overnight flash flooding.

Here are the main headlines that the UK woke up to Tuesday (5 October)

PM to tell Britain to get back to work

Boris Johnson is expected to use his speech at the Conservative conference this week to urge workers to return to their offices and workplaces. Johnson will make the plea as the government becomes more confident the pandemic will not cause any more lockdowns. (Daily Mail) 

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp suffer six-hour outage

The social media sites have finally returned to service after being down for nearly six hours on Monday. The three brands, all owned by Facebook, were out of service due to a faulty configuration change, according to the company. (BBC News)

Air fares will rocket, warns Lufthansa boss

The price of flights is set to rise sharply, according to Lufthansa’s chief executive Carsten Spohr, who claimed that air fares were “too low” before the pandemic. He added that such low prices were not “not healthy for the industry, not healthy for our environment”. (Daily Telegraph)

Parts of London hit by severe floods after torrential overnight rain 

An overnight torrential downpour left large parts of London’s transport system and some central areas underwater. Several Tube lines were disrupted by flooding on Tuesday morning as heavy rain caused problems in areas such as Knightsbridge, Hampstead and Croydon. (The Mirror)

Global airlines commit to net zero CO2 emissions by 2050

Carriers have committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, although they admit it will be a “tough” goal to achieve. The target was agreed by members of Iata on Monday as the aviation industry continues to face pressure to reduce the sector’s emissions. (Financial Times)

Fuel supply crisis eases across UK but ‘still challenging’ around London 

Petrol stations in Scotland, northern England and the Midlands have “virtually” returned to normal levels of supplies. But army tanker drivers have had to be deployed to help improve the situation in London and southeast where shortages of petrol continue to be a problem. (Sky News)