The August "silly season" is upon us, which means that many of our readers will likely be enjoying a well-earned summer break. So whether you are reading this from the comfort of your Dorset "glamping" tent, braved the lottery of the UK traffic light system and bagged a sun lounger in Ibiza, or have been left in the office to pick up the pieces whilst everyone else is off enjoying themselves (!), here are a few quick-fire questions to keep you up to speed with what's going on...

Questions:

1. The Prime Minister was accused of being "missing in action" on the subject of climate change this week. This is a sensitive subject for Boris Johnson who will be hosting COP26 - the United Nations 26th Climate Change Summit - in Glasgow in November. Boris has also had to defend his Climate Minister, Alok Sharma's, decision to fly to 30 countries in the last seven months to "see first-hand the impacts of climate change". The subject of air travel will no doubt be on the COP26 agenda, with a focus on how to reduce global emissions from aviation, but can you name the origin and destination of the current shortest commercial passenger flight? And how long does the flight take?

2. The results of the MSCI UK Quarterly Property Index were released on Thursday showing a strong rebound in performance for the property sector during Q2 2021. In fact, direct real estate delivered a total return of 3.4% over the Quarter, the strongest performance since June 2015. The structure of the index, however, has changed markedly over recent years. From highest to lowest, can you order the following sectors by their capital value allocations; hotel, industrial, office, retail and residential? There is a bonus point if you can guess the percentage allocations for each!

3. Whilst the industrial sector has been by far and away the best performer over the last 12 months (delivering total returns in excess of 20%), all the property key sectors delivered a positive total return in Q2 2021. Retail even outperformed the office sector for the first time since 2016! Can you name the only two sub-sectors (e.g. West End Offices or Retail Warehouses) that delivered negative total returns for the Quarter?

4. The curtain will fall today on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. There may not have been any spectators in the stands, but the inspiring performances of the athletes and competitors still made for some compulsive viewing, not least from team GB. It's hard to pick one stand-out moment from the Games, but can you name both the event and the nationalities of the two male athletes who opted to share their gold medal in a heart-warming show of mutual admiration and sportsmanship?

5. The unthinkable happened this week with news that Lionel Messi will be leaving Barcelona, the club with whom he is synonymous and where he has spent his entire playing career. Messi's trophy haul at Barcelona is unparalleled securing ten La Liga titles, four Champions League titles and winning the coveted Ballon d'Or six times. You'll have to imagine a world pre-Messi and Ronaldo, but can you name the three British players who have won the Ballon d'Or and the only English player to win it twice?

Answers:

1. Scotland runs what is described as the shortest commercial passenger flight in the world, between Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands. The flight apparently lasts just two minutes!
2. The allocation of the MSCI Quarterly Index by asset class is as follows: Industrial (31%), Offices (28%), Retail (24%), Hotels (5.3%) and Residential (3.7%). Rewind twenty years to 2001 and industrial assets made up just 15% of the Index!
3. The only two property sub-sectors to deliver negative total returns in the last Quarter were Shopping Centres (-1.3%) and Central London retail (-0.5%). The reason that the Retail sector as a whole outperformed the Office sector was a stellar return from Retail Warehouses at 3.7%.
4. Close friends, Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar, opted to share their gold medal in the men's high jump, rather than settle the tie with a jump off. Both men had recorded perfect jumping records until the bar was set at to the Olympic-record height of 2.39m and each missed three times. When the duo took to the winner's platform, they each placed a gold medal on each other.
5. The three British winners of the Ballon d'Or are Bobby Charlton (1966), Northern Irish legend George Best (1968), and Kevin Keegan (1978 and 1979) - the only English player to have won it twice.