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Outgoing first lady unveils ‘America the beautiful’ theme in White House, breaking with previous years that featured blood red trees and bare branches Apart from the odd nod to a funerary urn, first lady Melania Trump broke with tradition this year with her White House Christmas decorations, opting for fairly normal green trees with red and gold ornaments instead of the blood-red foliage or Shining-esque ghost-white branches of previous years. This year’s theme, unveiled on Monday, was “America the beautiful”, inspired, she said, by Americans’ shared appreciation “for our traditions, values and history”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33wMdIM

Alex Bourne’s firm only recently gained safety certification for Covid testing product and had no experience in medical supplies Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage There is mounting pressure on Matt Hancock to explain how his former neighbour was awarded about £30m-worth of work making test tubes for Covid test samples as questions arose about the safety certification of the products. A Guardian investigation revealed last week that Alex Bourne, who used to run a pub in Hancock’s village, and had no previous experience in medical supplies, has for about six months been manufacturing tens of millions of plastic vials for Covid test kits. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ocq8XQ

Snacking and drinking rose most in the UK out of 10 European countries since Covid Comfort-seeking Britons have eaten and drunk their way through more unhealthy snacks and alcohol during lockdown than their peers elsewhere in Europe, a study suggests. Overall, the survey of 5,000 consumers in 10 European countries found that lockdown restrictions may have caused lasting positive change in relation to food consumption, with significant shifts in shopping patterns, meal preparation and eating habits. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ocrdyS

Boris Johnson urged to waive tax on Covid bonus, but Treasury says collecting revenues is issue for Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to pay every NHS and social care worker in Scotland a £500 Covid bonus and has called on Boris Johnson to make the payment tax-free. In a speech to the Scottish National party’s annual conference that sought to link the recovery from the pandemic with the push for independence, the first minister said health and social care workers deserved special recognition for the “incredible” sacrifices they had made. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37pkvir

The document says the NHS is the priority and it cannot make an economic case either way Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage On Monday the government finally set out the economic and health impacts that it says are behind the tiering system for controlling the pandemic. The 48-page document does not include many new facts and figures, instead pulling together statistics and forecasts. Using language likely to frustrate many MPs, it says it is not possible to assess whether the economic cost of the tiers system in England will be greater than that of taking no action. However, it argues that preventing the NHS from becoming overwhelmed has to be the priority. “The costs in terms of loss of life in such a scenario are considered intolerable for society,” it says. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3obi3Tg

A drone sighting caused the airport to close for two days in 2018, but despite a lengthy police investigation, no culprit was ever found. So what exactly did people see in the Sussex sky? Soon after 9pm on Wednesday 19 December 2018, an airport security officer who had just finished his shift at Gatwick airport was standing at a bus stop on site, waiting to go home, when he saw something strange. He immediately called the Gatwick control centre and reported what he had seen: two drones. One was hovering above a vehicle inside the airport complex, and the other was flying alongside the nearby perimeter fence. The message was relayed to senior management. Unauthorised drone activity is considered a danger to aircraft and passengers because of the risk of collision. Within minutes, Gatwick’s only runway had been closed and all flights were suspended. Over the next half hour, 20 police and airport security vehicles drove around the airport, lights flashing and sirens blaring, with the in...

Initiative offers landlords the option of renting their properties to the city for a minimum of five years For centuries, the maze of narrow, cobbled streets that make up Lisbon’s Alfama neighbourhood has told the story of the city’s past. But in recent years, as trendy cafes and tourist flats proliferated, the historic quarter began telling a worrying tale of the city’s future. A rapid transformation had rippled across the city centre as Airbnb-style tourist rentals swelled to a third of the properties. As locals found themselves priced out and communities began hollowing out, many began grumbling about the aftershocks of terramotourism – a tourism earthquake. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36p3wgV

It’s 130 years since Father Christmas first appeared in a department store. But this year is the strangest one yet – with virtual calls taking the place of shopping centre visits. Is it enough to keep the ho ho hos flowing? Five bearded men, dressed head to toe as Santa, wearing fur-trimmed face masks, file into an office building in London and sit behind wooden desks – laptops and webcams in front of them. The room has been made magical with the addition of a red and gold curtain, a snow-flecked Christmas tree and a stuffed penguin perched on top of some lockers. In years gone by these off-duty actors and former children’s TV presenters would have sat in department store grottos and worn out their knees taking the weight of Britain’s children. But they are here today to brush up their tech skills and learn how the in-store Santa can adapt and survive in the middle of a pandemic. The seminar is led by James Lovell, a honey-voiced compere who straddles the line between practical teach...

The high-voltage style, comic-strip colours and eye-watering price tags of this Italian collective changed the world of design – what better place for an exhibition than modernist Milton Keynes? With its comic-book colours, gaudy patterns and paper-thin veneers, the work of Italian design group Memphis has rarely looked as at home as it does in Milton Keynes. The first glimpse you get of the garish thrills in store in this new exhibition is through a big picture window, punched into the side of the corrugated mirror-polished box of the MK Gallery . Shining out between the building’s bright yellow loading bay and red spiral staircase stands the Carlton , a bookcase-cum-room-divider-cum-shamanic-totem, in all its crazed glory. Designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1981, and collected by the likes of David Bowie, Karl Lagerfeld and Cara Delevingne, it has become the symbol of a brief moment in Milan when a group of designers stuck two fingers up at good taste – and changed the world of design...

Our series on captivating travel photos continues with Jenny Zarins’s image from a horse-riding safari in the Namib desert This photograph, taken in the Namib desert in 2018, captures a sense of freedom for me, that feeling of vastness we get from spending extended time in the wild. I was on a horse-riding safari: 11 days of being outside all day and sleeping beneath the stars. We covered 300km; it was extraordinary. I’d never been to Namibia and although I’d been told about the breathtaking landscape, it still did exactly that … took my breath away. You think of riding through the desert and imagine it will be all sand – but every day the scenery was so diverse – from the plains along the edge of the Namib sand sea in Sossusvlei to mountains and the dramatic, deep Kuiseb Canyon and Gaub Pass. We rode through the Welwitschia plains, Moon valley and along the Swakop River. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36qwSLM

Topshop, Burton, Miss Selfridge and more helped to define the high street down the years Arcadia has gone into administration , completing Sir Philip Green’s fall from the king of the high street. Here we look at the tycoon’s brands from a fashion perspective: Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o545lU

For World Aids Day, a new audio project will play important speeches and clips that catalogue the ongoing fight against HIV/Aids “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Homophobia has got to go!” This was a chant from New York’s ACT-UP demonstration in 1989. Now the audio clip of this protest will echo throughout Greenwich Village in the coming month. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mDGyZf

Agriculture ministry drawn in to row after state media prompts backlash with claims that China leads global kimchi industry Social media users in China and South Korea are embroiled in another row , this time over the provenance of kimchi, the fermented cabbage dish that most people recognise as an essential part of the Korean diet . Not, though, in China, where state media have sparked an online backlash after one of the country’s fermented dishes received certification from the International Organisation for Standardisation [ISO]. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fR3fGJ

Ethiopia’s prime minister was feted by the international community as a reformer and a peacemaker. Now, as the Guardian’s Jason Burke explains, he has launched a major military campaign in the north of his country that threatens the stability of the region Just over a year ago, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, was the toast of the international community. His peacemaking efforts with neighbouring Eritrea had been recognised with a Nobel peace prize and his domestic reforms were winning plaudits. This month, however, it is a different story. The Guardian’s Africa correspondent Jason Burke tells Rachel Humphreys that Abiy Ahmed has launched a major military operation in the northern region of Tigray and imposed a state of emergency. He said he was responding to an attack on an army base by the region’s ruling party, the TPLF, which it has denied. On Saturday, government forces declared victory in the offensive after claiming to have entered the regional capital, Mekelle. Cont...

Only sawdust remains at site of Bavarian mystery statue that has gained celebrity status among alpine hikers German police have opened an investigation into the disappearance of a large wooden sculpture of a phallus from a mountainside where it appeared without explanation several years ago. The two-metre-tall (7ft) sculpture appeared to have been chopped down over the weekend, local newspaper Allgaeuer Zeitung reported on Monday, leaving behind only a pile of sawdust on the 1,738m-high (5,702ft) Grünten mountain, in southern Bavaria, 140km south-west of Munich. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o66Xik

Social network agrees deal with mainstream outlets in face of government crackdown on its dominance of advertising Facebook is to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, as the social network faces the threat of a government crackdown over its dominance of online advertising. Most British newspaper groups have signed up to the programme, under which their articles will appear in a dedicated news section on the site that is due to launch in January. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o36ayS

Scientists suggest parts of expanse that once connected Britain to mainland Europe survived waves and had settlements Breaking away from Europe has never been straightforward. Eight thousand years ago, a series of enormous tsunamis swept through the North Sea and struck the coast of what is now Britain, with devastating effects. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JqCm02

Food bank users more commonly in debt to government than to friends or payday loan firms It is now more common for people using food banks to be in debt to the government than to family and friends or payday loan companies, the Trussell Trust has said. The UK’s biggest food bank network said half of all households visiting food banks struggled to afford essential goods such as food and clothes because they were repaying universal credit debts. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Jdwh7B

Actor who plays Princess Margaret adds her voice to calls for Netflix to add a disclaimer Helena Bonham Carter has said The Crown has a “moral responsibility” to tell viewers that it is a drama, rather than historical fact, in the wake of calls for a “health warning” for people watching the series. The actor, who played Princess Margaret in series three and four of the Netflix hit drama, told an official podcast for the show that there was an important distinction between “our version”, and the “real version”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3of99nJ

WHO ‘will do everything’ to find Covid origin; Mexico and Brazil seeing ‘alarming’ case surge; Opec to hold a second day of talks on Tuesday US may begin vaccinations before Christmas Vietnam reports first community virus in almost three months Moderna Covid vaccine has 94% efficacy, final results confirm Spain appeals for ‘common sense’ after shopping crowd scenes See all our coronavirus coverage 12.45am GMT The World Tourism Organization called Monday for the standardisation of traveller health checks and the establishment of air corridors to ease international travel during the pandemic, AFP reports. The call came at a conference in Spain’s Canary Islands as the global tourism industry reels from a year in which travel restrictions to slow the coronavirus pandemic have decimated the sector. 12.32am GMT After a Thanksgiving weekend when the number of people traveling through US airports reached its highest since mid-March, a top government official said on Monday some Ame...

Game with Aston Villa on Friday now in jeopardy Training ground closed until Wednesday at the earliest Newcastle’s Premier League game at Aston Villa on Friday is in danger of postponement after Steve Bruce’s entire first-team squad were asked to self-isolate on Monday amid a growing Covid-19 outbreak at the north-east club. The training ground will not reopen until Wednesday at the earliest after a specially ordered set of coronavirus tests on Sunday revealed a significant number of players and staff had recorded positive results. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2KM2p2i

Areas of England under the toughest rules can run supported programmes Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Local authorities in tier 3, with the toughest Covid restrictions , will be invited to apply for funds to run mass testing programmes of people with no symptoms, in hopes of driving down the virus and moving to tier 2 , the government has said. Public health directors will be able to put forward proposals for testing in those parts of their communities most at risk from the virus, if they so choose, which could be particular neighbourhoods or workplaces where infection rates are high. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JezwM4

An area seven times larger than Greater London has been lost in what one activist called a ‘humiliating and shameful’ destruction A vast expanse of Amazon rainforest seven times larger than Greater London was destroyed over the last year as deforestation surged to a 12-year high under Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Figures released by the Brazilian space institute, Inpe, on Monday showed at least 11,088 sq km of rainforest was razed between August 2019 and July this year – the highest figure since 2008. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Jdu1x9

Alliance of women’s groups call for a commission on juries and a ban on use of sexual history evidence An alliance of women’s organisations is calling for radical reforms to address the “disastrous state” of rape investigations and prosecutions, including a ministerial lead, a commission on juries and a ban on the use of sexual history evidence. The call comes after rape convictions in England and Wales fell to a record low this year , while figures show that prosecutions and convictions have more than halved in three years . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fPFQ8o

In the next instalment of our series of lockdown diaries , photographer Sarah Lee shares her observations from her daily bike rides as autumn slides towards winter and things get darker Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33tb14F

PM delivers upbeat message in effort to head off backbench rebellion over new restrictions Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Boris Johnson has said there is “every reason” to believe “the worst is nearly behind us” as he seeks to win round a 70-strong group of sceptical Tory MPs to head off a backbench rebellion over Covid-19 curbs. Ahead of Tuesday’s Commons vote on the strengthened three-tier system, the prime minister wrote to the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) – whose members have been pushing for a cost-benefit analysis of the economic, health and social impact of the measures – to quell concerns. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Vd1gTs

Sex traffickers can make profits of over £1m a year per brothel – and Covid lockdowns have only made it easier for them to operate Three weeks ago, police entered a brothel in south-east England after receiving intelligence about criminal activity there. Inside, they found eight Romanian women wearing face shields and masks, and laminated Covid-19 health and safety sheets on the wall. An industrial-size bottle of hand sanitiser stood by the front door. “On the surface, this did not look like a place where criminality and sexual exploitation was taking place,” says Cristina Huddleston, a trafficking victim support specialist who joined the raid that evening. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Jjx5Ys

My Gaza by Jehad al-Saftawi is a personal account of peoples’ suffering as they go about their lives under Israeli blockade Working as a journalist in Gaza, says Palestinian photographer Jehad al-Saftawi, is like walking barefoot in a field of thorns. “You must always watch where you step. Each neighbourhood is composed of its own intimate social network, and travelling through them with a camera makes you a significant suspicion. “You’re caught between the two sides of the conflict: the rulers of Gaza limit what you can photograph and write about, imprisoning and torturing those who disobey. At the same time, the Israeli army sees you as a potential threat that must be eliminated, as has been the fate of many Palestinian journalists.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Jr5LXU

It was tough being a punk or metal obsessive in a small town. Seven fans who sought love or friendship via music mag ‘lonely hearts’ ads tell us if they found what they were looking for From headbangers in Hastings to new romantics in Norwich, pen pals and lonely hearts columns were a staple of music magazines from the 1970s to the 1990s. Hopeful, passionate and bored fans sent in their photos, names, addresses and obsessions for publication and crossed their fingers, hoping for a big response. Decades before the advent of online forums, fans would then exchange handwritten letters, gushing over the likes of Pat Benatar and Whitesnake. Teenage goths from Scunthorpe and Southend could fall in love, the ice broken by their shared love of Siouxsie and the Banshees. The ads would generally convey a passion for music, but between the lines were cries for connection, pleas for love. As a music obsessive from a small Yorkshire town, I saw my own thoughts and feelings echoed in them and star...

PM tries to stave off tier rebellion as NHS plans celebrity vaccine blitz … farming in England faces historic shake-up … and Joe Biden’s dog mishap Morning everyone. I’m Martin Farrer and these are the top stories you need to get up to speed this morning. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mn3Jqi

Exclusive: Akshata Murty owns 5% of IMM, which used structure that could reduce taxes payable in India The wife of the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is a shareholder in a restaurants business that funnelled investments through a letterbox company in the tax haven of Mauritius, in a structure that could allow its backers to avoid taxes in India. The business, International Market Management (IMM), is hoping to build a chain of dozens of restaurants across India, via franchise agreements with the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and the American fast food brand Wendy’s. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37lTf4e

Grant Shapps is served with notice of potential action and has been asked to respond within 10 days A legal challenge is being launched to halt government plans for a two-mile tunnel under Stonehenge that will cut through a world heritage site. Earlier this month the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, approved the £1.7bn project, which will include 8 miles of extended dual carriageway along the A303 in Wiltshire. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Vdpa1g

WTO tariffs could add 10% to car prices if deal is not agreed before 2021 Carmakers are bracing for the final Brexit deadline by moving cars and parts both ways across the Channel to make sure they are not hit by tariffs if the UK and EU fail to agree a trade deal. Trade between the UK and EU will be governed by new rules from 1 January, but the imported cars will become 10% more expensive overnight if tariffs are imposed under the World Trade Organization regime. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fQK5QY

A community-focused Ramsbottom pub that trains marginalised young people slams the ‘inept system’ that is forcing tens of thousands of hospitality venues to remain closed In a normal year in the run-up to Christmas, Glen Duckett, landlord of the award-winning Eagle + Child in Ramsbottom, would be accompanying five or six of his staff on a trip to Angoulême in France, an annual culinary excursion he introduced as part of an apprenticeship scheme. Back at the pub, the team would be gearing up for festive gatherings, designing special menus, preparing turkeys and digging the Christmas decorations out of the cellar. But this year is anything but normal. The Eagle will still twinkle with fairy lights, but it won’t be open this Christmas. When lockdown in England ends on 2 December, the pub, near Bury in Greater Manchester, will return to tier 3, only this time the restrictions will be more severe. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o788y7

She hit the big time playing the high-powered political fixer Olivia Pope. In real life, she has spent years campaigning for Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats. So what’s someone who lives and breathes politics doing in Ryan Murphy’s musical The Prom? In a rational world, somewhere deep in the Democratic National Committee headquarters, a small staff would be hard at work planning Kerry Washington’s presidential bid. “Washington 2028: Tough on Scandal” or “2032: Ms Kerry Goes to Washington” – the slogans just write themselves. Whether Washington could be persuaded to run for office is another matter. She is, she insists when we meet via a video call, too self-effacing for politics. “I feel you really have to decide that you’re the one, like: ‘I’m the one to solve this problem!’” She is much more comfortable directing attention elsewhere. “For most of my career, I was really a character actor,” she says. “People didn’t connect that the girl from Ray was the same girl from Last Ki...

Our writers considered hundreds of contenders – and here are their picks of the year. Listen to all 390 tracks they voted for on our playlist Delivered from a nightmare: why our No 1 song works so well We kick off our end of 2020 music coverage with Guardian critics’ favourite songs, with our album of the year countdown starting tomorrow. As ever, each critic votes for top 20 songs and albums, with points allocated for each placing, and those points tallied to make these lists. There were 390 songs voted for in all – we’ve put ( almost) all of them in a Spotify playlist . Please share your own favourite songs of the year in the comments below, and we’ll hopefully see you in a festival field in 2021 … Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3liPlhp

The actor said she was ‘too busy getting on with life’ to worry about being ‘thrown on the scrapheap’ Maureen Lipman has said older female actors are “thrown on the scrapheap” after a certain age but added: “That’s fair enough, isn’t it? The same thing happens to a leaf on a tree.” In an interview with the Radio Times, the actor, who is working on Coronation Street, acknowledged there is “a certain amount of invisibility” at her age. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33w5GJQ

Noel Bowler photographed some of the largest newsrooms across the world, exploring the physical spaces that house our modern press. With declining readership, reduced advertising and persistent questions about ‘truth’ and relevance of newspapers in the 21st century, the structures of print media are in a state of flux. This is a glimpse into the places that are separated by geography, culture and politics, yet linked by the commitment to informing an ever-more distracted public Support book project Above the Fold on Kickstarter Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Jp7KvS

Digital secretary says he is setting ‘clear path for complete removal of high risk vendors’ from 5G networks Telecoms providers must stop installing Huawei equipment in the UK’s 5G networks from next September, the government has said. The digital secretary, Oliver Dowden, set out a roadmap to remove high-risk vendors ahead of the telecommunications (security) bill coming before parliament. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fPRT5J

Outlet promises to ‘do better in the future’, admitting that it seldom treated Māori fairly New Zealand media giant Stuff has issued a public apology for its portrayal of Māori it says has ranged from blinkered to racist, from its first editions until now. Its mea culpa follows an investigation by 20 of its journalists into its journalism throughout its history. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3moSn5d

For weeks, the Guardian US reporter Sam Levin has been speaking to Bounchan Keola, who is being detained by Ice and facing deportation to Laos, a country he left when he was four, despite having risked his life to fight wildfires in California this year The Guardian US reporter Sam Levin talks to Rachel Humphreys about Bounchan Keola , who sustained a life-threatening injury on the frontline of a huge fire. Keola had just two weeks of his prison term remaining when he was crushed by a tree while battling the devastating Zogg blaze in northern California on 2 October and was airlifted to a hospital. Days later, California prison officials notified federal immigration agents that his release would be coming up and the state, records show, made arrangements to transfer him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). He is now threatened with deportation to Laos, a country his family fled three decades ago. Sam tells Rachel about the crime that put Keola in prison for 22 years and ...

Eminent group adds pens of Andrea Levy and Jean Rhys to its collection as it sets out to champion writers of colour The late Andrea Levy, author of the award-winning Windrush novel Small Island, is to become the first writer of colour to have her pen join the Royal Society of Literature’s historic collection, which includes pens belonging to George Eliot and Lord Byron. The eminent society, which was founded in 1820, periodically appoints new fellows deemed to have published works of “outstanding literary merit”. Fellows are then invited to sign their names in the society’s roll book, using the pen of a “historically influential” UK writer – either Charles Dickens (although his pen was retired in 2013), TS Eliot, Byron or George Eliot. Now, as the RSL sets out to champion the writers of colour with a series of new appointments and initiatives, it has added Levy to this list, alongside Wide Sargasso Sea author Jean Rhys. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o62vjD...

FA to look into Instagram story post which uses ‘negrito’ term Cavani will face minimum three-game ban if found guilty Edinson Cavani, the Manchester United striker, could face a three-game ban if the Football Association deems that he used discriminatory or racist language in an Instagram story shared from his account on Sunday evening. The FA has confirmed it is investigating the post, which was published shortly after United’s 3-2 win over Southampton , in which Cavani scored two goals after coming on as a half-time substitute. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qbDwxo

£1.6bn subsidies for owning land in England to end, with funds going to improve nature Wildlife, nature and the climate will benefit from the biggest shake-up in farming policy in England for 50 years, according to government plans. The £1.6bn subsidy farmers receive every year for simply owning land will be phased out by 2028, with the funds used instead to pay them to restore wild habitats, create new woodlands, boost soils and cut pesticide use. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39nr085

Turkey suffers seventh straight day of record deaths; Lebanon to slowly relax restrictions; New York begins reopening schools. Fauci warns of ‘surge upon surge’ in US cases after Thanksgiving Life after Covid: will our world ever be the same? A year after Wuhan alarm, China seeks to change Covid origin story See all our coronavirus coverage 12.39am GMT Coronavirus infections in England have fallen by nearly a third since the country entered its second lockdown, swab tests on 105,000 volunteers have shown. There was a 30% drop in cases across the country over almost a fortnight this month, with 96 people infected per 10,000 between 13-24 November, down from 132 per 10,000 between 26 October and 2 November. Related: Covid infections in England down by nearly a third since second lockdown 12.18am GMT Dr Fauci also said the arrival of vaccines offers a “light at the end of the tunnel”, AP reports. This coming week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet wi...

Scientists warn that scrapping or relaxing tier system too quickly could imperil NHS Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Nearly a third of England’s hospital trusts have exceeded their first-wave peak of Covid patients undergoing treatment, as scientists warned that relaxing or scrapping the three-tier system too quickly could further hamper the NHS. Hospitals trusts in South Somerset and Devon treated more than twice as many Covid patients on at least one day last week as they did at the peak of the first wave in spring, Guardian analysis shows. However, because tier decisions are based on a range of data, both areas will go into tier 2 from Thursday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37m0aun

Jack Merritt devoted his short working life to transforming the hopes of prisoners. On the anniversary of his death, family, friends and ex-offenders talk about continuing his legacy Dave and Anne Merritt weren’t sure how to mark today’s anniversary of the murder of their beloved son Jack. Milestone days are always the hardest. Unlike the day that would have been his 26th birthday, at the beginning of October, when they and their younger son Joe and Jack’s girlfriend, Leanne O’Brien, went for a long walk at one of his favourite places on the Suffolk coast, there are no good memories associated with 29 November. But still, Dave told me a week ago, with typical resolve: “We do want to try to somehow confront it.” Jack, he says, was always making stuff: music, art, food. So they are inviting people to join in today with “Creating with Jack Merritt”, “whether that’s painting a picture or making up a new cocktail or doing a bit of creative writing”. The plan is to share the collective res...

They’re too young to vote or drive. But meet the children writing computer programs to track our health and wellbeing, choose a new school… and even how to cheat at online games I started getting interested in coding when I was about 11. I joined a local community lab where biologists and computer scientists come together and conduct experiments. I wanted to join the lab because my brother was really into biology and at the time I wanted to be exactly like him. I was too young to participate in the experiments, so my mentor pushed me more towards coding. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mdKD61

Former weightlifter and actor best known for playing Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies has died, his agent has said David “Dave” Prowse, the actor best known for playing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died at the age of 85, his agent has said. Agent Thomas Bowington said : “It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse MBE has passed away at the age of 85.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VdPAjp

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in Cambridge will be heard only on the BBC this Christmas Eve Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage For many of us, it is the moment when Christmas really starts: the soaring voice of a boy soloist at King’s College, Cambridge opening its iconic Christmas Eve service with Once in Royal David’s City. As usual, this year – remarkably, given the pandemic – the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 . But there will be a major difference: instead of hundreds of people packed into the medieval chapel, its pews will be empty. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JgiBsc

Residents of the Kent ferry port vent their fury at tier 3 restrictions about to be imposed on them Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage With its fruit-filled orchards, Kent has long prided itself on being the Garden of England. But now there is anger that a couple of rotten apples – the boroughs of Swale and Thanet – have plunged the whole county into tier 3 status when lockdown ends on Wednesday. Last week, seven Conservative MPs from across Kent wrote to Matt Hancock, the health secretary, to attempt to break the tier system down along district or borough lines . Although Swale has England’s highest Covid infection rate at 530 per 100,000 people, the Tunbridge Wells rate is less than a quarter of that and is below the national average Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36ida52

MPs campaigning against chancellor’s plans believe they can ‘humiliate’ the government into U-turn Senior Tories fear that the cut to Britain’s aid budget will become permanent, amid a growing campaign inside and outside parliament to reverse the decision. Conservatives opposed to the move are already vowing to “humiliate” the government by forcing it to stand by its manifesto commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid – a vow chancellor Rishi Sunak said he would breach in his review of public spending last week . He announced that £4bn would effectively be cut from the aid budget by reducing it to 0.5%, despite pleas from Tories and the archbishop of Canterbury . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o0DB4U

Reports in state media signal an intensifying propaganda effort to place the birth of the virus in other countries Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Nearly a year after doctors identified the first cases of a worrying new disease in the Chinese city of Wuhan , the country appears to be stepping up a campaign to question the origins of the global Covid-19 pandemic. State media has been reporting intensively on coronavirus discovered on packaging of frozen food imports, not considered a significant vector of infection elsewhere, and research into possible cases of the disease found outside China’s borders before December 2019. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VgoFDr

The founder of a new magazine created by and for Black travellers talks about the motivation behind the launch, her own travels and the people who inspire her I was around seven or eight years old, sitting in my plane seat as a giddy, unaccompanied minor. My brother and I were on an eight-hour flight to Kingston, Jamaica. I didn’t cry when we waved goodbye to our mum at the departure gate and walked off with the airline staff. All I could think about was six weeks of sea and sun with my grandma. This was the beginning of my love for travel – something I didn’t realise until speaking to Ella Paradis, founder and editor of a new magazine, the Black Explorer. Like many second- and third-generation kids in the UK who travel across the globe to see family, she had had a similar experience to mine. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39omE0k

He was 25, a father and a car mechanic. Five minutes after being stopped by police on 15 June 2017, he was lying unresponsive on the ground. After an inquest and inquiry, family and friends are still fighting for justice They were cruising at speed down Tollgate Road, the stereo turned high. They all knew they shouldn’t be there, not at this time, not after dark. If you’re from London’s Stratford, showing up in nearby Beckton carried its risks. Jussara Gomes was driving, a fast-talking 23-year-old with an infectious laugh. Beside her, in the passenger seat of the black A-class Mercedes, was Edir Da Costa, known as Edson, a 25-year-old father and car mechanic, swaying exuberantly to hip-hop. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o9xKKX

The commissioner for England and Wales attacks ‘postcode’ lottery on response to killing of women The first commissioner for domestic abuse for England and Wales, who will have significant powers once the domestic abuse bill becomes law early next year, has committed to working closely with the campaign to tackle femicide – the killing of women at the hands of men. At a virtual event last Thursday, attended by more than 600 people, Nicole Jacobs expressed her “sheer frustration” at the “postcode lottery” and lack of a co-ordinated response on the part of agencies to tackle the killing of women. “We all have such an urgency for change” she said. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39Cfm9B

Locals welcome chance to meet up and gossip about the weather and football in a more convivial atmosphere Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage The patrons of a bar in Rome can talk about history, gossip, culture, the weather – anything but coronavirus. Cristina Mattioli, owner of the aptly named Bar Feeling, banned all Covid chat after the mood became too heavy, spoiling the convivial atmosphere, especially over morning coffee. She recently pinned two notices behind the bar. One of them reads: “Speaking about coronavirus is prohibited”, while giving examples such as prophesying over possible outcomes of the pandemic or what rules might be included in the next government decree. The sign next to it suggests alternative topics of conversation, including who will win this season’s Grande Fratello VIP , the Italian version of Big Brother . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mhYvMt

It’s not about the money, says Mariella Frostrup. You describe your husband as if he were a stranger, so think hard about your future The dilemma I’m a 60-year-old woman and although I have worked for years teaching English, I have always been financially dependent on my husband. He is very involved in the evangelist church and gives them a percentage of his salary. The knowledge of this, together with a constant struggle to get by, has ma de me feel so bitter . I contemplated leaving , when the children were younger, because of his strong Christian values and my strong non-Christian values and all the complications of this. But I didn’t have the courage to plunge both myself and the children into further hardship. This issue has come to the fore again as I struggle to help one of my daughters out with university fees. How can he give so much to a church when he knows our children are struggling ? It just makes me mad. But he perhaps rightly feels that it is his salary to do as ...

Christmas comes early with two gloriously indulgent gourmet boxes sent from Lancashire Northcote at Home. Book by 10am Friday for delivery the next week ( northcote.com ). Autumn gourmet box for two £90, classic menu for two £105, delivery £10 The doorbell rings and Christmas arrives early, enclosed in two sturdy, cardboard boxes. Unfortunately, it’s the worrying, anxious version of Christmas. You want everything to be perfect. You want the food to be an ethereal delight, even while a knot of anxiety tightens deep in your stomach, because there’s a chance it will instead be a fraught, angry mess of racist relatives and violated turkeys. This is where I am right now: trying to bring sparkly pools of light into a daily lockdown routine with all the texture of beige velour, while worrying that my efforts will merely emphasise the depths of our predicament. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36hK6uf

Behind the comedian’s hippy persona lies a quick mind and even quicker step, as fans of the TV show are finding out Bill Bailey has been focusing on Blondie. Specifically on the band’s 1978 hit One Way or Another. It is a slightly menacing track, covered more recently, it is true, by One Direction, in a way that took it closer to irritant than menace. The question was, could its pulsing, insistent rhythm take Bailey a two-step closer to the top slot in Strictly Come Dancing? This far into the show’s 18th series, the 55-year-old British comedian and dance contestant is established as a seasonal tonic for the nation, but last week the betting was also odds on that he would make it all the way through to the final. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mk1TXd

Tyson fights to eight-round draw with Jones Jr in exhibition Mike Tyson v Roy Jones Jr – as it happened Mike Tyson showed glimpses of his destructive prime Saturday night during the 54-year-old boxing icon’s return to the ring for a lively exhibition bout with 51-year-old Roy Jones Jr. Both fighters had impressive moments during a fight that was unofficially ruled a draw by the WBC judges at ringside. Tyson and Jones fought eight two-minute rounds, and both emerged smiling and apparently healthy from a highly unusual event at Staples Center. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VglueZ

Press group says award-winning photojournalist Ameer Alhalbi fled Syria to take refuge from violence A press freedom group has denounced the “unacceptable” injury of an award-winning Syrian photojournalist during a Paris protest against police brutality. Ameer Alhalbi, a freelance photographer who worked for Polka Magazine and AFP, was covering the demonstrations against police violence and the government’s new law restricting the sharing of images of officers over the weekend when he was injured. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36hIpx5

Judge says plaintiff ‘failed to allege that even a single mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast or counted’ Pennsylvania’s highest court has thrown out a lower court’s order that was preventing the state from certifying dozens of contests from the 3 November election. In the latest Republican lawsuit attempting to thwart president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state, the state supreme court unanimously threw out the three-day-old order, saying the underlying lawsuit was filed months after the law allowed for challenges to Pennsylvania’s year-old mail-in voting law. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VauPFn

Boxing legends face off in eight-round exhibition bout Ex-NBA star Nate Robinson faces YouTuber Jake Paul Few should have the stomach for Tyson v Jones farce Tweet Bryan at @BryanAGraham or email him 2.47am GMT Lots of reader questions regarding the competitive merit of tonight’s main event. Those expecting the brand of primal destruction Tyson built his brand on in the 80s and 90s will likely come away disappointed. California’s state athletic commission was reportedly leery on sanctioning the bout given the fighters’ advanced ages and went forward on the condition that both men will keep it light and breezy. In tennis, it’s what’s known as a hit and giggle. Andy Foster, the executive director of the CSAC, said that Tyson and Jones will be on a short leash and the referee will be ready with a quick hook to intervene if it does get hairy. “We can’t mislead the public as to this is some kind of real fight,” Foster said. “They can get into it a little bit, but I don’t want peop...

Parts of NSW brace for second day of scorching weather and fire danger, with gusty southerly forecast to arrive later on Sunday afternoon Sydney has sweltered through its hottest November night since records began more than 160 years ago, with temperatures expected to climb to 40C in the city for a second consecutive day. The mercury dropped to just 25.3C at 1.09am on Sunday at Sydney’s Observatory Hill and rose above 30C shortly after 4.30am. The previous record for the warmest November minimum temperature was set in 1967 at 24.8C. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3llOJrs

After months that passed in a haze of isolation, Melburnians are reconnecting with the places and people they love In the depths of Melbourne’s lockdown, time began to pass differently. The days and weeks dragged as the year slipped by, as all the usual markers – celebrations, family dinners, holidays – were stripped away. Suddenly, it was spring and there was welcome news: the lockdown had worked . The borders between city and country , and between Victoria and New South Wales, were lifted soon after. When Melbourne’s ring of steel came down on 9 November , Emma Jacques packed her 10-month-old son in the car and headed for the coast. After five months of being confined to the city, and two months where she was unable to go more than 5km from her home in Warrandyte on Melbourne’s north-eastern fringe, she was desperate to introduce her son, named Ben Ocean, to the water. “I literally craved the water,” she says. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mi2icQ

Brazil records nearly 52,000 daily new cases; more than 150 arrested in UK anti-lockdown protests; Australian state of Victoria records no new cases and no deaths UK: Angry Tory MPs turn on Gove after ‘overwhelmed NHS’ claims Shops reopen in France as national lockdown eases Australia’s Covid vaccines: everything you need to know Melbourne emerges to a season of hope and relief 1.40am GMT China on Sunday said 11 new coronavirus cases were detected on the mainland throughout the course of Saturday, compared with six cases a day earlier. All of the new infections were imported cases, the National Health Commission said in a statement. There were no new deaths. China also reported 10 new asymptomatic patients, compared with four a day earlier. As of Saturday, mainland China had a total of 86,512 confirmed coronavirus cases, it said. China’s death toll from the coronavirus remained unchanged at 4,634. 1.36am GMT Mexico reported 10,008 new confirmed coronavirus infections an...

Joyce now British and European heavyweight champion Dubois suffers first defeat of his professional career Joe Joyce, a 3-1 underdog and the antithesis of a growling heavyweight beast, forced his younger unbeaten opponent, Daniel Dubois, to quit in the 10th round at the historic Church House in Westminster on Saturday night and he will now take the British, Commonwealth and European titles on to the world stage. When Dubois took a knee in centre ring, his left eye shut, he disappointed his army of supporters and Joyce, the most unassuming of champions, quietly raised his arm in triumph. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mokQs4

43 slaughtered and a further six seriously injured, say anti-jihadist militia Boko Haram fighters killed at least 43 farm workers and wounded six in rice fields near the north-east Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Saturday, anti-jihadist militia told AFP. The assailants tied up the agricultural workers and slit their throats in the village of Koshobe, the militia said. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2J7QQST

Acrimonious fight between Tatiana Akhmedova and her ex-husband and son centres on a £453m fortune The most expensive – and acrimonious – family breakdown in history will be laid bare in a London court next week in a divorce battle over a £453m fortune that includes several luxury mansions, a superyacht called Luna, a helicopter, a private jet and an art collection including pieces by Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. Tatiana Akhmedova will accuse her ex-husband, Farkhad Akhmedov, an oligarch and ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and their son Temur Akhmedov of hiding hundreds of millions in assets in order to avoid paying the blockbuster settlement awarded to her by the high court in 2016. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36jvQRX

Exclusive: move likely to ramp up pressure on Google, Amazon and other tech giants over tax arrangements Netflix is to finally start declaring the £1bn-plus revenues it makes from millions of British subscribers each year to the UK tax authorities, a move likely to ramp up pressure on tech firms such as Google and Amazon to stop funnelling revenues through overseas tax jurisdictions. Netflix, which has funnelled UK-generated revenue through separate accounts at its European headquarters in the Netherlands since launching in Britain in 2012, is to notify its almost 13 million UK subscribers on Tuesday about the change, which starts from January. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3o8dUjb

Construction making conditions in Camden flats ‘unbearable’, says Keir Starmer, the Labour leader HS2 Ltd has been urged to fund the rehousing of 175 council households in London enduring “unbearable” conditions due to construction works on their doorstep. Related: Cost of HS2 high-speed rail line rises by £800m Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mhRZ8r

Archie Thomas stumbled across solitary windfall fruit that could be cross between cultivated apple and European crab apple A chance find of an apple on a woodland run has led one nature lover to discover a new variety that he hopes to propagate and name. Archie Thomas, who lives in the Nadder valley in Wiltshire, stumbled across a solitary windfall apple on a wooded trackway alongside a large area of ancient woodland near his home this month. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JoFOYR

Ears aside, Josh O’Connor wasn’t the obvious choice to play the heir to the throne in The Crown. The Labour-supporting republican talks lucky breaks, lockdown and life after Charles When we meet at 4.15pm on a Saturday in late October, Josh O’Connor is in the middle of one of those hot streaks that British actors occasionally enjoy when everything comes good at once. A new series of The Crown , in which the 30-year-old plays Prince Charles just flawlessly, is due out on Netflix. A day ago, he finished production on Mothering Sunday, an awardsy adaptation of Graham Swift’s novel that should reach cinemas next year. And first thing Monday morning, O’Connor is meant to clock in at the National Theatre to begin rehearsals on a filmed, big-ticket Romeo & Juliet opposite Jessie Buckley . As hot streaks go it’s sizzling, with no obvious end in sight. At 4.16pm, O’Connor checks his phone and discovers the streak is over. “Hmph,” he says, hunching low over the screen and reading out the...

A Kent couple love their new car – but their experience suggests there are problems with the charging network A couple from Kent have described how it took them more than nine hours to drive 130 miles home from Bournemouth as they struggled to find a working charger capable of producing enough power to their electric car. Linda Barnes and her husband had to visit six charging stations as one after another they were either out of order, already had a queue or were the slow, older versions that would never be able to provide a fast enough charge in the time. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36gfppj

In The Welsh Wind distillery already taking orders for 30-litre casks of ultra-local spirit The barley has been grown in fields with spectacular views over Cardigan Bay and malted on a local farm. The all-important water comes from springs deep beneath the Welsh countryside. A small distillery in west Wales is at the centre of what it hopes may turn out to be a quiet whisky revolution. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JoC2i9

Updates from the game at McDonald Jones Stadium Any thoughts? Email or tweet @JPHowcroft 8.49am GMT Prematch formalities taken care of, it’s time for some very very hot rugby. 8.48am GMT Before the haka Sam Cane placed a signed All Blacks jersey, with No.10 Maradona on the back, in the middle of the pitch. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fKnLZs

Hassan Rouhani accuses ‘mercenary’ Israel of killing, according to state TV, amid vows to retaliate The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, has accused Israel of killing top scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and promised the assassination would not halt the country’s nuclear progress, state TV reported. “Once again, the evil hands of global arrogance were stained with the blood of the mercenary usurper Zionist regime,” Rouhani said in a statement on Saturday. “The assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh shows our enemies’ despair and the depth of their hatred ... His martyrdom will not slow down our achievements.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Jj4jHc

This Christmas, you can shop online and still do your bit for local stores, charities – and the planet If sustainability, ethics and fairness are on your Christmas list, putting in a bulk order at Amazon is not the best way to tick them off. The world’s biggest online retailer may offer quick delivery and competitive prices, but there are reasons to avoid it. One is simply that it is so big, and as it grows its competition falls by the wayside. But it has also been criticised for the low level of corporate tax it pays , and for its treatment of workers . One option is to support small retailers, from thebristolartisan.com and communityclothing.co.uk to thecrofthouse.com . “Smaller shops have been instrumental in keeping communities going during lockdown, but they’ve also been hit thardest by the pandemic,” says Mike Cherry for the Federation of Small Businesses. “The windfall from [Christmas] sales could be make or break for some of our members.” Continue reading... from The Gua...

Leader planning to throw weight behind a deal if last-minute negotiations succeed in coming days Keir Starmer is preparing to risk a party rift by throwing Labour’s weight behind a Brexit deal if last-minute negotiations succeed in the coming days. In what he hopes will be a signal to red wall voters that the party has heard them, multiple Labour sources said Starmer, and Cabinet Office shadow minister Rachel Reeves – who has been liaising with backbenchers on the issue – are minded to impose a three-line whip in support of a deal, subject to the detail. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33ktwYM

Kate, 25, whisky marketing associate, meets Maz, 24, charity worker What were you hoping for? A lovely evening, or a funny anecdote. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JiYDgm

A post from the neighbourhood forum says: Whoever put a collar on my cat, please don’t I wake up in the dark, exactly three minutes before my alarm is meant to go off. There is something so crushing about this that I let out an exasperated moan. “What’s wrong?” my wife says, rolling over. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3laUloh

Carrie Lam says she is paid in cash and calls US sanctions imposed over security crackdown ‘unjustifiable’ Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said she keeps “piles of cash” at home because she has no bank account after the United States imposed sanctions on her in response to the crackdown on free speech and political freedoms in the city. Lam was targeted, along with 14 other senior city officials, in the toughest US action on Hong Kong yet since Beijing imposed the new law on the territory in late June. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mi76ih

Government’s service voids results after problem with testing chemicals discovered Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage More than 1,300 people were wrongly told they had coronavirus due to a lab error with the government’s Test and Trace service. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 1,311 people who took a test from 19-23 November across the UK were incorrectly told they received a positive result. It said there was an issue with a batch of testing chemicals which meant their results were void. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3q83ZMo

Milwaukee recount, which cost Trump campaign $3m, boosts Democratic president-elect days before state must certify result A recount in Wisconsin’s largest county demanded by President Donald Trump’s election campaign ended on Friday with the president-elect, Joe Biden, gaining votes. After the recount in Milwaukee county, Biden made a net gain of 132 votes, out of nearly 460,000 cast. Overall, the Democrat gained 257 votes to Trump’s 125. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VakwRt

Amid Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong, publisher says joining clubs to discuss free speech and democracy has again become an act of resistance In the early 1950s in Taiwan, 19-year-old Tsai Kun-lin was arrested and jailed after joining a book club. The young man spent more than a decade on Green Island, building the prison that held him as a political enemy of the authoritarian rulers who would hold Taiwan under martial law until 1987. Decades later, a 90-year-old Tsai is living in Taiwan’s thriving democracy, but says a book club has once again become an act of resistance. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mefFus

Painting of astrophysicist joins male-dominated collection at organisation’s London HQ A British astrophysicist who made one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century but was overlooked by the Nobel prize committee has joined the male-dominated portrait collection of the Royal Society . Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was a 24-year-old graduate student when in 1967 she discovered a new type of star later called a pulsar. It was a sensational find, recognised with the Nobel prize for physics in 1974 that went not to her, but to her male PhD supervisor. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39tQY9I

Leaks reveal fears of increased infection risk for residents and inspectors Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Health inspectors in England have been moving between care homes with high levels of Covid-19 infection without being tested, raising fears they have put more residents at risk of catching the virus, leaks to the Guardian have revealed. In recent weeks all care home inspections carried out in the north of England have been of infected homes, including a facility where 38 of the 41 people receiving care and 30 staff – almost half of the workers – had tested positive, internal documents from the Care Quality Commission show. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JkJTxe

US surpasses 13m Covid cases as experts urge caution over Thanksgiving weekend; Trudeau previously warned country would not get first doses ; Italy to ease measures in five regions Hospitals in England told to prepare for vaccine rollout in 10 days’ time How an anti-lockdown ‘truthpaper’ bypasses online factcheckers Covid-19 infections ‘could easily double’ over Christmas, Sage experts say 11.37pm GMT The Australian state of Queensland has recorded no locally acquired cases of Covid-19 on Saturday. The state, which has been virus-free for a considerable amount of time, is set to finally reopen its borders to NSW and Victoria on 1 December. Saturday, November 28 – coronavirus cases in Queensland: • 0 locally acquired • 1 acquired overseas • 13 active cases • 1,199 total confirmed cases • 1,348,906 tests conducted Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,180 patients have recovered. #covid19 pic.twitter.com/hJY3EJ47wA 11.33pm GMT The coronavirus testing nu...

110,000 new coronavirus cases and 90,000 people hospitalized Thursday CDC predicts deaths could rise by 300,000 in next month America’s coronavirus surge showed no sign of abating over the Thanksgiving holiday, as cases in the country surpassed 13 million on Friday. Related: How Trump is destroying the presidential transition process Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2V9thLS

The singer’s online show had a charming Top of the Pops vibe despite its – often star-studded – shortcomings Of all the high-profile live streams that have sprung up in lieu of actual gigs in recent months, Dua Lipa’s is, by some considerable distance, the most star-studded. Its list of special guests encompasses everyone from Elton John to FKA twigs to Kylie Minogue: proof, should you need it, of the dominant position the 25 year old singer currently occupies in pop. By common consent, 2020 has been her year, thanks to her second album, Future Nostalgia, which has earned her six Grammy nominations and spawned a succession of global hit singles: the kind of success that even Madonna wants to get involved in, making an appearance on a remix of the single Levitation. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qas6d5