thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Antsy Voters Can't Get Enough Of Biden Bashing Trump In Avengers Election Remake

Increasingly restless American voters are shaking off the election jitters by watching a goofy, inspirational remake of Avengers: Endgame – the 2020 presidential race version.
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The best part is that they all say things they’ve said in real life, like Biden’s “will you shut up, man” to Trump.
Surprises include Elon Musk (not viewers’ favorite addition to the clip, though) and a smokin’ Hunter Biden.
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Even Star Wars hero Mark Hamill – a vocal critic of Donald Trump – was hooked on the spoof video, but he insisted in a tweet that a near lookalike in the video is not actually him...
People are asking if that's me at 1:34. The answer is: I have no idea who it is, but it's not me. Cool video, though.#MysteryMan ❓❓❓ https://t.co/GMTbQRZjt1 — Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) November 6, 2020
Why on earth is Elon "We will coup whoever we want" Musk in here? — Dr. Mandible Stan Account (@MatthewBorus) November 6, 2020
I am going to set my computer on fire pic.twitter.com/4dKaEcz73e — The Horrors band vibes account (@PissbabyS) November 6, 2020
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Ruth Langsford Told Colleague Who Touched Her Inappropriately: 'I'll Break Your F***ing Arm'

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Ruth Langsford has revealed she once threatened to break a man’s arm after experiencing on-set sexual harassment earlier in her career.
The This Morning presenter told Kate Thornton on her White Wine Question Time podcast that she hit back at one crew member years ago, who “pinched her bum” in front of a group of colleagues.
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Recalling the incident, Ruth explained: “I remember years ago when I had to take these big trays of tea around at certain times in the day for the VT engineers. It was all men.
“We had a little kitchenette and for some reason [giving out tea] was deemed to be my job as a woman.”
Ruth Langsford Mike Marsland via Getty Images
Ruth continued: “I remember taking this tray round and a guy pinched my ass.
“I put the tray down, I slapped his tea down, and said: ‘If you ever touch me again, I’ll break your fucking arm.’”
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Discussing sexism in the workplace more generally, Ruth also spoke of her disdain for the word “bossy”, pointing out that it isn’t a label that’s usually ever applied to men.
“I mean, if you were a guy and the editor of a magazine, they’d go ‘he’s so dynamic and young and amazing’,” Ruth told the host.
“Why is it like, ‘she’s really bossy and annoying’? I think women have had to fight that and to some extent, still do. It will keep changing.”
Ruth is best known for presenting This Morning alongside her husband, Eamonn Holmes, but also makes regular appearances as an anchor on Loose Women.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--How Do Election Recounts Work? What You Need To Know

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Though it looks like Democratic nominee Joe Biden has won, the outcome of the presidential election is so close in several states that recounts are likely to happen.
Per the US Constitution, it’s up to states how they do congressional and presidential elections, and so the procedures for a recount are a matter of state law. In some states, a close result can automatically trigger a recount; in others, a campaign can request one.
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Recounts are unlikely to dramatically shift the results. FairVote, a nonpartisan group that pushes for electoral reform, analysed nearly 2,000 recounts in statewide elections over the past two decades and found that only three reversed the result. The average shift in the margin in those statewide recounts was 430 votes ― a far smaller swing than President Donald Trump would need to overtake Biden in key states.
Here’s what the recount procedures look like in the six states everyone is watching.
Georgia
Georgia seems most likely to head toward a recount. As of Friday afternoon, Joe Biden had a narrow lead of about 4,000 votes, with nearly 5 million votes cast. Officials are still counting absentee and provisional ballots. There are also nearly 9,000 outstanding military and overseas absentee ballots that will still be counted if they were postmarked by Election Day and are received by the end of Friday.
Under state law, campaigns can request a recount if the margin of victory is less than half of one percent of the total votes cast. The law does not specify when or how quickly the recount has to happen.
“As we are closing in on a final count, we can begin to look toward our next steps,” Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger (Republican) said Friday. ”With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia.”
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Wisconsin
Wisconsin does not require automatic recounts, but a candidate can request a recount if the vote margins are within 1%. As of Friday afternoon, Biden led Trump by less than 1% – 49.6% to 48.9% – prompting the Trump campaign to request a recount on Wednesday, which according to state law the campaign will have to pay for.
The campaign, however, won’t be able to file a recount petition until Wisconsin certifies its results, which are due the latest Dec. 1. The recount must be completed within 13 days after the original results are in.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien alleged voter suppression in several Wisconsin counties, despite no evidence of any wrongdoing at the polls or in the ballot count. “There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results,” Stepien said on Wednesday.
Despite being asked for evidence of the alleged widespread voter fraud, the Trump campaign has none.
Wisconsin Elections Commission director Meagan Wolfe rebuked the Trump campaign’s claim, telling reporters on Wednesday: “It’s insulting for our local election officials to say that yesterday’s election was anything but an incredible success.”
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Wisconsin has some recent recount experience. In 2016, Green Party nominee Jill Stein requested a recount, which cost upward of $3.5 million (£2.7m) and only changed roughly 1,500 votes out of 3 million.
Pennsylvania
Voters here can request a recount but an election decided by less than half a percent of the total vote automatically triggers one. As of Friday afternoon, the vote total put Biden ahead of Trump by less than 15,000 votes, with 49.5% of the vote to Trump’s 49.3%, apparently still within the recount range with 2% of ballots still outstanding.
If a recount does occur, state law says it would have to be completed by November 24.
People participate in a protest in support of counting all votes on Nov. 4 in Philadelphia as the election in Pennsylvania is still unresolved. Spencer Platt via Getty Images
Nevada
Nevada does not have a state law triggering an automatic recount. A losing candidate can request a recount within three working days of the certification of the count. They would have to pay for it, but if the recount finds they in fact got the most votes, that candidate can get their money back. The state has 10 days to complete the recount.
As of Friday afternoon’s count on the state Board of Elections site, Biden was leading Trump by 20,137 votes – or 1.6% – with about 85% of votes counted.
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Arizona
State law here says a recount is automatically triggered if the margin is 0.1% of the total votes cast – which would be just about 200 votes, and which secretary of state Katie Hobbs (Democrat) says is highly unlikely. Arizona does not allow candidates to request a recount.
Biden was leading Trump by 39,769 votes in Arizona as of Friday afternoon.
Michigan
State law here requires a recount when there are less than 2,000 votes separating the top two candidates. As of Friday afternoon, Biden had a 146,000-vote advantage, with 99% of estimated votes counted – making an automatic recount unlikely.
But a candidate can ask for a recount if they have a good-faith belief that they have a “reasonable chance of winning the election,” according to Michigan state law. The Trump campaign has up to 48 hours after the election results are finalised, which Michigan secretary of state Jocelyn Benson said could take up to two weeks, to request a recount. The deadline to complete the recount is 30 days.
While the Trump campaign has not asked for a recount in Michigan, it did file a lawsuit alleging that state officials had mishandled the vote counting process. “I see this as a meritless, frivolous lawsuit that’s really just an attempt to sow seeds of doubt in the integrity of our elections process, which are quite secure, quite accessible,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) told ABC News on Thursday.
Trump won Michigan by less than 1%, or 10,704 votes, in 2016. A partial recount was conducted then at the request of Green Party candidate Stein, but it was stopped halfway after a state supreme court judge ruled Stein had no real chance of winning and therefore had no legal standing to request a recount. The stipulation that a candidate must have a reasonable belief that they could win was then added to the recount law in 2016 after Stein’s recount request.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Jacqui Smith Fires Back At Strictly Judge Craig Revel Horwood Over Harsh Critiques

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Former Strictly Come Dancing star Jacqui Smith has hit back at Craig Revel Horwood’s comments about her final performance on the show.
The former home secretary became the first contestant to be eliminated from this year’s series last weekend, after earning just two points from Craig for her Samba routine.
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During his critiques, Craig told her look as though she was “limping about like you were lost at a party somewhere, drunk”, which Jacqui has now admitted was her low point of the series.
Jacqui Smith and Anton Du Beke on the Strictly floor BBC/Guy Levy
Speaking to Radio Times, she shot back: “I think the guy needs to get a bit more joy in his life and realise it’s quite possible for older women to dance and have fun without being drunk at a party.”
Jacqui also pointed out: “Actually Shirley [Ballas] and Mosti [Mabuse] were really lovely about the progress I’d made so that was really nice.
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“I suppose the worst bit is, I think I would have got even better but I’m just sorry that I didn’t get the chance to show that to people.”
Craig Revel Horwood Dave J Hogan via Getty Images
After falling at the bottom of the leaderboard for two weeks in a row, Jacqui and partner Anton Du Beke found themselves in the dance-off against Jamie Laing and Karen Hauer.
Ultimately, the judges chose to save Jamie and Karen, meaning Jacqui and Anton were the first pair to go home.
Jacqui and Anton during their first performance of the series BBC
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--UK Bans Visitors From Denmark Over Mink Covid-19 Mutation Fears

The government has banned all non-British national or resident travellers who have been in or transited through Denmark after widespread outbreaks of Covid-19 in the country’s mink farms.
Immigration powers have been imposed against foreign visitors, denying all who have been in Denmark in the past 14 days entry into the UK.
The rule came into force as of 4am on Saturday.
The government also announced it is expanding the self-isolation requirements for Denmark, after the country was removed from the government’s list of travel corridors on Friday.
British nationals or residents who are returning to the UK either directly or indirectly from the country are now required to self-isolate along with all other members of their household, until two weeks have passed since they were last there.
A spokeswoman from the Department for Transport said in a statement: “Unlike other travel to the UK, there will be no exemptions to this quarantine policy.
“Anyone who has returned from Denmark within the last two weeks will be contacted to ensure they complete the self-isolation needed to ensure the virus does not spread across the UK.
“The UK government is working closely with international partners to understand the changes in the virus that have been reported in Denmark and we are conducting a programme of further research here in the UK to inform our risk assessments.”
The travel ban and extra requirements will be reviewed after a week, the department added.
“Decisions on border measures and travel advice can be changed rapidly if necessary to help stop the spread of the disease and further announcements regarding freight will be made later today,” the spokeswoman said.
Denmark was also added to Scotland’s travel quarantine list, with Nicola Sturgeon announcing the move at the Scottish government’s coronavirus briefing on Friday, minutes before it came into effect at 12.30pm.
The Danish government said a mutation of the coronavirus had been found in 12 people infected by minks, which farmers have been ordered to cull en masse, but experts said the significance of any variant strain and its effect on humans was unclear as it is yet to be studied.
Denmark is the world’s largest mink fur exporter and produces an estimated 17 million furs per year.
The Danish government has ordered the cull of all 15m minks bred in the country’s 1,139 mink farms.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Dame Judi Dench Recalls Working With Geoffrey Palmer In Heartfelt Tribute

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The two actors played a former couple who reunited after 38 years in the BBC sitcom As Time Goes By, which aired between 1992 and 2005.
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Sharing her memories of her late co-star, the Oscar-winning star told Radio 4’s Front Row: “He got me into more trouble. Oh my goodness how we laughed. We did nine (series) of As Time Goes By and it is too numerous to mention how many times.
“I used to stand there before each recording and think, ‘How have I got myself into this?’. I was always so frightened but there was no need. With Geoffrey Palmer there was no need. He was a master of comedy.”
Dame Judi Dech and Geoffrey Palmer pictured in 2014 David M. Benett via Getty Images
She also insisted that Geoffrey’s true personality was miles away from the world-weary characters he played on screen.
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“You would never think he would misbehave,” Dame Judi said. “There were a lot of outtakes. He got me into endless trouble.
“There was an outtake where he was meant to refer to my thumb, I think, or my toe – it could be either. But anyway, it was the wrong way round. We were helpless. Well, I was helpless. He was always very clever at keeping things banked down. But it is the wonderful deadpan expression.”
She added: “I have admired him all my life. How lucky to have been in something with him for so long.”
Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer attending The Oldie of the Year Awards Kirsty O'Connor - PA Images via Getty Images
As well as the show As Time Goes By, Dame Judi and Geoffrey appeared alongside one another in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he played Admiral Roebuck.
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007 producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli also paid tribute to the actor, hailing him as “a treasured member of the Bond family”.
“Our thoughts are with Geoffrey’s family and friends,” they said. “He was a much beloved star of TV and film and a treasured member of the Bond family.”
Geoffrey Palmer, who played Admiral Roebuck in Tomorrow Never Dies, has passed away at the age of 93. pic.twitter.com/ic9HX2pCot — James Bond (@007) November 6, 2020
Geoffrey was also known for roles in other sitcoms The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin and Butterflies.
The British actor, who was awarded an OBE in 2004 for his services to acting, is survived by his wife Sally Green, with whom he had a daughter and a son.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--US Election Results: When Will Pennsylvania Be Called? Here's The Latest

Joe Biden has publicly said he anticipates a win in the US presidential election, as the final ballots are counted.
After successfully chasing down Donald Trump’s lead in several states, Biden pushed ahead of the Republican incumbent in the key state of Pennsylvania early on Friday afternoon. If he wins the state, he will have enough Electoral College votes to take the presidency.
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Meanwhile, Trump has shown no sign of going down without a fight. He hasn’t spoken publicly since Thursday night, when he delivered a speech full of baseless conspiracy theories about electoral fraud, but has tweeted several times about legal action and retweeted many users questioning the count.
Here’s where we stand right now.
What’s happening in the remaining states?
Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes)
Biden overtook Trump in Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon – a promising sign for the Democrats who are now anticipating victory in the election.
The most recent update from AP states that Biden is currently leading by more than 28,000 votes, out of more than 6.5m ballots cast.
But there are still tens-of-thousands of votes to be counted, meaning it’s too soon to call the race definitively. Biden currently has an edge of around 0.43%, and state law dictates that a recount must be held if the margin between the two candidates is less than 0.5%.
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While Biden has said publicly that he’s confident he will win the presidency, it could take days for that result to be issued definitively – though some major news networks could call the result earlier if his margin continues to increase.
Nevada (6 electoral votes)
Biden’s lead in Nevada has also increased to 22,657 vote lead Friday evening – a roughly 1.79 percentage point edge over Trump.
There is still a considerably long way to go before all the votes will be counted in Nevada, with around 87% of votes counted. Many of those still to be processed are ballots postmarked on election day and are likely to be in Biden’s favour.
Officials have said an update on the count will be released on Saturday afternoon.
Arizona (11 electoral votes)
The Associated Press and Fox News both projected a victory for Biden on election night, but no other network has done so since.
Although the gap has narrowed during continued vote-tallying, Biden still leads with 20,573 votes after the latest batch was announced at about 4pm GMT.
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Georgia (16 electoral votes)
Biden took the lead over Trump early Friday morning by more than 4,000 votes, with votes still left to be counted.
The state will be headed to a recount, Georgia’s secretary of state said Friday.
North Carolina (15 electoral votes)
Trump leads by more than 75,000 votes, with an estimated 95% of votes counted.
He appears to be in a strong position to win the state.
What are Biden and Trump’s paths to winning?
Trump’s path to victory is now increasingly limited.
Biden can claim victory by winning Pennsylvania alone, or two out of the trio of Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.
To win, Trump needs to claim Pennsylvania and Georgia while overtaking Biden in either Nevada or Arizona.
Most major US television networks currently give Biden a 264 to 214 lead in Electoral College votes – with 270 needed to win.
What has Trump said?
Trump hasn’t spoken publicly since Thursday night, when he delivered a bizarre speech full of misinformation and blatant lies about alleged electoral fraud.
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“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Trump falsely claimed, adding without evidence that there had been “historical interference from big media, big money and big tech”.
Some major TV networks in the US immediately cut their coverage as Trump raised non-specific issues with postal voting. He referred to “a pipe burst”, “people are using binoculars” and “paper on all of the windows”.
While he hasn’t delivered a speech since, he has – of course – continued tweeting, referring repeatedly to his disappearing lead and the legal action his lawyers have brought against various states for alleged issues with the count.
In one tweet he wrote: “I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!”
I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2020
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The current president has also retweeted dozens of tweets that question the counting process, criticise the polls, and falsely claim that Trump is ahead in the vote.
What has Biden said?
In a speech late on Friday night, Biden said he has a “mandate for action” as he anticipated victory ahead of the last votes being counted.
Striking a more confident tone than his previous speech, during which he urged patience as counting continued, the Democrat said: “The numbers tell us a clear and convincing story: we’re going to win this race.”
He referred to the 74 million people who had voted for him, adding: “I know watching these vote tallies on TV moves very slow and as slow as it goes it can be numbing.
“But never forget the tallies aren’t just numbers, they represent votes and voters, men and women who exercised their fundamental right to have their voice heard.
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“And what’s becoming clear each hour is that a record number of Americans of all races, faiths, religions chose change over more of the same. They’ve given us a mandate for action, on Covid, the economy, climate change, systemic racism.”
He added how the party has “rebuilt the blue wall in the middle of the country that crumbled just a few years ago”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--20 Happy Films You Can Stream Now To Help Take Your Mind Off Lockdown

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Between all the ups and downs around the (seemingly endless) US presidential election, plus the fact that most of us are back in lockdown at a time when the nights are drawing in earlier and earlier, there’s no denying it – this week has been a bit of a slog.
What we could all probably do with is some escapism, particularly when so many of us are stuck indoors.
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To help take your mind off things, we’ve rounded up 20 films now available to watch on Netflix, Disney+ and other free streaming platforms, that should help bring a smile to your face, even under the most depressing of circumstances...
La La Land (Netflix)
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Another Day Of Sun is pretty much the opposite of what we’re feeling right now, both in terms of the national mood and, indeed, the winter weather, so La La Land could be just the thing to perk you up.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were both nominated for Academy Awards for their performances in this LA-based musical (with the former being named Best Actress that year), but to be honest, we’re more about that opening group routine than anything else.
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And once the film is over, that infamous Oscars blunder is waiting for you on YouTube, if you need an additional chuckle.
Matilda (Netflix)
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Who among us couldn’t do with Miss Honey coming and saving them, right now?
A family classic from the 90s, Matilda delivers the perfect mix of nostalgia and escapism, and if nothing else, we love seeing the unlikely combo of Danny DeVito and Pam Ferris sharing the screen.
10 Things I Hate About You (Disney+)
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10 Things I Hate About You really is the romantic comedy that has it all. Heath Ledger performing a musical number on the high school bleachers. Allison Janney penning an erotic novel. That weird bit where Julia Stiles dances on a table at a house party, about which we’re still not clear how we’re supposed to feel. And of course, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s smiling face.
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This film is our usual go-to when we need cheering up, so it could well be time to break it out.
The Little Mermaid (Disney+)
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Disney+ has the entire back catalogue of all your favourite animated classics from back in the day, so you can take your pick.
We’ve gone with The Little Mermaid on this list because it has one of the best soundtracks and when it comes to escapism, it doesn’t get much better than a film largely set under the sea.
Moana (Disney+)
Disney
Alternatively, for anyone who prefers their Disney films to be a little more recent, Disney+ has you covered in that instance, too.
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We’re recommending Moana over the more obvious Frozen or Frozen 2, not necessarily because one is better than the other, but because as we head into winter, wouldn’t you rather spend an hour and a half staring at a gorgeous sunny backdrop to take your mind off things?
Legally Blonde (Netflix)
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Legally Blonde is the romantic comedy that’s got it all – big laughs, great outfits and a really important message about not underestimating people based on appearances and baseless stereotypes.
Oh, and there’s also the “bend and snap” scene, which is forever iconic.
Clueless (Netflix)
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Even more old school is the teen comedy Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone, the late Brittany Murphy and a pre-Marvel Paul Rudd (who, incidentally, was just as dreamy in 1995 as he is in 2020).
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What you mightn’t know about Clueless is that it’s actually based on Jane Austen’s Emma, so you can brag about being literary once it’s over, too.
Hitch (Netflix)
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Hitch sees Will Smith playing a successful “date doctor” who gives men advice with their love lives, only to find himself – surprise, surprise – without a map when he falls for gossip columnist Sara Melas, played by Eva Mendes.
Admittedly, Hitch is a little on the predictable side, but it’s totally charming, and who can honestly say what they need in times like this is to be challenged?
The Holiday (Netflix)
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And speaking of pleasant but unchallenging watches, the pinnacle of the genre is quite probably The Holiday, which sees Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swapping their lives across the Atlantic.
On one hand, it might be a teenie bit too early to break out a film with Christmas as such a central plot point, but on the other… Jude Law as Mr Napkin Head may well be our best bet at everything feeling alright again.
Mrs Doubtfire (Disney+)
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It might have been Good Will Hunting that earned Robin Williams his Oscar, but our favourite performance of his is probably Mrs Doubtfire – a film with countless quotable lines, a stellar cast (Sally Field!) and one of the most heartwarming closing speeches in the history of family comedies.
Easy A (Netflix)
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There’s a lot we could say about how smart and funny Easy A is, but we could just say… Emma Stone! Stanley Tucci! Patricia Clarkson! Penn Badgley! Lisa Kudrow! Amanda Bynes! Emma Stone again because she’s just that good!
Easy A is a high school comedy with a brilliant message, that’s also full of laugh-out-loud moments in almost every scene, if you’ve officially exhausted Mean Girls, this is definitely worth checking out.
Booksmart (Netflix)
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Booksmart tells the story of two BFFs about to go off to uni, only to realise they didn’t quite get everything they wanted to get out of high school, and pledge to let their hair down for one last night out.
Not only is it laugh-out-loud throughout (it’s definitely one for fans of Bridesmaids or Blockers), the friendship at the centre of it all is brilliantly portrayed by its lead stars.
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It’s also full of cathartic moments for the two central characters, who you can live vicariously through for an hour and a half.
Pitch Perfect (Netflix)
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A film about unlikely friendships and women supporting one another to reach a shared goal that also features Glee-esque musical numbers including Party In The USA, Since U Been Gone and Eternal Flame? Sign. Us. Up.
The two sequels that followed are also on Netflix but a follow-up that’s legions worse than part one probably isn’t what anybody needs to be sitting down to watch right now.
Dreamgirls (Netflix)
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Alternatively if you’re in the mood for a musical that’s a bit more traditional, Dreamgirls might be a safe bet.
This big-screen version of the stage musical is packed full of dramatic numbers you know and love from amazing performers like Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé and Eddie Murphy, not to mention more sequins than an entire series of Strictly Come Dancing put together.
The Sound Of Music (Disney+)
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We’ll admit this is not going to be a choice for everyone, but if in dark times your antidote is turning the pep all the way up to 100, then Julie Andrews spurring you on with numbers like I Have Confidence and My Favourite Things might be worth a try.
And while many have turned their nose up at The Sound Of Music in the past, it’s important to remember that it’s a story of one woman who defied convention and expectations in her pursuit of happiness and love.
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To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (Netflix)
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To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is like Gen Z’s version of a John Hughes film. Lana Condor is absolutely adorable as leading lady Lara Jean, while Noah Centieno is… well he’s Noah Centieno, surely that’s enough?
And, if the Subway product placement doesn’t put you off too much, there’s also a sequel, which debuted earlier in 2020.
The Muppet Movie (Disney+)
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Those opening strums of the banjo in Rainbow Connection really are a tonic, aren’t they?
The Muppet Movie was Kermit and the gang’s first venture into the big screen back in the 1970s, but even at its most dated, we still can’t help but smile for every single second of this film.
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A Royal Night Out (My 5)
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Ahhh, remember nights out? Good, weren’t they? Apparently even the Queen thought so, as evidenced in this 2015 film about a supposed clandestine night on the tiles for the Queen and Princess Margaret on VE Day back in 1945.
Definitely ones for fans of The Crown who are counting down the days until season four finally debuts.
Inside Out (Disney+)
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Where Pixar really excels is with films like Inside Out, which truly have something for viewers of all ages, that you can enjoy with the whole family.
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This film explores people and their emotions, which is probably pretty apt. Be warned, though, this is a Pixar film, so you will also find yourself audibly blubbing at least once.
Mamma Mia! (Netflix)
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Or, of course, maybe on the darkest of days, what you need is to bring out the big guns.
We’re talking Meryl Streep jumping into the splits during Dancing Queen, Julie Walters singing Take A Chance On Me out of the corner of her mouth, Christine Baranski giving Does Your Mother Know? everything she’s got, Pierce Brosnan singing… actually, maybe scratch that last one.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--6 Questions To Ask Instead Of ‘How Are You?’, According To Therapists

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When you ask a friend “How are you?” you usually get a short, surface-level response, some variation of:
I’m fine.
Eh, tired.
Hangin’ in there.
Rarely does the recipient reveal much, if anything, about how they’re actually doing — even if we sincerely want to know the answer. Why is that? As journalist Ashley Fetters wrote for The Atlantic in April, it’s because the question often “functions as a perfunctory greeting and nothing more.”
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Delmaine Donson via Getty Images Therapists share tweaks to the generic "how are you" question that are more likely to elicit an honest answer.
In other words, humans are savvy social creatures who understand that “how are you” is generally employed as a “well-intended nicety,” said San Francisco psychotherapist Kathleen Dahlen deVos — not a genuine inquiry about their well-being.
“As such, we usually supply an answer that’s of equivalent depth and on par with what’s expected by the greeter: ‘Fine, thanks,’” she said.
So if it’s an honest answer you’re after, you’re probably asking the wrong question. By changing up your phrasing, you can send the message that you’re looking to have a deeper conversation — not just exchange pleasantries.
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“People not only need to feel that the other person truly wants to know how they are doing,” said Los Angeles marriage and family therapist Abigail Makepeace, “But they also need to know that confiding in someone else will not scare them away.”
What To Ask Instead Of ‘How Are You?’
1. How are you today?
When one of deVos’ dear friends was going through a difficult loss, someone in her life would always ask, “How are you today?” Adding that one word made such a difference.
“It changed the nature of this whole question from something that felt hollow, overwhelming and nonspecific, to a question she felt more safe and sure of answering,” deVos said. “‘How are you today’ is an inquiry into what is true for someone in this moment, in the past few hours and can feel more approachable because it’s specific.”
2. How are you holding up?
Posing the question this way acknowledges that things are hard right now and implies that you don’t expect the other person to say they’ve been well.
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“The slight modifications signal to us that it’s okay to shift a bit away from the standard ‘good’ or ‘fine’ answers, and acknowledge, perhaps, that we are not ‘good’ or ‘fine’ in general right now,” deVos said.
3. I’ve been thinking about you lately. How are you doing?
Telling this person they’ve been on your mind shows you do care, which may make them feel more comfortable opening up.
“Prefacing the question [this way] signals to the other person that you’re truly invested in their reply and that you’re eager to hear whatever it is that they feel comfortable sharing,” Makepeace said.
“People not only need to feel that the other person truly wants to know how they are doing, but they also need to know that confiding in someone else will not scare them away.” - Abigail Makepeace, marriage and family therapist
4. What’s been on your mind recently?
As Fetters, The Atlantic writer, put it, this question “suggests openness to a deeper conversation.”
“You might also follow up on a worry or concern they’ve mentioned before, and check in on how they’re feeling about it now,” she added.
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5. Is there any type of support you need right now?
“This not only telegraphs to your loved one that you are interested in what they may be struggling with, but reinforces that you care about that struggle and are eager to help,” Makepeace said.
6. Are you anxious about anything? Are you feeling down at all?
If the suggestions above aren’t getting much of a response, try asking a more pointed question about what you suspect this person might be feeling.
“Providing ‘feeling state phrases’ can help your friend begin the process of verbalising their experiences,” Makepeace said. “Also, wording your questions in this manner lets your friend know that their answer won’t catch you off guard and that you’re seeking truly intimate and honest communication.”
Another way to encourage them to open up? Lead by example: By being vulnerable about your own mental or emotional state, you may prompt your loved one to talk more openly about theirs.
“When you speak truthfully about your own experience, you give the other person permission to share without fear or risk,” Makepeace said.
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And if they’re still not opening up to you, that’s oay. Just checking in shows your deep care and concern — and that alone is powerful. Let them know that when they’re ready to talk, you’ll be there to listen.
How To Meaningfully Support Someone Who’s Struggling
Matilde Alvarez Ferrer / EyeEm via Getty Images Your listening ear is a powerful gift to a friend who's having a rough time.
Social distancing measures have made it harder to physically be there for our people in the ways we’re used to. But you can still have their back — even from afar — during this difficult time.
For starters, ask if they’re looking for advice or just a listening ear. This is important because you want to offer the kind of support your friend is looking for. When someone’s trying to vent, receiving unsolicited advice — even if it’s well-intentioned — can be frustrating.
“Sometimes all we need is someone to listen to us, non-judgmentally, while we process something,” deVos said. “Other times, we actually need support in figuring out a strategy, path forward, or ways to cope.”
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“The slight modifications signal to us that it’s OK to shift a bit away from the standard ‘good’ or ‘fine’ answers, and acknowledge, perhaps, that we are not ‘good’ or ‘fine’ in general right now.” - Kathleen Dahlen deVos, psychotherapist
In the same vein, ask if there’s anything you can do to help. They may not have an answer for you, but “merely asking the question may prompt further self-reflection, and at the very least, communicate an eagerness to help in the future,” Makepeace said.
Regardless of what this friend is going through, they may benefit from talking to a mental health professional. And lastly, continue to check in on them regularly. They may not always be in the mood to talk but at least they’ll feel supported.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--How The First And Second Waves Of Covid-19 In The UK Compare So Far

When Boris Johnson took to our screens on Saturday to tell us that, for the second time this year, England was going into lockdown, the sense of déjà vu was crushing.
The tactics taken by the government to curb the spread of Covid-19 might be similar – but is the UK’s second wave of coronavirus any more under control than the first when it comes to case numbers or messaging from ministers? To put it another way: are we in an even slightly better position this time round?
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Here’s what you need to know.
Lockdowns
Then:
March 23 is a date many of us will remember for a long time – the day the prime minister told us that the UK was going into lockdown, with an unprecedented set of restrictions placed on Brits’ freedoms.
“Stay at home,” the public were told, with all but non-essential travel banned and all but the most key shops and services closed.
The rules stated that everyone should work at home if they could and restricted exercise outdoors to once a day.
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Mixing with anyone outside of your own household was banned, while people with conditions that could make them more vulnerable to coronavirus were told to “shield” at home.
The PM said that the restrictions would be reviewed after three weeks – but in reality, most stayed in place until July.
In some parts of England, local restrictions mean residents have had very little respite from lockdown since March.
Now:
Amid the second wave of infections, the government’s strategy has not been so straightforward.
Despite being told by its own board of scientific advisers in late September that a “circuit-breaker” lockdown was needed across the UK to curb the spread of the virus, Boris Johnson and his ministers pressed on with their three-tier system of rules:
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Tier 1: Rule of six in place, bars and restaurants open to groups of different households, but 10pm curfew in place
Tier 2: Rule of six in place outside, but no household mixing inside, including in restaurants and bars. 10pm curfew in place.
Tier 3: No household mixing inside or outside. Pubs and bars must close unless they serve “substantial” meals.
However, even though millions and millions of people in England were under tier 2 and tier 3 restrictions, Covid-19 infections continued to rise.
It was only on October 31 that Johnson took the plunge and announced a second national lockdown for England, starting on November 5 and finishing December 2.
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Michael Gove, who is part of Johnson’s cabinet, has already admitted that restriction could be extended past the start of December.
He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “With a virus this malignant, and with its capacity to move so quickly, it would be foolish to predict with absolute certainty what will happen in four weeks’ time, when over the course of the last two weeks its rate, its infectiousness and its malignancy have grown.”
Cases
Daily Covid-19 cases in the UK Graphics by Statista
Then:
According to official government data, the highest number of Covid-19 cases recorded on a single day during the first wave was 6,201.
However, the real peak in cases is likely to have been much, much higher, with the UK racing to increase its testing capacity in the early weeks and months of the pandemic.
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In short – lots of people who had the virus were not tested.
In mid-April, when coronavirus deaths were at their highest, fewer than 30,000 tests were being processed each day.
UPDATE
Anyone over the age of 5 with symptoms of #coronavirus will now be eligible for testing.
Symptoms include:
🔵 a high temperature
🔵 a new continuous cough
🔵 loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
To book a test visit: https://t.co/0G9LPXDFUf pic.twitter.com/cfF1Ly5aD3 — UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 18, 2020
It wasn’t until the middle of May that the government announced that anyone with coronavirus symptoms – not just key workers – could get a coronavirus test.
Now:
By the end of October, as many as 347,000 tests were being processed daily – a huge increase from the first wave.
Accordingly, the number of positive tests has also soared during the second surge in infections.
Since October 3, daily cases have not dipped below 12,500 and have exceed 20,000 on 15 separate days.
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On October 21, 26,688 new cases were reported in the UK – the highest on record.
To date, more than one million people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the UK, the ninth-highest figure for any country in the world.
However, this ranking is likely to be skewed by countries that have invested less in expanding their testing capacity.
Test and Trace
Then:
Back in May, Boris Johnson promised that England would have a “world-beating” test, track and trace system that would “change people’s lives”.
Under the new system, people who tested positive for coronavirus would be called by a contact tracer, who would ask for details about everyone they had been in close contact with in the previous days.
These people would then be told to self-isolate for two weeks, eliminating their chance of accidentally passing on the virus.
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Now:
Baroness Dido Harding, who heads up NHS Test and Trace PA
The “world-beating” NHS Test and Trace system promised by Johnson has yet to appear.
In fact, the service hit a new low on Thursday after it reported its worst ever figures for tracking down the “close contacts” of people with Covid.
According to the latest statistics, in the week ending October 28, just 59.9% of cases in England were reached and told to self-isolate to stop the spread of the virus – down from 60.6% the week before.
It means that two-fifths of people who have been in contact with someone with Covid-19 have not been reached – and therefore not told to self-isolate for 14 days.
A total of 131,136 known people were not reached in that week, meaning they were potentially spreading the virus asymptomatically.
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Since the service began, some 598,930 close contacts have not been reached, compared to 1.2m who have.
On Thursday, justice secretary Robert Buckland defended the service, saying the month-long lockdown would be used to “redouble our efforts” to expand the NHS Test and Trace programme.
Covid-19 patients in hospital
Covid-19 patients in hospital in the UK Graphics by Statista
Then:
During the first wave of Covid-19, the number of people with the virus in hospital in the UK peaked at 19,849 on April 12.
On this day, there were 3,301 people on ventilators – the highest number recorded during the pandemic.
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The earliest figure available is for March 27, when there were 7,043 Covid patients in hospital. It took seven days for that to more than double to 14,729.
Now:
Neither the number of people with Covid-19 in hospital, nor the number on ventilators, has reached the worrying highs recorded during the first surge of the pandemic.
On November 4, there were 12,999 coronavirus patients in UK hospitals and 1,191 of these were in mechanical ventilation beds.
What’s more, the first figure is not quite double what it was on October 18 and the latter is approximately double what it was on October 16. That means hospital occupation has doubled in about 17 days.
However, with a four-week lockdown looming in England amid spiralling Covid-19 infections, the numbers of patients in the country’s hospitals at the start of the first and second lockdowns make for an interesting comparison.
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The government has not published data about how many people with coronavirus were in hospital in England when Johnson announced the first lockdown on March 23.
However, four days later on March 27, the country’s hospitals were occupied by 3,097 Covid-19 patients.
On October 31, when the PM made another address to the nation to tell them they would locking down for four weeks over November, there were already 9,213 people with the virus in hospital in England.
On Wednesday, Professor Stephen Powis – who is NHS England’s national medical director – warned that the north-west was “particularly under pressure”.
“That translates into the highest number of admissions [being] in the north-west,” he said.
“But [...] infection rates are now rising and rising faster in the south, [and] hospital admissions are beginning to rise in the south of the country too.”
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Deaths
Daily Covid-19 deaths in the UK Graphics by Statista
Then:
In the immediate aftermath of the UK’s first lockdown being announced, coronavirus deaths rose rapidly.
On March 23, the day of lockdown, the deaths of 76 people suffering with Covid-19 were recorded.
Just 15 days later, the daily death toll had surged above the 1,000 mark.
Then, on April 21, the deaths of 1,224 people with coronavirus were recorded by the government – the highest on any day during the first wave of the virus.
But the daily death toll remained high throughout April, exceeding 1,000 on nine separate occasions.
If those figures seem higher than you remember, that’s because they are. Deaths in care homes and the community, recorded separately for most of April, were backdated and added to the daily totals at the end of that month. The public daily deaths announcements had only covered hospitals up to that point.
Now:
Deaths have yet to reach the tragic daily highs recorded in the spring – but fatalities are on the increase.
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With deaths beginning to rise once more from the middle of September, daily fatalities once again began to breach the 100 mark in October.
On November 4, the daily death toll reached 492 – the highest number of deaths recorded since May.
What has changed, though, is the rate at which deaths have gone up. In the run-up to the first lockdown, daily recorded deaths passed 50 for the first time on March 21. Just 11 days later they breached 500, hitting 672.
It is now more than a month since they passed 50 during the second wave (71 recorded on September 29), and they have yet to hit 500, 38 days on.
Unfortunately, that might not mean much. Speaking to MPs on Tuesday, the prime minister warned that scientific models showed that coronavirus deaths over the winter could be “twice as bad or more” compared to the first wave unless the government took action.
To date, nearly 48,500 people have died within 28 days of testing positive from Covid-19 in the UK, meaning the country has the fifth-highest death toll in the world, behind the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.
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As with hospital numbers, whether the slower growth in death count means the second wave is less severe than the first or simply taking longer to unleash can’t be known because the graph has yet to level out. It’s worth noting that these figures are in line with the R rate, which is now at 1,1 to 1.3 and has never gone above 1.6 during the second wave.
It was estimated to be above 2 during the first wave, which is consistent with a more rapid virus spread.
Public messaging
Then:
Remember how simple the crucial “stay at home” message from the government was during the first lockdown? It did what it said on the tin.
However, with changing rules came changing messaging – and far more confusion.
As the UK began opening up again, “stay alert and control the virus” became the government’s new key catchphrase – but many were left asking what that actually meant.
This weekend, we must all continue to stay alert and control the virus.#StayAlert pic.twitter.com/UQJ9QbHWrJ — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) May 16, 2020
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Now:
“Control the virus” is still a central pillar in public messaging – and has been joined by the ”hands, face, space” slogan.
But with the three tier system of coronavirus restrictions in place until Thursday, the various set of restrictions in different areas of the country left many confused – especially about travel restrictions between areas.
There are some very simple ways we can all protect ourselves and others from the spread of coronavirus.
Wash your hands, cover your face & make space. #HandsFaceSpace pic.twitter.com/C1RHeRVvcr — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 31, 2020
Another significant change between the first and second waves of the virus is the lack of daily press conferences from the government and its key scientific and medical advisers.
During the first lockdown in the spring, the public got used to hearing from the likes of Boris Johnson, the chancellor Rishi Sunak, health secretary Matt Hancock, as well as chief medical officer Chris Whitty and his scientific counterpart Patrick Vallance.
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But while there have been impromptu press conferences from Downing Street in recent months, there has been little discussion about whether these daily briefings could return over November.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--How Happiness Experts Stay Happy – Even During A Pandemic

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The terms ‘wellness’ and ‘self care’ are so overused, it’s become hard to know whether they refer to selling scented candles, going to expensive spas – or actually looking after your mental health.
They’ve been commercialised – a topic explored on HuffPost’s new podcast, Chronic. At its core, ‘wellness’ should be an exercise in revealing how we’re coping with life’s toughest challenges. And during a pandemic, this feels particularly relevant.
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We all strive to be ‘well’ – to be happy – but do we know how to get there?
To cut through the noise and get advice on what happiness actually means – as well as how to achieve it – we spoke to three experts in happiness to see how they’ve managed to cope throughout the pandemic.
They spend their days asking others how they’re feeling – so we decided to ask: how are you feeling?
‘I’ve tried to see some of the silver linings’
Tayyab Rashid is a clinical psychologist and project lead at the International Positive Psychology Association
Supplied Tayyab Rashid
“During lockdown, I felt dislocated. I’m a clinical psychologist at my university-based clinic and a father, partner, and cricket-fan at home. Lockdown leaked these roles in unfamiliar spaces.
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“While I co-create solutions with my clients, at times I wished someone would ask, ‘how are you doing?’. My job is therapeutic, but also makes me weary. Every therapist needs support. Having dealt with some tough situations, I wanted to remind myself I can be, and need to be, vulnerable and let others take care of me. Being vulnerable is being human, especially during a pandemic.
“The thing I do is reduce my social media. There’s a time for us to be with others, and there’s also time for us to be away from others. I’ve taken this opportunity to be with myself. And I think that’s a lost art: to be with ourselves just doing nothing. It’s not easy, because life is so filled with stuff. Of course, I’m interested in what’s happening in the world. I don’t want to feel inundated, but informed: that is very important for my mental health.
“I’ve also tried to see some of the silver linings. This is a tragic situation, but we are in this together. The media will tell me how many people have died, but I have to reframe without sugar coating. I see what people have done as a result of the virus. I listen to my clients and ask them what positive things have happened in their lives. That increases my ability to catch those experiences and helps me feel positive emotions.
“It is, of course, difficult: a daily dose of gossip and interaction is missing. But there are acts of kindness we can do, and when we’re kind to others, we’re kind to ourselves. I always need to make sure I have the capacity to be kind before I can help others.”
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‘If we expect to feel happy all the time, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment’
Vanessa King is head of psychology at Action for Happiness
Supplied Vanessa King
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“Lockdown was a strange time. I’d been experiencing Covid-type symptoms in the two weeks preceding and had to take the difficult decision not to fly up to Scotland to attend the funeral of a dear friend. It was heart-wrenching not to be there, but it was important to not risk spreading the virus if I had it. So I was already in self-isolation alone when lockdown began! When I felt better, my boyfriend moved in here for lockdown rather than two of us being on our own.
“I’m feeling stoic, now. We got through it before and this time, we’re more aware of what we need to do to keep ourselves well. I’m not usually one of life’s long term planners, but because of lockdown, I’m setting some intentions to take care of my own wellbeing – like getting out in daylight to exercise, even in the cold and rain, and developing my curry cooking skills! Also, finding ways to keep in touch with friends and family who I haven’t seen all year, checking in on others, and creating boundaries between work and home.
“It’s about managing expectations – and our own expectations. If we expect to feel happy all the time, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment: the pursuit of happiness becomes a sort of unhappiness. Life has ups and downs.
“So don’t feel bad if you feel bad. We can actually create a lot of unhappiness for ourselves in terms of rumination, catastrophisation, thinking we’re not good enough, and lack of self respect. There are times it’s right to be angry if we’ve an injustice. It’s right to be angry if we’ve lost someone, it’s normal. There are going to be times when we struggle or times when we’re sad or times when we’re angry, that is part of the rich experience of life.”
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‘Don’t hope for happiness to just hit you one day’
Akanksha Parashar is a trainer at the Art of Living and founder of the Mindful Journalling Workshop
HuffPost UK Supplied
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“I feel much calmer at this point in the pandemic because I’ve adopted practices that are good for my happiness and wellbeing. But it wasn’t the same in the early months of the lockdown.
“I lost my source of income, we had no help with chores at home, and someone very close was going through a mental health issue. I couldn’t go for run, see my friends, or visit my meditation studio. I was stressed, got angry easily, and I felt anxious and miserable. I was researching and studying about happiness, and also volunteering as a trainer with The Art of Living. I’ve been a meditator for seven years, but this was a time I needed to meditate more than ever. I took part in online silence retreats and solidified my meditation. I began feeling calm.
“But the thoughts in my head still bothered me. One day, I wrote them all down. I thought it was the safest way to take it all out. And to my surprise, it felt really good. I felt mentally decluttered and my mind was at peace.
“The combination of meditation and journalling – I felt l had hit a goldmine. I didn’t stop there. I was taking a Science Of Happiness course online, so I started putting stuff I learned there into practice, too – like doing random acts of kindness, experiencing awe by observing plants in my balcony more mindfully, enhancing social connection by calling friends and and family frequently and striking meaningful conversations with them. I started feeling so much better.
“I’m still work in progress. But I’m definitely more self-aware. I guess that’s the trick – instead of mindlessly wanting to feel happy all the time, create a lifestyle that prioritises positivity. Instead of hoping for happiness to hit you one day, include practices in your life to de-stress, feel positive emotions and bring more meaning in your life.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Your Ultimate Toolkit For Getting Through Lockdown With Kids

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If you’re a parent or carer going through the second lockdown, you might feel differently to the way you did during the first one. For me, this lockdown – whilst painful and joyless, in many ways – feels more bearable by virtue of the fact that (for now) schools and childcare settings remain open.
I nearly lost my mind, literally, trying to work through the lockdown in March, whilst homeschooling my four and eight-year-old. Zoom meetings were accompanied by the gasps and grunts of Joe Wicks, and I was interrupted every five minutes by my kids’ demands for snacks. I even created a flowchart to express how it feels to hear the constant call of “Mummy!”, 567 times a day.
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This time around, however, things are more peaceful... because my children are at school. Hallelujah! Of course, there are still challenges involved in getting through lockdown with kids – particularly at weekends, now socialising is limited to meeting one other person at a time, outdoors, from another household.
So if you’re worried how to get through it, what to say to your kids about it – or what to do you when feel like you’re going mad, never fear, we’ve got you covered. Here, two childcare experts give their advice on making sure the next month is as manageable as possible.
LucaLorenzelli via Getty Images
1. Spot when you’re starting to lose your temper
Being able to pinpoint when you’re starting to lose it is vital, author and parenting expert Liat Hughes Joshi tells HuffPost UK.
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“Noticing when the stress hormone cortisol is flooding in and you’re heading into ‘fight or flight territory’ can make such a difference,” she says. “It’s not easy, but it can be really effective.”
Obviously you can’t always walk away from young children in all situations, so if not, Joshi recommends deep breaths and a set phrase to grab in your mind when that feeling hits – “it could be just repeating the word ‘calm’ a few times. This will allow you to collect your thoughts and react to whatever is going on in a more measured way and prevent arguments escalating, whether that’s with your children or partner.”
2. Be honest with your children
Tell your children the truth, says Norland nanny Louenna Hood. This will be different depending on their age – but it’s important to contextualise why we are in a ‘lockdown’ and what that means.
“Reassure them that children are allowed to go to school because it isn’t dangerous for them,” says Hood, “and explain that by washing their hands with soap, they are helping to protect everybody else.”
3. Listen to how your children are feeling
Well before you even speak, do lots of listening to how they feel and what they have to say, advises Joshi. “Don’t dismiss their feelings as ‘silly’ or ‘wrong’ – it’s what they feel.” However, she says it’s okay to correct any misunderstandings they have about what’s going on. “Children’s imaginations are a joyous thing, but the flip-side is that they can cause them to expand and exaggerate a problem into something scarier than it is,” she adds.
Stanislaw Pytel via Getty Images Mother hugs sad
4. Keep busy, as much as you can Enjoy fresh air – it makes everyone’s mood better and lets your children run off some steam, says Hood. “The saying, ‘children can’t climb the walls if you take the walls away’, is very apt. Activities such as baking, washing the car, painting outside with water, or making homemade Playdoh are all popular,” she says. Try setting aside a time of day where everyone can sit down and watch something together. If you’re looking for other ways to occupy your kids, we listed 12 wacky ideas during the last lockdown – have you tried any of them?
5. Play the ‘worry game’
Families can do some activities at home as a family to address everyone’s concerns, Joshi says. This could be a ‘worry jar’, where everyone writes their individual worries on pieces of paper and puts them in the jar whenever they feel like it.
“Or, at dinner time, everyone can talk about three things they enjoyed that day, and three things they didn’t, or that they are worried about,” adds Joshi. “You can then discuss it as a family.”
6. Take a breather
“If everything is feeling overwhelming, stop, take a breather and re-set the house,” Hood advises.
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“Talk to your children and explain how the whole house is going to have half an hour of ‘quiet time’. Older children can play or rest or read quietly in their rooms. This gives everyone a chance to have a break from each other.”
7. Look for the small joys
Seek out anything you think will bolster you this time around, Joshi advises. “I’m not suggesting this will solve everything, as this is a hard situation, but trying to look for life’s little joys will help,” she says.
We listed 50 small pleasures we rediscovered in lockdown – can you relate to any of them?
8. Keep up a light routine
Keeping up a routine – whether that’s having a film night at home every Friday evening or Sunday afternoon, with popcorn and cuddling up on the sofa, or simply going for a walk every day together at a particular time – can really help, advises Joshi. Why not spend an afternoon with your children writing down a schedule you can stick on the fridge?
9. Know it won’t last forever
Joshi says the key to staying sane – especially if you or your child has to self-isolate – is to remember it won’t last forever.
“Try to just get through one day at a time,” she says. “It’s not going to be easy, stuck totally at home. I’m a big believer in screen-time being kept sensible, but I think this is one situation where the rules can be relaxed and some extra films and TV won’t go amiss.”
Hood also advises parents to take heart. “Although we are in lockdown, we aren’t trapped – we can go for a socially distanced walk with a friend, we can FaceTime relatives, we have our lovely homes, and this isn’t forever,” she adds.
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10. Don’t be afraid to seek support


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--When Will Hollywood Learn Scars Don’t Make People Like Me Evil?

Anne Hathaway stars in the recently-released remake of The Witches Warner Bros
At 18, my whole life was turned upside down after being set alight in a coach crash. I sustained 96% burns across my face and body, spent three months in a coma, and went through more than 200 operations. It changed everything, including the way I looked forever.
I have spent years working on my physical abilities, getting stronger and adapting to my ‘new normal’ with time. But the psychological recovery of what happened to me and how I looked took far longer and continues to evolve. It can be hard to love and embrace your differences when every time you step out of the house, you are stared at. Or when strangers’ eyes linger for that extra few moments, children ask ‘what is wrong with you?’, and parents usher them away apologetically rather than educating them. I now love my scars, my limb difference and who I am, but many obstacles could have prevented this.
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When I saw the movie trailer and promotions for the latest adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, featuring Anne Hathaway, my heart dropped when I saw the new ‘look’ of the film. This new version of the film has decided that to make their depiction of the witches even scarier than previous movies, or than the original Roald Dahl descriptions, they’ll add in some extra facial scarring, and remove some fingers from the villains’ hands. These special additions were all made so children can be even more terrified of the ‘baddie’ in the film.
“I struggle to think of a hero, a love interest or even a funny side-kick who happens to have some kind of visible difference”
Inevitably, there were social media responses telling those of us who have challenged the filmmakers that we are ‘over-sensitive’ or ‘stifling creativity’. Some suggested we ‘get over it’. But for anyone living with a visible difference, this is just the latest use of a lazy stereotype using scarring and limb difference as a shorthand for villainy.
You might have noticed that the Bond villain always sports some ‘terrifying’ facial scar, while the hero, despite his many scrapes and near-misses, somehow miraculously remains visibly unscathed. And once you start thinking about this, you’ll recall The Joker, Freddy Krueger and even the Lion King’s evil Uncle Scar, as just some of the characters who have their nastiness played out on their skin. What I find even scarier is that I struggle to think of a hero, a love interest or even a funny side-kick who happens to have some kind of visible difference.
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I remember, the day I woke up in hospital with scars covering my body, having lost fingers on my left hand and my hair, wondering what my future would be like. I remember looking through magazines and turning to the television and films to find positive role models, but they just weren’t there. I was filled with uncertainty and questioning whether I could ever be the hero of my own story.
I had good reason to worry. Research from Changing Faces found that one in three say that they feel depressed, sad or anxious as a result of having a visible difference; and six in ten people have experienced hostile behaviour from strangers simply because of how they look.
For me, it was actually social media that provided the inspiration I needed. There’s a whole community of people sharing their lives with a disability online. It motivated me to do the same, so I began telling my story too, showing off my scars to become the role model I never saw. Alongside charities, like Changing Faces, I advocate and campaign for equal representation in film, tv and advertising so everyone can feel included and accepted in society.
The author, Catrin Pugh Catrin Pugh
People started listening, and including models with visible differences in advertising. I’m proud to work alongside four other amazing women with visible differences and model with companies like Avon UK as part of their #PledgeToBeSeen partnership with Changing Faces. We’ve been the faces of perfume and make-up campaigns, showing that there are many ways to look and feel beautiful. Others are stepping up too, and I’m delighted when I see someone with vitiligo, alopecia, or a limb difference in a brand campaign.
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Television programmes are starting to include storylines and characters of all abilities, and prime time shows like Strictly Come Dancing are championing inclusion, helping millions of families have the discussion that difference can be celebrated. When I see these shows I feel fantastic too, and I have loved seeing more and more people represented in positive ways in culture and media.
I’ve got to be honest, my struggles haven’t been connected to bullying, though I can’t help but wonder if I’d had my scars when I was at school if I’d be able to write that same statement. So many people I’ve met are still dealing with the impact of the appearance-related bullying they experienced.
“My challenge to the creative teams, the filmmakers and the TV executives is this: can’t you find another way to demonstrate someone’s character beyond their looks?”
That’s why I’m speaking out. That’s why I daubed #NotAWitch on my hand and took to social media to challenge Warner Bros. Enough children stare at me and fear me because of my scars and hand without another movie telling them I’m scary too. I can only imagine what the children and young people with visible differences are feeling when they head back into school knowing their peers are watching the latest film that shows their scars and differences as evil. Will ‘witch’ be the latest taunt they have to hear? I really hope not.
So my challenge to the creative teams, the filmmakers and the TV executives is this: can’t you find another way to demonstrate someone’s character beyond their looks, and could you think about showing difference as a positive, celebrating individuality?
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Catrin Pugh is an ambassador for Changing Faces, the UK’s leading charity for everyone who has a mark, scar or condition that makes them look different. Follow her on Twitter at @CatrinPugh


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Opinion: I’ll Never Trust White Women Again After This Election

"This is who you are, who you have always been. Pawns of the patriarchy." Yegor Aleyev via Getty Images
Dear white American women,
You blew it. Again. Only this time, it’s even worse.
Back in 2016, a majority of you voted for Donald Trump, an open racist who bragged about “grabbing” women “by the pussy,” who called Mexicans “rapists,” who proclaimed “Islam hates us.”
Forty-seven percent of you voted for this.
Aghast, you sprung into action. You donned pink pussy hats, you wrote postcards, you made signs, you feverishly Facebooked and Instagrammed, you marched here, there, everywhere. We could barely look left or right without seeing you fists pumped into the sky, megaphones on high. You protested for science. You decried misogyny.
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You absolutely adored Black Lives Matter, blanketing your yard with signs, your wardrobe with T-shirts, your nightstands with so many anti-racism books, even Amazon had trouble satiating your voracious appetite. You went so far as to use a black square as your social media profile pic for a day.
And then on election day, this past Tuesday, you hopped off your Peloton, dusted off all those unread books, pulled on a well-worn social justice T-shirt and marched to the polling station.
And you checked that box for Trump. Again.
Fifty-five percent of you this time, according to exit polls. That’s even more than 2016, when exit polls said 53% of you voted for him, when he was still all just talk.
It’s almost as if you became more, rather than less, committed to white supremacy. To xenophobia. To hate. To violence.
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After all, Trump has blood on his hands. More than 235,000 Americans are dead from Covid-19. There are 545 migrant children separated from their parents, who have not been found. There is the Muslim ban, the trans military ban, calling Nazis “very fine people,” supporting police brutality against Black people, denying climate change, packing federal courts with jurists who believe in eviscerating human rights – and the list goes on and on.
More than half of you, white women, voted for this. Ergo, you too have blood on your hands.
I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. This is who you are, who you have always been. Pawns of the patriarchy, diligent foot soldiers of white supremacy. Sure, white men enjoy more power than you, but you share equally in white privilege and have always protected your skin privilege at all costs.
Why would we have believed this time to be different? You had some of us fooled with your performative activism these past four years, but in the end, you returned to your comfort zone.
Now feels like a good time to return to one of your favourite questions: “How can I be an ally”?
Here’s a good first step: don’t vote for a white nationalist and fascist. That would be a beginning. Also, if you have husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends, colleagues, neighbours ― not letting them vote for a white nationalist and fascist.
Mostly, you need to stop pretending. Stop with the yard signs, T-shirts and posters. Stop posting picture after picture of you and your kids at social justice rallies. Stop tweeting about all your good deeds. Stop performing White Woman Saviour, The Broadway Musical and start voting for folks who do not want to kill us.
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Not voting for fascist and white supremacists is way more helpful than attending and live tweeting your fiftieth march for [insert woke cause here].
Joe Biden will hopefully eke this out, no thanks to you and all thanks to Black voters. But we do have to live with the fact that nearly 70m Americans voted for Trump. And when he is gone from the White House – no doubt, kicking and screaming and likely, worse – those voters will still be here. You, white women, made up a considerable chunk of that number. And we know you, like Trump, won’t go softly.
A Biden presidency is certainly damage control, but he is not a panacea.
So before you blissfully return to brunch, don’t. If you are not in that 55% of white women who voted for Trump, find out who in your network did – and roll up your yoga pants and start to work on them.
That’s what we need you to do.
Much to your chagrin, this is just the beginning, not the end. And thanks to so many of you, brunch will have to wait.
Saira Rao is the daughter of Indian immigrants, a former congressional candidate, co-founder of Race2Dinner and co-author of forthcoming WHITE WOMEN: EVERYTHING YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT YOUR OWN RACISM AND HOW TO DO BETTER (Penguin).


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Joe Biden Says He Has A 'Mandate For Action' And 'We're Going To Win This Race'

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Joe Biden has said he has a “mandate for action” as he edged closer to becoming US president.
In an address to supporters late on Friday night, the Democrat said: “The numbers tell us a clear and convincing story: we’re going to win this race.”
Biden struck a more confident tone than his previous speech in the aftermath of the election day, which placed emphasis on patience.
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He referred to the 74 million people who had voted for him, adding: “I know watching these vote tallies on TV moves very slow and as slow as it goes it can be numbing.
“But never forget the tallies aren’t just numbers, they represent votes and voters, men and women who exercised their fundamental right to have their voice heard.
“And what’s becoming clear each hour is that a record number of Americans of all races, faiths, religions chose change over more of the same. They’ve given us a mandate for action, on Covid, the economy, climate change, systemic racism.”
He added how the party has “rebuilt the blue wall in the middle of the country that crumbled just a few years ago”.
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It was a reference to Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – the latter has yet to be declared for him.
Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, just before 11pm on Friday local time, he said: “We don’t have a final declaration, a victor yet, but the numbers tell us a clear and convincing story.
“We’re going to win this race, just look at what has happened since yesterday.
“24 hours (ago), we were behind in Georgia, now we’re ahead, and we’re going to win that state.
“24 hours ago, we were behind in Pennsylvania and we are going to win Pennsylvania. Now we’re ahead, we’re winning in Arizona, winning in Nevada, in fact our lead just doubled in Nevada.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Delaware. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democratic candidate Biden addressed the nation after he took the lead in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia in what could prove to be decisive moments in a fraught election.
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It came as Biden was on the cusp of becoming the 46th president of the United States as his campaign threatened to remove “trespassers” following Trump’s defiance at the developing picture.
But Trump signalled he would not go quietly from the Oval Office, warning his rival off declaring victory in the speech.
He tweeted: “Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the president. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!
“I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!”
The Biden campaign has refrained from declaring a win but was forthright in its reply to an earlier outburst by Trump, in which he made unsubstantiated claims about “illegal ballots” in the election.
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“As we said on July 19, the American people will decide this election,” the campaign said in a statement.
“And the United States Government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
Biden finished with an appeal for calm. He said: “I know tensions can be high after a tough election like the one we’ve had. But we need to remain calm. Patient. And let the process work out as we count all the votes.
“We are proving again what we have proved for 244 years in this country: Democracy works. Your vote will be counted.
“I don’t care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen.
“No matter who you voted for, I’m certain of one thing: The vast majority of the 150 million Americans who voted want to get the vitriol out of our politics. We’re certainly not going to agree on a lot of the issues but we can at least agree to be civil to one another.
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“We have to put the anger – and the demonisation – behind us.”
With forecasters putting him just one state from victory, Biden surpassed the president in swing states on Friday as officials continued counting votes.
The former vice president overhauled the Republican incumbent’s leads by more than 9,000 votes in Pennsylvania and 4,235 in Georgia, where a recount has been ordered.
Trump, who is mounting legal challenges to improve his chances of re-election amid baseless allegations of fraud, has to win both of those states if he is to stay in contention.
Georgia, which the president won by more than 200,000 votes in 2016, has not been won by the Democrats since 1992. Pennsylvania, Biden’s birth state, was narrowly seized from the Democrats by Mr Trump in the last election.
The winner needs to collect 270 electoral college votes by winning states.
Victory in Pennsylvania, where around 5% of ballots still need counting, would hand the presidency to Biden with its 20 votes.
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Georgia, with 16 electoral votes, is a more complicated scenario.
Not everyone agrees that Biden has beyond all probability won in Arizona, and without that Georgia would leave him one vote short of overall victory.
He has secured victories in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan, but Nevada and North Carolina also remain too close to call after Tuesday’s election.
The Trump campaign requested a recount in Wisconsin and filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
But judges in Michigan and Georgia dismissed the actions launched by the Trump campaign. Additional legal action was also expected in Nevada, the campaign indicated.
The Associated Press news agency has projected Biden as winning Arizona and its 11 electoral college votes.
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That looks likely as he has a strong lead with more than 90% of the votes tallied but Trump’s campaign disagrees and other news organisations are not so certain.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-08--Joe Biden Says It Is 'Time To Heal' In Victory Speech

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Joe Biden has pledged to rebuild a country torn apart by multiple crises after four years of chaotic rule from Donald Trump as he called for “this grim era of demonisation” in America to end.
The Democrat said he would be a president “who seeks not to divide, but to unify” in his maiden address as president-elect of the United States.
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Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, he pledged to be a president who “doesn’t see red states or blue states, only sees the United States”.
“Let this grim era of demonisation in America begin to end, here and now,” he said.
He added later: “The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season — a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow. And a time to heal. This is the time to heal in America.”
Biden made clear in the speech that he has two major priorities: slowing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as reuniting a country torn apart by heavily polarised politics and Trump’s harsh rhetoric.
Biden boasted he had put together the “broadest, most diverse coalition in history” in order to win key swing states including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and suggested he would use his time in office to combat climate change, improve health care coverage and battle systemic racism.
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He also directly addressed Trump supporters: “I understand your disappointment tonight. I’ve lost a couple of times myself But let’s give each other a chance.
“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.”
Biden also said of Trump supporters: “They are not our enemies. They’re Americans.”
He closed his speech by calling on the nation to come together to “restore the soul of America”.
He said: “Tonight the whole world is watching America and I believe at our best America is a beacon for the globe.
“We will lead not only by the example of our power but by the power of our example.”
Meanwhile, a White House official said Trump will “accept the results of a free and fair election”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Major The Dog Came From An Animal Shelter. Now He's Headed To The White House

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The White House is going back to the dogs ― including a shelter dog.
After four years of President Donald Trump’s famously pet-free tenure, Joe Biden winning the 2020 presidential election means that the patter of furred feet will likely be heard inside the White House once more.
The Biden family has two German shepherds: Champ, purchased from a breeder in 2008, and Major, adopted from an animal shelter 10 years later.
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When the Bidens got Champ, they were criticized for purchasing a puppy from a high-volume commercial breeder that some described as a puppy mill. The family took a different path the next time around, and adopted Major from the Delaware Humane Association in 2018.
Joe Biden and Major at the Delaware Humane Assocation in 2018. Steph Gomez via Delaware Humane Association
Major had been surrendered to the shelter along with his littermates, and the whole crew was in poor health. The Bidens first took in Major as a foster puppy and ultimately decided to adopt him permanently. (His siblings also all found homes.)
Since then, the pair has made regular appearances on social media, particularly in photos from Jill Biden.
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Though Major has been described on social media and on some news sites as the “first rescue dog” in the White House, that isn’t accurate. Lyndon B. Johnson had a beloved dog named Yuki who was found by his daughter at a Texas gas station on Thanksgiving in 1966.
President Lyndon B. Johnson introduces his pet dog Yuki on the South Lawn of the White House in September 1967. Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images
“LBJ’s favorite dog was a rescue named Yuki, a white mutt who had been abandoned by his owner in a gas station in LBJ’s hometown of Johnson City, Texas,” wrote Johnson’s grandson, Lyndon Nugent, according to the Presidential Pet Museum. “They shared a very significant bond that personified the American spirit: Only in America could a poor boy from Johnson City end up in the White House.”
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And while decidedly not a dog, at least one other presidential pet had similarly scrappy roots. Socks, the famous black and white cat belonging to the Clinton family, was originally a stray who jumped into Chelsea Clinton’s arms in Arkansas.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Trump's 'Big' Press Conference At Garden Centre Sows Confusion

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Less than an hour before news broke that Joe Biden was projected to win the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump announced that his legal team would be holding a press conference at “Four Seasons” in Philadelphia.
Trump, a hotelier at heart, announces a press conference at Philadelphia's "Four Seasons" at 11, before specifying it's at Four Seasons Total Landscaping at 11:30. pic.twitter.com/HmTIPeukNG — Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) November 7, 2020
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While many people assumed he meant the event would be held at a luxury hotel, the president clarified that the “big press conference” would take place at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a landscaping company located on an industrial street.
Just in case there was any remaining confusion, the Four Seasons Hotel quickly confirmed that the press conference would not be happening on its premises, and that it has “no relation” to the landscaping company.
To clarify, President Trump’s press conference will NOT be held at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia.
It will be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping— no relation with the hotel. — Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center (@FSPhiladelphia) November 7, 2020
People on Twitter commented on the strange venue choice and the absurdity of the confusion caused by Trump’s initial tweet.
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Four Seasons Total Landscaping is the most 30 Rock joke of the entire election cycle — Evan Rytlewski (@Evanryt) November 7, 2020
the switcheroo from the four seasons hotel to “four seasons total landscaping” feels like an metaphor for the president’s standing in the Pa tally as the week has progressed https://t.co/lkCTtWguge — Justin Sink (@justinsink) November 7, 2020
YOU'VE BEEN REPLACED BY FOUR SEASONS TOTAL LANDSCAPING pic.twitter.com/0e5yb9z8qC — Benjamin Dreyer (@BCDreyer) November 7, 2020
Waiting for announcement that owner of Four Seasons Total Landscaping is now head of nukes stockpile https://t.co/R4CE2dzYsZ — rosanne cash (@rosannecash) November 7, 2020
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I’ve arrived at Four Seasons Landscaping. It’s next to an adult book store called Fantasy Island. pic.twitter.com/hMy9JP8X5R — Richard Hall (@_RichardHall) November 7, 2020
Four Seasons // Four Seasons Landscaping pic.twitter.com/v0ekd6A6VR — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 7, 2020
Four Seasons Total Landscaping is like a business Michael Scott would’ve started. https://t.co/q9ialyLsXt — D. Lo (@lilthoughts17) November 7, 2020
When the history books look back at this period, the first sentence should be: “It started with a ride down an escalator and ended with a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.” — Seth Fiegerman (@sfiegerman) November 7, 2020
At the press conference, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani told reporters that the campaign planned to challenge the election in court, alleging election fraud.Those allegations are unsubstantiated. Trump, who was golfing, was not present.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Here's What Joe Biden's Election Victory Means For The UK

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Boris Johnson, who in 2015 said he was “genuinely worried” about Donald Trump becoming president, moved fast following his election to forge close links.
And the prime minister secured a relationship with Trump that eluded his predecessor Theresa May. He now has to perform quite the reverse ferret.
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“They call him Britain Trump,” the president once said of Johnson – in praise.
Joe Biden similarly has branded Johnson a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump. It was not a compliment.
Biden’s victory will probably lead to awkward conversations between Whitehall and Washington as the British government tries to cling on to its so-called special relationship with the US.
Johnson steered clear of commenting on the presidential race as the world waited for it to be called, citing diplomatic protocols, but perhaps also hedging his bets. But shortly after Biden was named president-elect, he tweeted: “The US is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security.”
The attempt to build bridges with the incoming administration could be a hard sell. Senior Democrats who worked in the last administration, and could play leading roles in the next one, have long memories. “I’m old enough to remember when Boris Johnson said Obama opposed Brexit because he was Kenyan,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s former deputy national security advisor tweeted dryly in early October. Tommy Vietor, Obama’s former national security spokesperson, added: “This shapeshifting creep weighs in. We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump but neat Instagram graphic.”
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It could be with that in mind that Johnson also added praise for the incoming vice president Kamala Harris for her “historic achievement” of becoming the first woman, first Black and first south Asian person to hold the job. He tagged her in the tweet just to make sure.
This shapeshifting creep weighs in. We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump but neat Instagram graphic. https://t.co/aXga8j5Jpv — Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) November 7, 2020
Johnson’s decision to emphasise climate change in his message is also unlikely to be a coincidence. Biden has pledged to return the US to the Paris climate change accord on his first day in office, after Trump pulled out. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) will take place in November 2021 in Glasgow, a chance for Johnson to find common ground with the new president.
The most pressing matter at hand for the British government is a UK-US trade deal. Trump, who infamously repeatedly falsely claimed that he had predicted the result of the Brexit referendum, was gung-ho about agreeing an “ambitious trade agreement”.
But Biden has been much more lukewarm about the the UK’s decision to leave the EU. He has publicly warned about the impact it could have on peace in the island of Ireland. And he tweeted just one week ago: “We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit. Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”
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A trade deal was also never solely in Trump’s gift to give. The US Congress must sign it off. The Democrats look to have retained control the House of Representatives at this election, and Nancy Pelosi, who leads the party in the House, recently warned there was “absolutely no chance” of a UK-US trade deal should she believe the peace process was at risk.
“The Good Friday Agreement is the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland and an inspiration for the whole world,” she said in September – repeating a warning she issued on a trip to London in April 2019.
Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrat from Connecticut who sits on the foreign relations committee, told HuffPost UK at the time the UK would have a “tough time” getting any trade deal through Congress.
“The United States has interests that we want to protect throughout the Brexit process, and there is bipartisan consensus against blowing up the Good Friday agreement which has maintained stability in Northern Ireland for over 20 years,” he warned.
For fans of elections, both the next UK general election and the next US presidential election are due in 2024. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, moved quickly on Saturday to associate himself with Biden’s victory.
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“Joe Biden and the Democrats have always shared Labour’s values and the links between our two parties remain strong. I am looking forward to building on this and forging an even stronger relationship between the UK and the USA,” he said. “He ran a campaign on the values that we in the United Kingdom share – decency, integrity, compassion and strength.”
Biden cited Jeremy Corbyn’s loss to Johnson as proof a more centrist candidate was needed to win the White House for the Democrats. Starmer will now no doubt use Biden’s victory as evidence for a more centrist Labour Party. As YouGov’s Marcus Roberts told HuffPost UK, Biden may have offered Starmer a “template” of how to win. “Policy can be radical if the candidate is reassuring,” Roberts predicted.
Biden has been running for president since 1988. His attempt to win the nomination that year imploded after he was found to have plagiarised a speech from then Labour leader Neil Kinnock.
In an interview with Times Radio on Saturday, Kinnock said he was “ecstatic″ about Biden’s win. “The sigh of relief in the United Kingdom is good enough to blow us in the mid-Atlantic,” he said.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Barack Obama Congratulates Joe Biden And Kamala Harris: 'Couldn't Be Prouder'

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Former president Barack Obama has congratulated his vice president, Joe Biden, on winning the 2020 presidential election.
In a statement released Saturday, Obama said he “could not be prouder” of Biden and “our next first lady,” Jill Biden.
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Obama also congratulated vice president-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, on Harris’s historic victory.
Biden was declared the president-elect on Saturday after he was projected to win more than the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency. President Donald Trump was on the golf course when the race was called.
Read Obama’s full statement below.
“I could not be prouder to congratulate our next president, Joe Biden, and our next first lady, Jill Biden.
“I also couldn’t be prouder to congratulate Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff for Kamala’s groundbreaking election as our next vice president.
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“In this election, under circumstances never experienced, Americans turned out in numbers never seen. And once every vote is counted, president-elect Biden and vice president-elect Harris will have won a historic and decisive victory.
“We’re fortunate that Joe’s got what it takes to be president and already carries himself that way. Because when he walks into the white house in January, he’ll face a series of extraordinary challenges no incoming president ever has – a raging pandemic, an unequal economy and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in peril.
“I know he’ll do the job with the best interests of every American at heart, whether or not he had their vote. So I encourage every American to give him a chance and lend him your support. The election results at every level show that the country remains deeply and bitterly divided. It will be up to not just Joe and Kamala, but each of us, to do our part – to reach out beyond our comfort zone, to listen to others, to lower the temperature and find some common ground from which to move forward, all of us remembering that we are one nation, under God.
“Finally, I want to thank everyone who worked, organised, and volunteered for the Biden campaign, every American who got involved in their own way, and everybody who voted for the first time. Your efforts made a difference. Enjoy this moment. Then stay engaged. I know it can be exhausting. But for this democracy to endure, it requires our active citizenship and sustained focus on the issues – not just in an election season, but all the days in between.
“Our democracy needs all of us more than ever. And Michelle and I look forward to supporting our next president and first lady however we can.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Trump Was, Er, Playing Golf When He Lost The Election

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Shortly before Donald Trump went golfing on Saturday he claimed in a tweet he had won the US presidential election “BY A LOT”.
I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
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Shortly after teeing off, Donald Trump learned he had in fact lost the election. By quite a lot.
Here he is just moments after the world’s media declared Joe Biden the winner.
OLIVIER DOULIERY via Getty Images
It’s not possible to tell exactly what he was saying but you can bet it was ALL IN CAPS LOCK.
He was seen leaving to play his favourite sport on Saturday afternoon “wearing white Maga cap, windbreaker, dark slacks, non-dress shirt, shoes that look appropriate for golfing”, the White House pool reporter wrote.
After five long days, Biden finally topped the 270 electoral college votes needed for victory over Trump in the US presidential race.
Of course the drama is far from over – Trump has refused to concede, promising unspecified legal challenges seeking to overturn the outcome of the race for the White House.
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He said in a statement that “our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated”.
There is absolutely no evidence that any electoral law has been broken despite his repeated claims, Federal Election Commission commissioner Ellen Weintraub confirmed on Saturday.
Biden was called as the winner of Pennsylvania on Saturday, meaning he has an insurmountable lead in the race for the White House.
Winning the vote in Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona – three states that voted for Trump in 2016 – opened up several pathways to the presidency for the Democratic candidate.